On tight 4-designs in Hamming association schemes (Q2216921)

An orthogonal array with parameters \((N,n,q,t)\) is an \(N\times n\) matrix with entries from \(\{1,\dots,q\}\) such that in any \(t\) of its columns, all possible row vectors of length \(t\) occur equally often. Such orthogonal array is equivalent to a \(t\)-design with \(N\) elements in the Hamming association scheme \(H(n,q)\). For even \(t\), \textit{C. R. Rao} [J. R. Stat. Soc., Suppl. 9, 128--139 (1947; Zbl 0031.06201)] provided a lower bound \(N\geq\sum_{k=0}^{t/2} {\binom{n}{k}}(q-1)^k\), and an orthogonal array (\(t\)-design) is called tight if it achieves equality in this bound. \textit{R. Noda} [J. London Math. Soc., II. Ser. 19, 385--390 (1979; Zbl 0452.05013)] showed that a tight 4-design either has one of two particular parameter values or belongs to an infinite family of parameter values. In this paper, the authors complete this characterization by showing that this infinite family of parameter values is not feasible. The proof is based on showing that certain triple intersection numbers in Q-polynomial association schemes are not integral, and the use of Sage for computations.