A novel use of \(t\)-packings to construct \(d\)-disjunct matrices (Q2499596)

A set system is a Sperner system if no set in it is contained in another. The concept of Sperner systems may be generalized and one may consider set systems with the property that no set is contained in the union of \(d\) other sets (for Sperner systems, \(d=1\)). An incidence matrix of such a set system is said to be a \(d\)-disjunct matrix. One may take an incidence matrix of a Steiner system \(S(t,k,v)\) to get a \(d\)-disjunct matrix with \(d=\lceil k/(t-1) \rceil-1\). Here this construction is generalized by indexing the rows of the matrix with \(r\)-subsets of elements for some positive integer \(r\) (for incidence matrices, \(r=1\)). Of course, if for some parameters a Steiner system does not exist, one may start from a maximum packing design instead.