Difference Methods for Double-Change Covering Designs

Abstract

A \textbf{double-change covering design} (DCCD) is a $v$-set $V$ and an ordered list $\mathcal{L}$ of $b$ blocks of size $k$ where every pair from $V$ must occur in at least one block and each pair of consecutive blocks differs by exactly two elements. It is \textbf{minimal} if it has the fewest block possible and \textbf{circular} when the first and last blocks also differ by two elements. We give a recursive construction that uses 1-factorizations and expansion sets to construct a DCCD($v+\frac{v+k-2}{k-2},k,b+\frac{v}{k-2}\frac{v+k-2}{2k-4}$) from a DCCD($v,k,b$). We construct circular DCCD($2k-2,k,k-1$) and circular DCCD($2k-3,k,k-2$) from single change covering designs and determine minimal DCCD when $v=2k-2$. We use difference methods to construct five infinite families of minimal circular DCCD($c(4k-6)+1,k,c^2(4k-6)+c$) when $c\leq 5$ for any $k\geq 3$. The recursive construction is then used to build twelve additional minimal DCCD from members of these infinite families. Finally the difference method is used to construct a minimal circular DCCD(61,4,366).