Recent progress on the existence of perfect Mendelsohn designs (Q5934166)

A brief survey of existence conditions for \((v,k,\lambda)\)-PMDs (perfect Mendelsohn designs) is presented. In addition, some existence conditions for holey perfect Mendelsohn designs and incomplete perfect Mendelsohn designs are given, and applications to packings and coverings are mentioned. A necessary existence condition for a \((v,k,\lambda)\)-PMD is known to be \(\lambda v(v-1)\equiv 0\pmod k\), and fairly conclusive results for \(k= 3, 4\), and \(5\) are already well established. The author throws light on the state of the art for the situations when \(k= 6, 7\). In particular, for \(k= 6\) and \(\lambda= 1\), a necessary existence condition for a \((v,6,1)\)-PMD is \(v\equiv 0, 1, 3\), or \(4\pmod 6\). The case for \(v\equiv 1\pmod 6\) is completely resolved, while for \(v\equiv 0, 3, 4\pmod 6\), the largest unknown cases are for \(v= 198, 657, 148\), respectively. It is mentioned that the existence of PMDs with \(k=7\) is now reduced to a few possible exceptions with the outstanding cases remaining when \(\lambda= 1\).