Tight single-change covering designs with \(v=12, k=4\) (Q1292869)

A tight single-change covering design (tsccd) is defined as an ordered set of blocks, each block comprising \(k\) distinct elements taken from the integer set \(S= \{1,2,3,\dots, v\}\), \(v>k\), with the properties that (i) any two members of \(S\) occur together in at least one block; (ii) each block after the first is obtained from the previous block by changing just one element; and (iii) the newly introduced element in any block \(B^*\) after the first has not previously appeared in the same block as any of the other elements of \(B^*\). Such a design is called a row-column array with blocks as columns and the sequence can be taken as running from left to right and leave a block's unchanged elements in the same positions (rows) as they had in the previous block. A \(\text{tsccd}(v, k)\) is said to be `standarized' if (a) the elements of the first block are \(1,2,\dots, k\) in that order; (b) the other elements are initially introduced in the order \(k+1,k+2,\dots, v\); and (c) the elements of the first block are changed initially, in the order \(k,k-1,\dots, 2,1\). In this paper the standardized tight single-change covering designs with \(v= 12\), \(k=4\) are enumerated and classified. There are 2554 of them, and these fall into 566 sets such that, within any set, the designs can be regarded as minor variants of one another. The sets pair off naturally, to give 283 classes of designs. If any design in a class is row-regular (or element-regular), then all the designs in the class are row-regular (or element-regular). Of the 283 classes, just 10 comprise row-regular designs; these 10 include the only one of the 283 classes, that comprises element-regular designs. Representative members of the 10 row-regular classes are tabulated. Other properties of the designs are also discussed. And lastly an indication has been given of how each of the 10 representative row-regular designs can readily be converted into a row-regular tight single-change covering design with \(v= 13\) and \(k=4\).