Block‐Transitive and Point‐Primitive 2‐ Designs with Sporadic Socle

The purpose of this paper is to classify all pairs , where is a nontrivial 2‐ design, and acts transitively on the set of blocks of and primitively on the set of points of with sporadic socle. We prove that there exists only one such pair : is the unique 2‐(176,8,2) design and , the Higman–Sims simple group.     

On Flag‐Transitive Symmetric Designs of Affine Type

It is shown that, if is a nontrivial 2‐ symmetric design, with , admitting a flag‐transitive automorphism group G of affine type, then , p an odd prime, and G is a point‐primitive, block‐primitive subgroup of . Moreover, acts flag‐transitively, point‐primitively on , and is isomorphic to the development of a difference set whose parameters and structure are also provided.     

Optimal Two‐Dimensional Optical Orthogonal Codes with the Best Cross‐Correlation Constraint

The study of optical orthogonal codes has been motivated by an application in an optical code‐division multiple access system. From a practical point of view, compared to one‐dimensional optical orthogonal codes, two‐dimensional optical orthogonal codes tend to require smaller code length. On the other hand, in some circumstances only with good cross‐correlation one can deal with both synchronization and user identification. These motivate the study of two‐dimensional optical orthogonal codes with better cross‐correlation than auto‐correlation. This paper focuses on optimal two‐dimensional optical orthogonal codes with the auto‐correlation and the best cross‐correlation 1. By examining the structures of w‐cyclic group divisible designs and semi‐cyclic incomplete holey group divisible designs, we present new combinatorial constructions for two‐dimensional ‐optical orthogonal codes. When and , the exact number of codewords of an optimal two‐dimensional ‐optical orthogonal code is determined for any positive integers n and .     

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.     

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, .     

A Complete Solution to the Existence of ‐Cycle Frames of Type

The existence problem of a ‐cycle frame of type is now solved for any quadruple .     

The Hamilton–Waterloo Problem for ‐Factors and ‐Factors

The Hamilton–Waterloo problem asks for a 2‐factorization of (for v odd) or minus a 1‐factor (for v even) into ‐factors and ‐factors. We completely solve the Hamilton–Waterloo problem in the case of C₃‐factors and ‐factors for .     

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 .     

Enumerating the Walecki‐Type Hamiltonian Cycle Systems

Let be the complete graph on v vertices. A Hamiltonian cycle system of odd order v (briefly ) is a set of Hamiltonian cycles of whose edges partition the edge set of . By means of a slight modification of the famous of Walecki, we obtain 2ⁿ pairwise distinct and we enumerate them up to isomorphism proving that this is equivalent to count the number of binary bracelets of length n, i.e. the orbits of , the dihedral group of order 2n, acting on binary n‐tuples.     

Directed PBDs with Block Sizes from K Where K

The research on directed PBDs is motivated by the construction of t‐deletion/insertion‐correcting codes. Fuji‐Hara, Miao, Wang, and Yin have determined the existence of directed PBDs with block sizes from the set and the set completely. In this paper, we consider the cases of . We settle almost completely for these cases, leaving finite values undetermined.     

Group Divisible Designs with Block Size Four and Group Type for

Nonuniform group divisible designs (GDDs) have been studied by numerous researchers for the past two decades due to their essential role in the constructions for other types of designs. In this paper, we investigate the existence problem of ‐GDDs of type for . First, we determine completely the spectrum of ‐GDDs of types and . Furthermore, for general cases, we show that for each and , a ‐GDD of type exists if and only if , and , except possibly for , and .     

Group Divisible Covering Designs with Block Size 4: A Type of Covering Array with Row Limit

A k‐GDCD, group divisible covering design, of type is a triple , where V is a set of gu elements, is a partition of V into u sets of size g, called groups, and is a collection of k‐subsets of V, called blocks, such that every pair of elements in V is either contained in a unique group or there is at least one block containing it, but not both. This family of combinatorial objects is equivalent to a special case of the graph covering problem and a generalization of covering arrays, which we call CARLs. In this paper, we show that there exists an integer such that for any positive integers g and , there exists a 4‐GDCD of type which in the worst case exceeds the Schönheim lower bound by δ blocks, except maybe when (1) and , or (2) , , and or . To show this, we develop constructions of 4‐GDCDs, which depend on two types of ingredients: essential, which are used multiple times, and auxiliary, which are used only once in the construction. If the essential ingredients meet the lower bound, the products of the construction differ from the lower bound by as many blocks as the optimal size of the auxiliary ingredient differs from the lower bound.     

