A graphical proof of the nonexistence of BIB(7,b,r,3,\(\lambda\) \(| 16)\) designs (Q1113910)

Let \(BIB(v,b,r,k,\lambda | b^*)\) denote a BIB design D with exactly \(b^*\) distinct blocks, i.e. the set \(D^*\) consisting of \(b^*\) distinct blocks is the support of the design. For \(k=3\) define the figure around a variety a to be the adjacency graph whose vertices are the remaining v-1 varieties, where two vertices, b and c are adjacent if \(abc\in D^*\). Using this notion and some other graphical results the authors establish that it is impossible to construct a BIB(7,b,r,3,\(\lambda)\) design with support size 16. This then leads to a complete description of the pairs \((b,b^*)\) for which a \(BIB(7,b,v,3,\lambda | b^*)\) design exists.