Extending bicolorings for Steiner Triple Systems

Abstract

We initiate the study of extended bicolorings of Steiner triple systems (STS) which start with a $k$-bicoloring of an STS($v$) and end up with a $k$-bicoloring of an STS($2v+1$) obtained by a doubling construction, using only the original colors used in coloring the subsystem STS($v$). By producing many such extended bicolorings, we obtain several infinite classes of orders for which there exist STSs with different lower and upper chromatic number.