2-(31,15,7), 2-(35,17,8) and 2-(36,15,6) designs with automorphisms of odd prime order,and their related Hadamard matrices and codes

We present the full classification of Hadamard 2-(31,15,7), Hadamard 2-(35, 17,8) and Menon 2-(36,15,6) designs with automorphisms of odd prime order. We also give partial classifications of such designs with automorphisms of order 2. These classifications lead to related Hadamard matrices and self-dual codes. We found 76166 Hadamard matrices of order 32 and 38332 Hadamard matrices of order 36, arising from the classified designs. Remarkably, all constructed Hadamard matrices of order 36 are Hadamard equivalent to a regular Hadamard matrix. From our constructed designs, we obtained 37352 doubly-even [72,36,12] codes, which are the best known self-dual codes of this length until now.      

Twisted product of cocycles and factorization of semi‐regular relative difference sets

In this article, we introduce what we call twisted Kronecker products of cocycles of finite groups and show that the twisted Kronecker product of two cocycles is a Hadamard cocycle if and only if the two cocycles themselves are Hadamard cocycles. This enables us to generalize some known results concerning products and factorizations of central semi‐regular relative difference sets. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 431–441, 2008     

Power Hadamard matrices

We introduce power Hadamard matrices, in order to study the structure of (group) generalized Hadamard matrices, Butson (generalized) Hadamard matrices and other related orthogonal matrices, with which they share certain common characteristics. The new objects turn out to be as interesting, and perhaps as useful, as the objects that motivated them.We develop a basic theory of power Hadamard matrices, explore these relationships, and offer some new insights into old results. For example, we show that all 4×4 Butson Hadamard matrices are equivalent to circulant ones, and how to move between equivalence classes.We provide, among other new things, an infinite family of circulant Butson Hadamard matrices that extends a known class to include one of each positive integer order.Dedication: In 1974 Jennifer Seberry (Wallis) introduced what was then a totally new structure, orthogonal designs, in order to study the existence and construction of Hadamard matrices. They have proved their worth for this purpose, and have also become an object of interest for their own sake and in applications (e.g., [H.J.V. Tarok, A.R. Calderbank, Space-time block codes from orthogonal designs, IEEE Trans. Inf. Theory 45 (1999) 1456-1467. [26]]). Since then many other generalizations of Hadamard matrices have been introduced, including some discussed herein. In the same spirit we introduce a new object showing this kind of promise.Seberry's contributions to this field are not limited to her own work, of which orthogonal designs are but one example—she has mentored many young mathematicians who have expanded her legacy by making their own marks in this field. It is fitting, therefore, that our contribution to this volume is a collaboration between one who has worked in this field for over a decade and an undergraduate student who had just completed his third year of study at the time of the work.     

On GMW Designs and Cyclic Hadamard Designs

We generalise results of Jackson concerning cyclic Hadamard designs admitting SL(2,2ⁿ) as a point transitive automorphism group. The generalisation concerns the designs of Gordon, Mills and Welch and we characterise these as designs admitting GM(m,qⁿ) acting in a certain way. We also generalise a construction given by Maschietti, using hyperovals, of cyclic Hadamard designs, and characterise these amongst the designs of Gordon, Mills and Welch.     

Hadamard 2-(63,31,15) designs invariant under the dihedral group of order 10

All Hadamard 2-(63,31,15) designs invariant under the dihedral group of order 10 are constructed and classified up to isomorphism together with related Hadamard matrices of order 64. Affine 2-(64,16,5) designs can be obtained from Hadamard 2-(63,31,15) designs having line spreads by Rahilly’s construction [A. Rahilly, On the line structure of designs, Discrete Math. 92 (1991) 291-303]. The parameter set 2-(64,16,5) is one of two known sets when there exists several nonisomorphic designs with the same parameters and p-rank as the design obtained from the points and subspaces of a given dimension in affine geometry AG(n,p^m) (p a prime). It is established that an affine 2-(64,16,5) design of 2-rank 16 that is associated with a Hadamard 2-(63,31,15) design invariant under the dihedral group of order 10 is either isomorphic to the classical design of the points and hyperplanes in AG(3,4), or is one of the two exceptional designs found by Harada, Lam and Tonchev [M. Harada, C. Lam, V.D. Tonchev, Symmetric (4, 4)-nets and generalized Hadamard matrices over groups of order 4, Designs Codes Cryptogr. 34 (2005) 71-87].     

On the maximum cocliques of the rank 3 graph of 211 : M24

In this article, we consider the maximum cocliques of the 2¹¹: M₂₄ ‐graph Λ. We show that the maximum cocliques of size 24 of Λ can be obtained from two Hadamard matrices of size 24, and that there are exactly two maximum cocliques up to equivalence. We verify that the two nonisomorphic designs with parameters 5‐(24,9,6) can be constructed from the maximum cocliques of Λ, and that these designs are isomorphic to the support designs of minimum weights of the ternary extended quadratic residue and Pless symmetry [24,12,9] codes. Further, we give a new construction of Λ from these 5‐(24,9,6) designs. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 323–332, 2009     

