Block designs \(S_{2n-8}(2,5,n)\) and triangulated Eulerian 4-manifolds (Q1378298)

This paper studies the block designs \(S_{2n-8}(2,5,n)\) induced from 3-neighborly triangulations of Eulerian 4-manifolds with \(n\) vertices. In particular it is shown that any \(n\)-vertex triangulation of a 4-dimensional Eulerian manifold \(M\) satisfying the equality \(\binom{n-4}{3} = 10(_{\mathcal X}(M)-2)\) induces a block design \(S_{2n-8}(2,5,n)\) without repeated blocks. (Here \(_{\mathcal X}\) denotes the Euler characteristic.) On the other hand, a given block design \(S_{2n-8}(2,5,n)\) without repeated blocks induces an Eulerian 4-manifold satisfying the equality \(\binom{n-4}{3}= 10(_{\mathcal X}(M)-2)\) provided that each of the 4-tuples occurs in exactly two of the blocks. Necessary conditions for this family imply that the first interesting cases are \(S_4(2,5,6)\), \(S_{10}(2,5,9)\), \(S_{12}(2,5,10)\), \(S_{20}(2,5,14)\) and \(S_{24}(2,5,16)\). The existence of 3-neighborly combinatorial 4-manifolds with \(n \leq 13\) vertices was studied by \textit{W. Kühnel} and \textit{G. Lassmann} [The unique 3-neighborly 4-manifold with few vertices, J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 35, 173-184 (1983; Zbl 0526.52008)]. For the next case (\(n=14\)) the following is shown: (1) there is no combinatorial 4-manifold with 14 vertices and \(\binom{14}{3}\) triangles admitting a vertex transitive action of \(Z_{14}\); (2) however there is a unique triangulated Eulerian 4-manifold with the other properties in (1); (3) this implies the existence of a cyclic design \(S_{20}(2,5,14)\) without repeated blocks and with the extra condition that 4-tuples occur in exactly two blocks if they occur at all. The authors raise the question of whether the necessary condition \(n(n-1)(n-4) \equiv 0 \pmod{20}\) is also sufficient for the existence of an \(n\)-vertex triangulation of an Eulerian 4-manifold \(M\) satisfying \(\binom{n-4}{3}= 10(_{\mathcal X}(M)-2)\). Since the necessary conditions are known to be sufficient for the existence of an \(S_{2n-8}(2,5,n)\), the remaining question is whether repeated blocks can be avoided and whether one can always guarantee the extra condition that 4-tuples occur in exactly two blocks if they occur at all. The paper concludes with a summary of results for higher dimensional Eulerian \(2k\)-manifolds, and some open questions.