Packing designs with block size 6 and index 5 (Q1197045)

A \((v,k,\lambda)\) packing design of order \(v\), block size \(k\) and index \(\lambda\) is a collection of \(k\)-element subsets, called blocks, of a \(v\)-set \(V\) such that every 2-subset of \(V\) occurs in at most \(\lambda\) blocks. The packing problem is to determine the maximum number of blocks in a packing design. The only previous work on the packing problem with \(k=6\) concerns itself with the cases where the maximum packing design is in fact a balanced incomplete block design. In this paper, the authors solve the packing problem with \(k=6\) and \(\lambda=5\) and all positive integers \(v\) with the possible exceptions of \(v=41\), 47, 53, 59, 62, 71.