Decomposition of Complete Graphs into Isomorphic Complete Bipartite Graphs

A decomposition of a complete graph into disjoint copies of a complete bipartite graph is called a ‐design of order n. The existence problem of ‐designs has been completely solved for the graphs for , for , K_{2, 3} and K_{3, 3}. In this paper, I prove that for all , if there exists a ‐design of order N, then there exists a ‐design of order n for all (mod ) and . Giving necessary direct constructions, I provide an almost complete solution for the existence problem for complete bipartite graphs with fewer than 18 edges, leaving five orders in total unsolved.     

Semiframes with Block Size Three and Odd Group Size

A ‐semiframe of type is a ‐GDD of type , , in which the collection of blocks can be written as a disjoint union where is partitioned into parallel classes of and is partitioned into holey parallel classes, each holey parallel class being a partition of for some . A ‐SF is a ‐semiframe of type in which there are p parallel classes in and d holey parallel classes with respect to . In this paper, we shall show that there exists a (3, 1)‐SF for any if and only if , , , and .     

Flag‐Transitive 2‐ Symmetric Designs with Sporadic Socle

Let be a nontrivial 2‐ symmetric design admitting a flag‐transitive, point‐primitive automorphism group G of almost simple type with sporadic socle. We prove that there are up to isomorphism six designs, and must be one of the following: a 2‐(144, 66, 30) design with or , a 2‐(176, 50, 14) design with , a 2‐(176, 126, 90) design with or , or a 2‐(14,080, 12,636, 11,340) design with .     

Set Systems with L‐Intersections and k‐Wise L‐Intersecting Families

In this paper, by employing linear algebra methods we obtain the following main results:

• (i) Let and be two disjoint subsets of such that Suppose that is a family of subsets of such that for every pair and for every i. Then Furthermore, we extend this theorem to k‐wise L‐intersecting and obtain the corresponding result on two cross L‐intersecting families. These results show that Snevily's conjectures proposed by Snevily (2003) are true under some restricted conditions. This result also gets an improvement of a theorem of Liu and Hwang (2013).
• (ii) Let p be a prime and let and be two subsets of such that or and Suppose that is a family of subsets of [n] such that (1) for every pair (2) for every i. Then This result improves the existing upper bound substantially.

     

Detachments of Amalgamated 3‐Uniform Hypergraphs Factorization Consequences

A is a hypergraph obtained from by splitting some or all of its vertices into more than one vertex. Amalgamating a hypergraph can be thought of as taking , partitioning its vertices, then for each element of the partition squashing the vertices to form a single vertex in the amalgamated hypergraph . In this paper, we use Nash‐Williams lemma on laminar families to prove a detachment theorem for amalgamated 3‐uniform hypergraphs, which yields a substantial generalization of previous amalgamation theorems by Hilton, Rodger, and Nash‐Williams. To demonstrate the power of our detachment theorem, we show that the complete 3‐uniform n‐partite multihypergraph can be expressed as the union of k edge‐disjoint factors, where for , is ‐regular, if and only if:

1. for all ,
2. for each i, , and
3. .

     

Some New Orders of Hadamard and Skew‐Hadamard Matrices

We construct Hadamard matrices of orders and , and skew‐Hadamard matrices of orders and . As far as we know, such matrices have not been constructed previously. The constructions use the Goethals–Seidel array, suitable supplementary difference sets on a cyclic group and a new efficient matching algorithm based on hashing techniques.     

Skew Hadamard Difference Sets from Dickson Polynomials of Order 7

Skew Hadamard difference sets have been an interesting topic of study for over 70 years. For a long time, it had been conjectured the classical Paley difference sets (the set of nonzero quadratic residues in where ) were the only example in Abelian groups. In 2006, the first author and Yuan disproved this conjecture by showing that the image set of is a new skew Hadamard difference set in with m odd, where denotes the first kind of Dickson polynomials of order n and . The key observation in the proof is that is a planar function from to for m odd. Since then a few families of new skew Hadamard difference sets have been discovered. In this paper, we prove that for all , the set is a skew Hadamard difference set in , where m is odd and . The proof is more complicated and different than that of Ding‐Yuan skew Hadamard difference sets since is not planar in . Furthermore, we show that such skew Hadamard difference sets are inequivalent to all existing ones for by comparing the triple intersection numbers.     

Direct Constructions for General Families of Cyclic Mutually Nearly Orthogonal Latin Squares

Two Latin squares and , of even order n with entries , are said to be nearly orthogonal if the superimposition of L on M yields an array in which each ordered pair , and , occurs at least once and the ordered pair occurs exactly twice. In this paper, we present direct constructions for the existence of general families of three cyclic mutually orthogonal Latin squares of orders , , and . The techniques employed are based on the principle of Methods of Differences and so we also establish infinite classes of “quasi‐difference” sets for these orders.     

The Mendelsohn Triple Systems of Order 13

A triple cyclically contains the ordered pairs , , , and no others. A Mendelsohn triple system of order v, or , is a set V together with a collection of ordered triples of distinct elements from V, such that and each ordered pair with is cyclically contained in exactly λ ordered triples. By means of a computer search, we classify all Mendelsohn triple systems of order 13 with ; there are 6 855 400 653 equivalence classes of such systems.     

