Combinatorial design

Combinatorial design theory is the part of combinatorial mathematics that deals with the existence, construction and properties of systems of finite sets whose arrangements satisfy generalized concepts of balance and/or symmetry. These concepts are not made precise so that a wide range of objects can be thought of as being under the same umbrella. At times this might involve the numerical sizes of set intersections as in block designs, while at other times it could involve the spatial arrangement of entries in an array as in sudoku grids.
Combinatorial design theory can be applied to the area of design of experiments. Some of the basic theory of combinatorial designs originated in the statistician Ronald Fisher's work on the design of biological experiments. Modern applications are also found in a wide gamut of areas including finite geometry, tournament scheduling, lotteries, mathematical chemistry, mathematical biology, algorithm design and analysis, networking, group testing and cryptography.
Given a certain number n of people, is it possible to assign them to sets so that each person is in at least one set, each pair of people is in exactly one set together, every two sets have exactly one person in common, and no set contains everyone, all but one person, or exactly one person? The answer depends on n.
This has a solution only if n has the form q + q + 1. It is less simple to prove that a solution exists if q is a prime power. It is conjectured that these are the only solutions. It has been further shown that if a solution exists for q congruent to 1 or 2 mod 4, then q is a sum of two square numbers. This last result, the Bruck–Ryser theorem, is proved by a combination of constructive methods based on finite fields and an application of quadratic forms.
When such a structure does exist, it is called a finite projective plane; thus showing how finite geometry and combinatorics intersect. When q = 2, the projective plane is called the Fano plane.
Combinatorial designs date to antiquity, with the Lo Shu Square being an early magic square. One of the earliest datable application of combinatorial design is found in India in the book Brhat Samhita by Varahamihira, written around 587 AD, for the purpose of making perfumes using 4 substances selected from 16 different substances using a magic square.
Combinatorial designs developed along with the general growth of combinatorics from the 18th century, for example with Latin squares in the 18th century and Steiner systems in the 19th century. Designs have also been popular in recreational mathematics, such as Kirkman's schoolgirl problem (1850), and in practical problems, such as the scheduling of round-robin tournaments (solution published 1880s). In the 20th century designs were applied to the design of experiments, notably Latin squares, finite geometry, and association schemes, yielding the field of algebraic statistics.
The classical core of the subject of combinatorial designs is built around balanced incomplete block designs (BIBDs), Hadamard matrices and Hadamard designs, symmetric BIBDs, Latin squares, resolvable BIBDs, difference sets, and pairwise balanced designs (PBDs). Other combinatorial designs are related to or have been developed from the study of these fundamental ones.
The Handbook of Combinatorial Designs (Colbourn & Dinitz 2007) has, amongst others, 65 chapters, each devoted to a combinatorial design other than those given above. A partial listing is given below: