Quasi-symmetric 2, 3, 4-designs

Abstract

Quasi-symmetric designs are block designs with two block intersection numbers x and y It is shown that with the exception of (x, y)=(0, 1), for a fixed value of the block size k, there are finitely many such designs. Some finiteness results on block graphs are derived. For a quasi-symmetric 3-design with positive x and y, the intersection numbers are shown to be roots of a quadratic whose coefficients are polynomial functions of v, k and λ. Using this quadratic, various characterizations of the Witt-Luneburg design on 23 points are obtained. It is shown that if x=1, then a fixed value of λ determines at most finitely many such designs.