Optimal Pooling Matrix Design for Group Testing with Dilution (Row Degree) Constraints

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the problem of designing optimal pooling matrix for group testing (for example, for COVID-19 virus testing) with the constraint that no more than $r>0$ samples can be pooled together, which we call "dilution constraint". This problem translates to designing a matrix with elements being either 0 or 1 that has no more than $r$ '1's in each row and has a certain performance guarantee of identifying anomalous elements. We explicitly give pooling matrix designs that satisfy the dilution constraint and have performance guarantees of identifying anomalous elements, and prove their optimality in saving the largest number of tests, namely showing that the designed matrices have the largest width-to-height ratio among all constraint-satisfying 0-1 matrices.