Group-divisible designs with block size four and group-type \(g^um^1\) with \(m\) as large or as small as possible (Q1601441)

A group-divisible design (GDD) is a triple \((X,G,B)\) where \(X\) is a set of points, \(G\) is a partition of \(X\) into groups, and \(B\) is a collection of subsets of \(X\) called blocks such that any pair of distinct points from \(X\) occur together either in some group or in exactly one block, but not both. A \(K\)-GDD of type \(g_1^{u_1} g_2^{u_2} \dots g_s^{u_s}\) is a GDD in which every block has size from the set \(K\) and in which there are \(u_i\) groups of size \(g_i\), \(i=1,2,\dots ,s\). In this paper, the authors investigate the spectrum of \({4}\)-GDDs of type \(g^um^1\). They determine, for each admissible pair \((g,u)\) (with some exceptions), the maximum and minimum values of \(m\) for which a \({4}\)-GDD of type \(g^um^1\) exists.