Covers Of Finite Sets With Distinct Block Sizes

Arnold Knopfmacher1, Richard Warlimont2
1 Department of Computational & Applied Mathematics University of the Witwatersrand Private Bag 3 2050 South Africa
2Fachbereich Mathematik Universitat Regensburg Postfach 93053 8400 Regensburg Germany

Abstract

A cover of a finite set \(N\) is a collection of subsets of \(N\) whose union is \(N\). We determine the number of such covers whose blocks all have distinct sizes. The cases of unordered and ordered blocks are each considered.