A Conjecture about BIBDs

The conjecture: “If the case (v,k) = (8, 3) is the only one where the trivial balanced incomplete block design (BIBD) is elementary” is formulated. It is supported by the theorem: Theorem The conjecture is correct if at least one of the following conditions holds: v < 26, k < 6, for v > 8 if v is prime or a prime power.

[1]  H. Hanani The Existence and Construction of Balanced Incomplete Block Designs , 1961 .

[2]  T. Caliński,et al.  Block designs : a randomization approach , 2000 .

[3]  A. Rosa,et al.  2-( v , k , λ) Designs of Small Order , 2006 .

[4]  R. Abel,et al.  Balanced incomplete block designs with block size 8 , 2001 .

[5]  Nadine Eberhardt,et al.  Constructions And Combinatorial Problems In Design Of Experiments , 2016 .

[6]  S. Kageyama,et al.  On a characterization of symmetric balanced incomplete block designs , 2004 .

[7]  J. Wishart Statistical tables , 2018, Global Education Monitoring Report.

[8]  K. Takeuchi,et al.  A Table of Difference Sets Generating Balanced Incomplete Block Designs , 1962 .

[9]  Frederick Hoffman,et al.  Proceedings of the Fourth Southeastern Conference on Combinatorics, Graph Theory, and Computing, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, March 5-8, 1973 , 1973 .

[10]  Haim Hanani BIBD's with block-size seven , 1989, Discret. Math..

[11]  C. Colbourn,et al.  Handbook of Combinatorial Designs , 2006 .

[12]  D. Raghavarao Constructions and Combinatorial Problems in Design of Experiments , 1971 .

[13]  On the Existence of Simple BIBDs with Number of Elements a Prime Power , 2013 .

[14]  Haim Hanani,et al.  Balanced incomplete block designs and related designs , 1975, Discret. Math..

[15]  Frank Harary,et al.  A Survey of Combinatorial Theory , 2014 .

[16]  R. Julian R. Abel,et al.  Balanced incomplete block designs with block size~9: Part III , 2004, Australas. J Comb..

[17]  Calyampudi R. Rao A study of BIB designs with replications 11 to 15 , 1961 .