Partial geometric difference sets and partial geometric difference families

The concept of a partial geometric difference set (or $1\frac{1}{2}$-difference set) was introduced by Olmez in 2014. Recently, Nowak, Olmez and Song introduced the notion of a partial geometric difference family, which generalizes both the classical difference family and the partial geometric difference set. It was shown that partial geometric difference sets and partial difference families give rise to partial geometric designs. In this paper, a number of new infinite families of partial geometric difference sets and partial geometric difference families are constructed. From these partial geometric difference sets and difference families, we generate a list of infinite families of partial geometric designs.     

Plateaued functions,partial geometric difference sets,and partial geometric designs

Plateaued functions on finite fields have been studied in many papers in recent years. As a generalization of plateaued functions on finite fields, we introduce the notion of a plateaued function on a finite abelian group. We will give a characterization of a plateaued function in terms of an equation of the matrix associated to the function. Then we establish a one‐to‐one correspondence between the ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$‐valued plateaued functions and partial geometric difference sets (with specific parameters) in finite abelian groups. We will also discuss two general methods (extension and lifting) for the construction of new partial geometric difference sets from old ones in (abelian or nonabelian) finite groups, and construct many partial geometric difference sets and plateaued functions. A one‐to‐one correspondence between partial geometric difference sets (in arbitrary finite groups) and partial geometric designs will be proved.     

Partial Geometric Difference Families

We introduce the notion of a partial geometric difference family as a variation on the classical difference family and a generalization of partial geometric difference sets. We study the relationship between partial geometric difference families and both partial geometric designs and difference families, and show that partial geometric difference families give rise to partial geometric designs. We construct several infinite families of partial geometric difference families using Galois rings and the cyclotomy of Galois fields. From these partial geometric difference families, we generate a list of infinite families of partial geometric designs and directed strongly regular graphs.     

A framework for constructing partial geometric difference sets

Partial geometric difference sets (PGDSs) were defined in Olmez (J Combin Des 22(6):252–269, 2014). They are used to construct partial geometric designs. We use the framework of extended building sets to find infinite families of PGDSs in abelian groups. Included in our new families of PGDSs are generalizations of the Hadamard, McFarland, Spence, Davis-Jedwab, and Chen difference sets.     

本刊英文版Vol.33(2017),No.5论文摘要（英文）

正New Partial Geometric Difference Sets and Partial Geometric Difference Families Jerod MICHELAbstract Using Galois rings and Galois fields,we construct several infinite classes of partial geometric difference sets,and partial geometric difference families,with new parameters.Furthermore,these partial geometric difference sets(and partial geometric difference families)     

Constructions of almost difference families

Almost difference families (ADFs) are a useful generalization of almost difference sets (ADSs). In this paper, we present some constructive techniques to obtain ADFs and establish a number of infinite classes of ADFs. Our results can be regarded as a generalization of the known difference families. It is clear that ADFs give partially balance incomplete block designs which arise in a natural way in many combinatorial and statistical problems.     

New negative Latin square type partial difference sets in nonelementary abelian 2-groups and 3-groups

A partial difference set having parameters (n ², r(n − 1), n + r ² − 3r, r ² − r) is called a Latin square type partial difference set, while a partial difference set having parameters (n ², r(n + 1), − n + r ² + 3r, r ² + r) is called a negative Latin square type partial difference set. Nearly all known constructions of negative Latin square partial difference sets are in elementary abelian groups. In this paper, we develop three product theorems that construct negative Latin square type partial difference sets and Latin square type partial difference sets in direct products of abelian groups G and G′ when these groups have certain Latin square or negative Latin square type partial difference sets. Using these product theorems, we can construct negative Latin square type partial difference sets in groups of the form where the s _i are nonnegative integers and s ₀ + s ₁ ≥ 1. Another significant corollary to these theorems are constructions of two infinite families of negative Latin square type partial difference sets in 3-groups of the form for nonnegative integers s _i . Several constructions of Latin square type PDSs are also given in p-groups for all primes p. We will then briefly indicate how some of these results relate to amorphic association schemes. In particular, we construct amorphic association schemes with 4 classes using negative Latin square type graphs in many nonelementary abelian 2-groups; we also use negative Latin square type graphs whose underlying sets can be elementary abelian 3-groups or nonelementary abelian 3-groups to form 3-class amorphic association schemes.      

Paley type partial difference sets in non <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-groups

By modifying a construction for Hadamard (Menon) difference sets we construct two infinite families of negative Latin square type partial difference sets in groups of the form where p is any odd prime. One of these families has the well-known Paley parameters, which had previously only been constructed in p-groups. This provides new constructions of Hadamard matrices and implies the existence of many new strongly regular graphs including some that are conference graphs. As a corollary, we are able to construct Paley–Hadamard difference sets of the Stanton-Sprott family in groups of the form when is a prime power. These are new parameters for such difference sets.      

Near-complete external difference families

We introduce and explore near-complete external difference families, a partitioning of the nonidentity elements of a group so that each nonidentity element is expressible as a difference of elements from distinct subsets a fixed number of times. We show that the existence of such an object implies the existence of a near-resolvable design. We provide examples and general constructions of these objects, some of which lead to new parameter families of near-resolvable designs on a non-prime-power number of points. Our constructions employ cyclotomy, partial difference sets, and Galois rings.     

