The structure of weighing matrices having large weights

We examine the structure of weighing matricesW(n, w), wherew=n–2,n–3,n–4, obtaining analogues of some useful results known for the casen–1. In this setting we find some natural applications for the theory ofsigned groups and orthogonal matrices with entries from signed groups, as developed in 3]. We construct some new series of Hadamard matrices from weighing matrices, including the following:W(n, n–2) implies an Hadamard matrix of order2n ifn0 mod 4 and order 4n otherwise;W(n, n–3) implies an Hadamard matrix of order 8n; in certain cases,W(n, n–4) implies an Hadamard matrix of order 16n. We explicitly derive 117 new Hadamard matrices of order 2 ^t p, p<4000, the smallest of which is of order 2³·419.Supported by an NSERC grant