Multi-set designs and numbers of common triples (Q2366951)

A two-fold multi-set triple system is a collection of triples chosen, possibly with repetitions, from a \(v\)-set in such a way that each unordered pair (whether distinct or not) occurs precisely two times. For instance the triple \(\{x,x,y\}\) contains the pair \(\{x,x\}\) once and the pair \(\{x,y\}\) twice. Such a two-fold multi-set triple system has \(v(v+1)/3\) blocks, and a necessary and sufficient condition for existence is that \(v\equiv 0\) or \(2\pmod 3\) and \(v\geq 5\). The design is called simple if it contains no repeated blocks. Let \(I(v)\) denote the set of nonnegative integers \(s\) such that there exist two simple two-fold multi-set triple systems of order \(v\), based on the same \(v\)-set, with precisely \(s\) blocks in common. In this paper the set \(I(v)\) is completely determined for all admissible \(v\).