Generalized Quadrangles and Transitive Pseudo‐Hyperovals

A pseudo‐hyperoval of a projective space , q even, is a set of subspaces of dimension such that any three span the whole space. We prove that a pseudo‐hyperoval with an irreducible transitive stabilizer is elementary. We then deduce from this result a classification of the thick generalized quadrangles that admit a point‐primitive, line‐transitive automorphism group with a point‐regular abelian normal subgroup. Specifically, we show that is flag‐transitive and isomorphic to , where is either the regular hyperoval of PG(2, 4) or the Lunelli–Sce hyperoval of PG(2, 16).     

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.

     

Constructions of Strictly m‐Cyclic and Semi‐Cyclic

An is a triple , where X is a set of points, is a partition of X into m disjoint sets of size n and is a set of 4‐element transverses of , such that each 3‐element transverse of is contained in exactly one of them. If the full automorphism group of an admits an automorphism α consisting of n cycles of length m (resp. m cycles of length n), then this is called m‐cyclic (resp. semi‐cyclic). Further, if all block‐orbits of an m‐cyclic (resp. semi‐cyclic) are full, then it is called strictly cyclic. In this paper, we construct some infinite classes of strictly m‐cyclic and semi‐cyclic , and use them to give new infinite classes of perfect two‐dimensional optical orthogonal codes with maximum collision parameter and AM‐OPPTS/AM‐OPPW property.     

Tight Heffter Arrays Exist for all Possible Values

A tight Heffter array is an matrix with nonzero entries from such that (i) the sum of the elements in each row and each column is 0, and (ii) no element from appears twice. We prove that exist if and only if both m and n are at least 3. If H has the property that all entries are integers of magnitude at most , every row and column sum is 0 over the integers, and H also satisfies ), we call H an integer Heffter array. We show integer Heffter arrays exist if and only if . Finally, an integer Heffter array is shiftable if each row and column contains the same number of positive and negative integers. We show that shiftable integer arrays exists exactly when both are even.     

On the Distances between Latin Squares and the Smallest Defining Set Size

In this note, we show that for each Latin square L of order , there exists a Latin square of order n such that L and differ in at most cells. Equivalently, each Latin square of order n contains a Latin trade of size at most . We also show that the size of the smallest defining set in a Latin square is .     

Cycle Frames of Complete Multipartite Multigraphs ‐ III

For two graphs G and H their wreath product has vertex set in which two vertices and are adjacent whenever or and . Clearly, , where is an independent set on n vertices, is isomorphic to the complete m‐partite graph in which each partite set has exactly n vertices. A 2‐regular subgraph of the complete multipartite graph containing vertices of all but one partite set is called partial 2‐factor. For an integer λ, denotes a graph G with uniform edge multiplicity λ. Let J be a set of integers. If can be partitioned into edge‐disjoint partial 2‐factors consisting cycles of lengths from J, then we say that has a ‐cycle frame. In this paper, we show that for and , there exists a ‐cycle frame of if and only if and . In fact our results completely solve the existence of a ‐cycle frame of .     

On Small Complete Arcs and Transitive ‐Invariant Arcs in the Projective Plane

Let q be an odd prime power such that q is a power of 5 or (mod 10). In this case, the projective plane admits a collineation group G isomorphic to the alternating group A₅. Transitive G‐invariant 30‐arcs are shown to exist for every . The completeness is also investigated, and complete 30‐arcs are found for . Surprisingly, they are the smallest known complete arcs in the planes , and . Moreover, computational results are presented for the cases and . New upper bounds on the size of the smallest complete arc are obtained for .