@Article{Bonacini2017, author = "Bonacini, Paola and Gionfriddo, Mario and Marino, Lucia", title = "Block colourings of 6-cycle systems", journal = "Opuscula Math.", year = "2017", volume = "37", number = "5", pages = "647--664", doi = "http://dx.doi.org/10.7494/OpMath.2017.37.5.647", url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.7494/OpMath.2017.37.5.647", abstract = "Let \(\Sigma=(X,\mathcal{B})\) be a \(6\)-cycle system of order \(v\), so \(v\equiv 1,9\mod 12\). A \(c\)-colouring of type \(s\) is a map \(\phi\colon\mathcal {B}\rightarrow \mathcal{C}\), with \(C\) set of colours, such that exactly \(c\) colours are used and for every vertex \(x\) all the blocks containing \(x\) are coloured exactly with \(s\) colours. Let \(\frac{v-1}{2}=qs+r\), with \(q, r\geq 0\). \(\phi\) is equitable if for every vertex \(x\) the set of the \(\frac{v-1}{2}\) blocks containing \(x\) is partitioned in \(r\) colour classes of cardinality \(q+1\) and \(s-r\) colour classes of cardinality \(q\). In this paper we study bicolourings and tricolourings, for which, respectively, \(s=2\) and \(s=3\), distinguishing the cases \(v=12k+1\) and \(v=12k+9\). In particular, we settle completely the case of \(s=2\), while for \(s=3\) we determine upper and lower bounds for \(c\).", keywords = "6-cycles, block-colourings, G-decompositions", issn = "1232-9274" }