An infinite countable Steiner triple system is called universal if any countable Steiner triple system can be embedded into it. The main result of this paper is the proof of non-existence of a universal Steiner triple system.
The fact is proven by constructing a family \(\mathcal{S}\) of size \(2^{\omega}\) of infinite countable Steiner triple systems so that no finite Steiner triple system can be embedded into any of the systems from \(\mathcal{S}\) and no infinite countable Steiner triple system can be embedded into any two of the systems from \(\mathcal{S}\) (it follows that the systems from \(\mathcal{S}\) are pairwise non-isomorphic).
A Steiner triple system is called rigid if the only automorphism it admits is the trivial one — the identity. An additional result presented in this paper is a construction of a family of size \(2^{\omega}\) of pairwise non-isomorphic infinite countable rigid Steiner triple systems.
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