On $q$-Covering Designs

Abstract

A $q$-covering design $\mathbb{C}_q (n, k, r)$, $k \ge r$, is a collection $\mathcal{X}$ of $(k-1)$-spaces of $PG(n-1, q)$ such that every $(r-1)$-space of $PG(n-1,q)$ is contained in at least one element of $\mathcal{X}$ . Let $\mathcal{C}_q(n, k, r)$ denote the minimum number of $(k-1)$-spaces in a $q$-covering design $\mathbb{C}_q (n, k, r)$. In this paper improved upper bounds on $\mathcal{C}_q(2n, 3, 2)$, $n \ge 4$, $\mathcal{C}_q(3n + 8, 4, 2)$, $n \ge 0$, and $\mathcal{C}_q(2n,4,3)$, $n \ge 4$, are presented. The results are achieved by constructing the related $q$-covering designs.