Pseudo-Paley graphs and skew Hadamard difference sets from presemifields

Let (K, + ,*) be an odd order presemifield with commutative multiplication. We show that the set of nonzero squares of (K, *) is a skew Hadamard difference set or a Paley type partial difference set in (K, +) according as q is congruent to 3 modulo 4 or q is congruent to 1 modulo 4. Applying this result to the Coulter–Matthews presemifield and the Ding–Yuan variation of it, we recover a recent construction of skew Hadamard difference sets by Ding and Yuan [7]. On the other hand, applying this result to the known presemifields with commutative multiplication and having order q congruent to 1 modulo 4, we construct several families of pseudo-Paley graphs. We compute the p-ranks of these pseudo-Paley graphs when q = 3⁴, 3⁶, 3⁸, 3¹⁰, 5⁴, and 7⁴. The p-rank results indicate that these graphs seem to be new. Along the way, we also disprove a conjecture of René Peeters [17, p. 47] which says that the Paley graphs of nonprime order are uniquely determined by their parameters and the minimality of their relevant p-ranks. Dedicated to Dan Hughes on the occasion of his 80th birthday.     

An infinite family of octahedral crossing numbers

This paper calculates some crossing numbers for certain octahedral graphs. Precisely, if the number p is a prime power congruent to 1 modulo 4, then the crossing number of the p-dimensional octahedral graph in the orientable surface of genus (p–1)(p-4)/4 is (p²–p)/2. The key step is the construction of a self-dual imbedding of the complete graph on p vertices such that no face boundary contains a repeated vertex.     

Further progress on difference families with block size 4 or 5

A strong indication about the existence of a (7p, 4, 1) difference family with p ≡ 7 (mod 12) a prime has been given in [11]. Here, developing some ideas of that paper, we give, much more generally, a strong indication about the existence of a cyclic (pq, 4, 1) difference family whenever p and q are primes congruent to 7 (mod 12) and of a cyclic (pq, 5, 1) difference family whenever p and q are primes congruent to 11 (mod 20). Indeed we give an algorithm for their construction that seems to be always successful and we have checked it works whenever both primes p and q do not exceed 1,000. All our (pq, 4, 1) and (pq, 5, 1) difference families have the nice property of admitting a multiplier of order 3 or 5, respectively, that fixes almost all base blocks. As an intermediate result we also find an optimal (p, 5, 1) optical orthogonal code for every prime p ≡ 11 (mod 20) not exceeding 10,000.     

An application of the fermat quotient of units to the method of kim

Using the Fermat Quotient, defined in [8], of units that are not necessarily congruent to 1 modulo a prime of a fixed odd primep, we improve some results of J. M. KlM [4, 5, 6] to certain cyclotomic fields or abelian fields.     

Smooth lattices over quadratic integers

We construct lattices with quadratic structure over the integers in quadratic number fields having the property that the rank of the quadratic structure is constant and equal to the rank of the lattice in all reductions modulo maximal ideals. We characterize the case in which such lattices are free. The construction gives a representative of the genus of such lattices as an orthogonal sum of “standard” pieces of ranks 1–4 and covers the case of the discriminant of the real quadratic number field congruent to 1 modulo 8 for which a general construction was not known.      

On Siegel modular forms of level p and their properties mod p

Using theta series we construct Siegel modular forms of level p which behave well modulo p in all cusps. This construction allows us to show (under a mild condition) that all Siegel modular forms of level p and weight 2 are congruent mod p to level one modular forms of weight p + 1; in particular, this is true for Yoshida lifts of level p.     

Optimal (4up, 5, 1) optical orthogonal codes

By a (ν, k, 1)‐OOC we mean an optical orthogonal code. In this paper, it is proved that an optimal (4p, 5, 1)‐OOC exists for prime p ≡ 1 (mod 10), and that an optimal (4up, 5, 1)‐OOC exists for u = 2, 3 and prime p ≡ 11 (mod 20). These results are obtained by applying Weil's theorem. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Some cyclic BIBDs with block size four

In this paper we give some results on cyclic BIBDs with block size 4. It is proved that a cyclic B(4,1;4ⁿ u) exists where u is a product of primes congruent to 1 modulo 6 and n is a positive integer and n ≥ 3. In the case of n = 2, we also give some partial results on the existence of a cyclic B(4,1;4²u) where u is a product of primes congruent to 1 modulo 6. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

On the spectrum of resolvable orthogonal arrays invariant under the Klein group K4

It is shown that there exists a resolvablen ² by 4 orthogonal array which is invariant under the Klein 4-groupK ₄ for all positive integersn congruent to 0 modulo 4 except possibly forn {12, 24, 156, 348}.     

On quasi‐orthogonal cocycles

We introduce the notion of quasi‐orthogonal cocycle. This is motivated in part by the maximal determinant problem for square ‐matrices of size congruent to 2 modulo 4. Quasi‐orthogonal cocycles are analogous to the orthogonal cocycles of algebraic design theory. Equivalences with new and known combinatorial objects afforded by this analogy, such as quasi‐Hadamard groups, relative quasi‐difference sets, and certain partially balanced incomplete block designs, are proved.