Some new families of partial difference sets in finite fields

In this paper we present some new cyclotomic families of partial difference sets. The argument rests on a general procedure for constructing cyclotomic difference sets or partial difference sets in Galois domains due to Ott (Des Codes Cryptogr, doi:10.1007/s10623-015-0082-6, 2015). Definitions and various properties of partial difference sets can be found for instance in Ma (Des Codes Cryptogr 4:221–261, 1994).     

Constructions of optimal difference systems of sets

Difference systems of sets (DSSs) are combinatorial configurations which were introduced in 1971 by Levenstein for the construction of codes for synchronization. In this paper, we present two kinds of constructions of difference systems of sets by using disjoint difference families and a special type of difference sets, respectively. As a consequence, new infinite classes of optimal DSSs are obtained.     

Constructions of Partial Difference Sets and Relative DifferenceSets Using Galois Rings

We use Galois rings to construct partial difference sets and relative difference sets in non-elementary abelianp-groups. As an example, we also use Galois ringG R(4, 2) to construct a (96,20,4) difference set in Z₄ × Z₄ × Z₆.Dedicated to Hanfried Lenz on the occasion of his 80th birthday     

A group extensions approach to relative difference sets

A new approach to (normal) relative difference sets (RDSs) is presented and applied to give a new method for recursively constructing infinite families of semiregular RDSs. Our main result (Theorem 7.1) shows that any metabelian semiregular RDS gives rise to an infinite family of metabelian semiregular RDSs. The new method is applied to identify several new infinite families of non‐abelian semiregular RDSs, and new methods for constructing generalized Hadamard matrices are given. The techniques employed are derived from the general theory of group extensions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 12: 279–298, 2004.     

Solving isomorphism problems about 2‐designs from disjoint difference families

Recently, two new constructions of disjoint difference families in Galois rings were presented by Davis, Huczynska, and Mullen and Momihara. Both were motivated by a well‐known construction of difference families from cyclotomy in finite fields by Wilson. It is obvious that the difference families in the Galois ring and the difference families in the finite field are not equivalent. A related question, which is in general harder to answer, is whether the associated designs are isomorphic or not. In our case, this problem was raised by Davis, Huczynska, and Mullen. In this paper, we show that, in most cases, the 2‐ designs arising from the difference families in Galois rings and those arising from the difference families in finite fields are nonisomorphic by comparing their block intersection numbers.     

Internal and external partial difference families and cyclotomy

We introduce the concept of a disjoint partial difference family (DPDF) and an external partial difference family (EPDF), a natural generalization of the much-studied disjoint difference family (DDF), external difference family (EDF) and partial difference set (PDS). We establish properties and indicate connections to other recently-studied combinatorial structures. We show how DPDFs and EPDFs may be formed from PDSs, and present various cyclotomic constructions for DPDFs and EPDFs. As part of this, we develop a unified cyclotomic framework, which yields some known results on PDSs, DDFs and EDFs as special cases.     

External Difference Families from Finite Fields

External difference families (EDFs) are a type of combinatorial designs that originated from cryptography. Many combinatorial objects are closely related to EDFs, such as difference sets, difference families, almost difference sets, and difference systems of sets. Constructing EDFs is thus of significance in theory and practice. In this paper, earlier ideas of constructing EDFs proposed by Chang and Ding (2006), and Huang and Wu (2009), are further explored. Consequently, new infinite classes of EDFs are obtained and some previously known results are extended.     

Linking systems in nonelementary abelian groups

Linked systems of symmetric designs are equivalent to 3-class Q-antipodal association schemes. Only one infinite family of examples is known, and this family has interesting origins and is connected to important applications. In this paper, we define linking systems, collections of difference sets that correspond to systems of linked designs, and we construct linking systems in a variety of nonelementary abelian groups using Galois rings, partial difference sets, and a product construction. We include some partial results in the final section.     

Rings and constructions of partial difference sets

We present three constructions of partial difference sets (PDS) using different types of finite local rings. The first construction uses homomorphic images of finite Frobenius local rings and generalizes a previous result by the author. The second construction uses finite Frobenius local rings. The third construction uses finite (noncommutative) chain rings and generalizes a recent construction of partial difference sets by Leung and Ma. The three constructions provide many new PDS in nonelementary abelian groups.     

Paley type partial difference sets in abelian groups

Partial difference sets with parameters $\left(v,k,\lambda ,\mu \right)=\left(v,\left(v?1\right)/2,\left(v?5\right)/4,\left(v?1\right)/4\right)$ are called Paley type partial difference sets. In this note, we prove that if there exists a Paley type partial difference set in an abelian group of order v, where v is not a prime power, then $v=n^4$ or $9n^4$, $n>1$ an odd integer. In 2010, Polhill constructed Paley type partial difference sets in abelian groups with those orders. Thus, combining with the constructions of Polhill and the classical Paley construction using nonzero squares of a finite field, we completely answer the following question: “For which odd positive integers $v>1$, can we find a Paley type partial difference set in an abelian group of order $v$?”     

Constructions of Nested Partial Difference Sets with Galois Rings

There have been several recent constructions of partial difference sets (PDSs) using the Galois rings for p a prime and t any positive integer. This paper presents constructions of partial difference sets in where p is any prime, and r and t are any positive integers. For the case where 2$$ " align="middle" border="0"> many of the partial difference sets are constructed in groups with parameters distinct from other known constructions, and the PDSs are nested. Another construction of Paley partial difference sets is given for the case when p is odd. The constructions make use of character theory and of the structure of the Galois ring , and in particular, the ring × . The paper concludes with some open related problems.