Weaving hadamard matrices with maximum excess and classes with small excess

Weaving is a matrix construction developed in 1990 for the purpose of obtaining new weighing matrices. Hadamard matrices obtained by weaving have the same orders as those obtained using the Kronecker product, but weaving affords greater control over the internal structure of matrices constructed, leading to many new Hadamard equivalence classes among these known orders. It is known that different classes of Hadamard matrices may have different maximum excess. We explain why those classes with smaller excess may be of interest, apply the method of weaving to explore this question, and obtain constructions for new Hadamard matrices with maximum excess in their respective classes. With this method, we are also able to construct Hadamard matrices of near‐maximal excess with ease, in orders too large for other by‐hand constructions to be of much value. We obtain new lower bounds for the maximum excess among Hadamard matrices in some orders by constructing candidates for the largest excess. For example, we construct a Hadamard matrix with excess 1408 in order 128, larger than all previously known values. We obtain classes of Hadamard matrices of order 96 with maximum excess 912 and 920, which demonstrates that the maximum excess for classes of that order may assume at least three different values. Since the excess of a woven Hadamard matrix is determined by the row sums of the matrices used to weave it, we also investigate the properties of row sums of Hadamard matrices and give lists of them in small orders. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 12: 233–255, 2004.     

Indivisible plexes in latin squares

In this paper, we present two constructions of divisible difference sets based on skew Hadamard difference sets. A special class of Hadamard difference sets, which can be derived from a skew Hadamard difference set and a Paley type regular partial difference set respectively in two groups of orders v ₁ and v ₂ with |v ₁ − v ₂| = 2, is contained in these constructions. Some result on inequivalence of skew Hadamard difference sets is also given in the paper. As a consequence of Delsarte’s theorem, the dual set of skew Hadamard difference set is also a skew Hadamard difference set in an abelian group. We show that there are seven pairwisely inequivalent skew Hadamard difference sets in the elementary abelian group of order 3⁵ or 3⁷, and also at least four pairwisely inequivalent skew Hadamard difference sets in the elementary abelian group of order 3⁹. Furthermore, the skew Hadamard difference sets deduced by Ree-Tits slice symplectic spreads are the dual sets of each other when q ≤ 3¹¹.      

On ‐Cocyclic Hadamard Matrices

In this paper, we describe some necessary and sufficient conditions for a set of coboundaries to yield a cocyclic Hadamard matrix over the dihedral group . Using this characterization, new classification results for certain cohomology classes of cocycles over are obtained, extending existing exhaustive calculations for cocyclic Hadamard matrices over from order 36 to order 44. We also define some transformations over coboundaries, which preserve orthogonality of ‐cocycles. These transformations are shown to correspond to Horadam's bundle equivalence operations enriched with duals of cocycles.     

Some constructions of divisible designs from Laguerre geometries

In the nineties, A.G. Spera introduced a construction principle for divisible designs. Using this method, we get series of divisible designs from finite Laguerre geometries. We show a close connection between some of these divisible designs and divisible designs whose construction was based on a conic in a plane of a three-dimensional projective space.     

Constructions of Group Divisible Designs

In this paper we present constructions for group divisible designs from generalized partial difference matrices. We describe some classes of examples.     

Difference Sets and Hyperovals

We construct three infinite families of cyclic difference sets, using monomial hyperovals in a desarguesian projective plane of even order. These difference sets give rise to cyclic Hadamard designs, which have the same parameters as the designs of points and hyperplanes of a projective geometry over the field with two elements. Moreover, they are substructures of the Hadamard design that one can associate with a hyperoval in a projective plane of even order.     

Special subsets of difference sets with particular emphasis on skew Hadamard difference sets

This article introduces a new approach to studying difference sets via their additive properties. We introduce the concept of special subsets, which are interesting combinatorial objects in their own right, but also provide a mechanism for measuring additive regularity. Skew Hadamard difference sets are given special attention, and the structure of their special subsets leads to several results on multipliers, including a categorisation of the full multiplier group of an abelian skew Hadamard difference set. We also count the number of ways to write elements as a product of any number of elements of a skew Hadamard difference set.      

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.     

Divisible design digraphs and association schemes

Divisible design digraphs are constructed from skew balanced generalized weighing matrices and generalized Hadamard matrices. Commutative and non-commutative association schemes are shown to be attached to the constructed divisible design digraphs.     

Generalized Hadamard matrices whose transposes are not generalized Hadamard matrices

In answer to “Research Problem 16” in Horadam's recent book Hadamard matrices and their applications, we provide a construction for generalized Hadamard matrices whose transposes are not generalized Hadamard matrices. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 456–458, 2009     

Properties of submatrices of Sylvester Hadamard matrices

We investigate the algebraic behaviour of leading principal submatrices of Hadamard matrices being powers of 2. We provide analytically the spectrum of general submatrices of these Hadamard matrices. Symmetry properties and relationships between the upper left and lower right corners of the matrices in this respect are demonstrated. Considering the specific construction scheme of this particular class of Hadamard matrices (called Sylvester Hadamard matrices), we utilize tensor operations to prove the respective results. An algorithmic procedure yielding the complete spectrum of leading principal submatrices of Sylvester Hadamard matrices is proposed.     

On some constructions of modular hadamard matrices

Some new constructions for modular Hadamard and Hadamard matrices are given. Incidentally, it is shown that the Williamson series of H-matrices can also be constructed by using modular Hadamard matrices and resolvable semi-regular group divisible designs.     

Self-orthogonal codes constructed from orbit matrices of 2-designs and quotient matrices of divisible designs

In 2003 Harada and Tonchev showed a construction of self-orthogonal codes from orbit matrices of block designs with fixed-point-free automorphisms. We describe a construction of self-orthogonal codes from orbit matrices of 2-designs admitting certain automorphisms with fixed points (and blocks). Further, we present a construction of self-orthogonal codes from quotient matrices of divisible designs and divisible design graphs.