 Balanced incomplete block design

A binary block design has $t$ treatments, $b$ blocks of size $k<t$, every treatment in $r$ blocks, and every distinct pair in $\lambda$ blocks. Counting occurrences and pairs gives $tr=bk$ and $r(k-1)=\lambda (t-1)$. Its incidence matrix of a set system $N$ satisfies $N{N}^T=(r-\lambda )I+\lambda 11^T$. For statistical comparison of all treatment effects one also needs connectedness; $\lambda >0$ guarantees it, whereas singleton blocks with $\lambda =0$ do not.