A complete class of type 1 optimal block designs with unequal replications (Q2300098)

This paper defines certain optimality conditions for block designs and applies them to designs (both binary and non-binary) with block size \(k=5\), \(\lambda \geq 3\) and \(vr = bk+1\). The authors give four possible discrepancy matrices for near optimal designs (two for binary designs, two for no-binary) and show that any design with a different discrepancy matrix and the above parameters would be inferior to at least one of these four (potential) designs. They also conjecture that when \(\lambda=3,\) \((b,k,v) = (11,5,9)\) is the only parameter set for which a design does not exist for all four discrepancy matrices, and give examples of all four designs when \((b, k, v) = (41,5,17)\).