Inequalities for quasisymmetric designs (Q1113903)

A 2-design is said to be quasi-symmetric if there are two block intersection sizes. The paper derives inequalities satisfied by the parameters of a quasi-symmetric design using linear programming techniques. The result is as follows: Let B be a 2-(v,k,\(\lambda)\) design such that \(| p\cap q| =k-x\) or k-y for all pairs of distinct blocks \(p,q\in B\). Then (i) \((v-1)\times (v-2)xy-k(v-k)(v-2)(x+y)+k(v- k)(k(v-k)-1)\geq 0;\) (ii) \(-(v-6)(v-3)(v-1)xy\times (x+y)+(v-6)(v-3)k(v- k)(x+y)^ 2-2(v-3)k(v-k)(2k(v-k)-3v)(x+y)+(v-3)(k(v-k)\times (3v+2)- 6v(v-1))xy+k(v-k)(3k(v-k)(k(v-k)-2(v-1))+5v-3)\geq 0.\) Equality holds in (i) if and only if B is a 3-design. If B is a 3-design, then (iii) \(x+y\geq 2k-1-2(k-1)(k-2)/(v-3),\) and equality holds in (iii) if and only if B is a 4-design. The same methods apply to codes with covering radius 2 with the property that the number of codewords at distance 2 from a given vector \b{v} depends upon the distance of \b{v} from the code.