‐Relative Difference Sets and Their Representations

We show that every ‐relative difference set D in relative to can be represented by a polynomial , where is a permutation for each nonzero a. We call such an f a planar function on . The projective plane Π obtained from D in the way of M. J. Ganley and E. Spence (J Combin Theory Ser A, 19(2) (1975), 134–153) is coordinatized, and we obtain necessary and sufficient conditions of Π to be a presemifield plane. We also prove that a function f on with exactly two elements in its image set and is planar, if and only if, for any .     

The Existence and Construction of (K5∖e)‐Designs of Orders 27, 135, 162, and 216

The problem of the existence of a decomposition of the complete graph into disjoint copies of has been solved for all admissible orders n, except for 27, 36, 54, 64, 72, 81, 90, 135, 144, 162, 216, and 234. In this paper, I eliminate 4 of these 12 unresolved orders. Let Γ be a ‐design. I show that divides 2^k3 for some and that . I construct ‐designs by prescribing as an automorphism group, and show that up to isomorphism there are exactly 24 ‐designs with as an automorphism group. Moreover, I show that the full automorphism group of each of these designs is indeed . Finally, the existence of ‐designs of orders 135, 162, and 216 follows immediately by the recursive constructions given by G. Ge and A. C. H. Ling, SIAM J Discrete Math 21(4) (2007), 851–864.     

Finiteness Results in Triangle‐Free Quasi‐Symmetric Designs

Triangle‐free quasi‐symmetric 2‐ designs with intersection numbers ; and are investigated. Possibility of triangle‐free quasi‐symmetric designs with or is ruled out. It is also shown that, for a fixed x and a fixed ratio , there are only finitely many triangle‐free quasi‐symmetric designs. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 00: 1‐6, 2012     

Simple Signed Steiner Triple Systems

Let X be a v‐set, be a set of 3‐subsets (triples) of X, and be a partition of with . The pair is called a simple signed Steiner triple system, denoted by ST, if the number of occurrences of every 2‐subset of X in triples is one more than the number of occurrences in triples . In this paper, we prove that exists if and only if , , and , where and for , . © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Combin. Designs 20: 332–343, 2012     

The small Kakeya sets in,a conic

A Kakeya set in the linear representation , a nonsingular conic, is the point set covered by a set of lines, one through each point of . In this article, we classify the small Kakeya sets in . The smallest Kakeya sets have size , and all Kakeya sets with weight less than are classified: there are approximately types.     

Neighborhoods in Maximum Packings of 2Kn and Quadratic Leaves of Triple Systems

In this paper, two related problems are completely solved, extending two classic results by Colbourn and Rosa. In any partial triple system of , the neighborhood of a vertex v is the subgraph induced by . For (mod 3) with , it is shown that for any 2‐factor F on or vertices, there exists a maximum packing of with triples such that F is the neighborhood of some vertex if and only if , thus extending the corresponding result for the case where or 1 (mod 3) by Colbourn and Rosa. This result, along with the companion result of Colbourn and Rosa, leads to a complete characterization of quadratic leaves of λ‐fold partial triple systems for all , thereby extending the solution where by Colbourn and Rosa.     

On the Hamilton–Waterloo Problem with Odd Orders

Given nonnegative integers , the Hamilton–Waterloo problem asks for a factorization of the complete graph into α ‐factors and β ‐factors. Without loss of generality, we may assume that . Clearly, v odd, , , and are necessary conditions. To date results have only been found for specific values of m and n. In this paper, we show that for any integers , these necessary conditions are sufficient when v is a multiple of and , except possibly when or 3. For the case where we show sufficiency when with some possible exceptions. We also show that when are odd integers, the lexicographic product of with the empty graph of order n has a factorization into α ‐factors and β ‐factors for every , , with some possible exceptions.     

Latin Squares with a Unique Intercalate

Suppose that and . We construct a Latin square of order n with the following properties:

• has no proper subsquares of order 3 or more .
• has exactly one intercalate (subsquare of order 2) .
• When the intercalate is replaced by the other possible subsquare on the same symbols, the resulting Latin square is in the same species as .

Hence generalizes the square that Sade famously found to complete Norton's enumeration of Latin squares of order 7. In particular, is what is known as a self‐switching Latin square and possesses a near‐autoparatopism.     

Solution to An Isotopism Question Concerning Rank 2 Semifields

In [8] Dempwolff gives a construction of three classes of rank two semifields of order , with q and n odd, using Dembowski–Ostrom polynomials. The question whether these semifields are new, i.e. not isotopic to previous constructions, is left as an open problem. In this paper we solve this problem for , in particular we prove that two of these classes, labeled and , are new for , whereas presemifields in family are isotopic to Generalized Twisted Fields for each .     

On the Existence of

Let there is an . For or , has been determined by Hanani, and for or , has been determined by the first author. In this paper, we investigate the case . A necessary condition for is . It is known that , and that there is an for all with a possible exception . We need to consider the case . It is proved that there is an for all with an exception and a possible exception , thereby, .     

Minimal Symmetric Differences of Lines in Projective Planes

Let q be an odd prime power and let be the minimum size of the symmetric difference of r lines in the Desarguesian projective plane . We prove some results about the function , in particular showing that there exists a constant such that for .