Symmetric <Emphasis Type="Bold">(4,4)</Emphasis>-Nets and Generalized Hadamard Matrices Over Groups of Order 4

The symmetric class-regular (4,4)-nets having a group of bitranslations G of order four are enumerated up to isomorphism. There are 226 nets with , and 13 nets with . Using a (4,4)-net with full automorphism group of smallest order, the lower bound on the number of pairwise non-isomorphic affine 2-(64,16,5) designs is improved to 21,621,600. The classification of class-regular (4,4)-nets implies the classification of all generalized Hadamard matrices (or difference matrices) of order 16 over a group of order four up to monomial equivalence. The binary linear codes spanned by the incidence matrices of the nets, as well as the quaternary and -codes spanned by the generalized Hadamard matrices are computed and classified. The binary codes include the affine geometry [64,16,16] code spanned by the planes in AG(3,4) and two other inequivalent codes with the same weight distribution.These codes support non-isomorphic affine 2-(64,16,5) designs that have the same 2-rank as the classical affine design in AG(3,4), hence provide counter-examples to Hamadas conjecture. Many of the -codes spanned by generalized Hadamard matrices are self-orthogonal with respect to the Hermitian inner product and yield quantum error-correcting codes, including some codes with optimal parameters.Vladimir D. Tonchev-Research of this author sponsored by the National Security Agency under Grant MDA904-03-1-0088.classification 5B, 51E, 94B     

On affine designs and Hadamard designs with line spreads

Rahilly [On the line structure of designs, Discrete Math. 92 (1991) 291-303] described a construction that relates any Hadamard design H on 4^m-1 points with a line spread to an affine design having the same parameters as the classical design of points and hyperplanes in AG(m,4). Here it is proved that the affine design is the classical design of points and hyperplanes in AG(m,4) if, and only if, H is the classical design of points and hyperplanes in PG(2m-1,2) and the line spread is of a special type. Computational results about line spreads in PG(5,2) are given. One of the affine designs obtained has the same 2-rank as the design of points and planes in AG(3,4), and provides a counter-example to a conjecture of Hamada [On the p-rank of the incidence matrix of a balanced or partially balanced incomplete block design and its applications to error-correcting codes, Hiroshima Math. J. 3 (1973) 153-226].     

Affine geometry designs, polarities, and Hamada's conjecture

In a recent paper, two of the authors used polarities in PG(2d−1,p) (p?2 prime, d?2) to construct non-geometric designs having the same parameters and the same p-rank as the geometric design PGd(2d,p) having as blocks the d-subspaces in the projective space PG(2d,p), hence providing the first known infinite family of examples where projective geometry designs are not characterized by their p-rank, as it is the case in all known proven cases of Hamada's conjecture. In this paper, the construction based on polarities is extended to produce designs having the same parameters, intersection numbers, and 2-rank as the geometric design AGd+1(2d+1,2) of the (d+1)-subspaces in the binary affine geometry AG(2d+1,2). These designs generalize one of the four non-geometric self-orthogonal 3-(32,8,7) designs of 2-rank 16 (V.D. Tonchev, 1986 [12]), and provide the only known infinite family of examples where affine geometry designs are not characterized by their rank.     

Structure and automorphism groups of Hadamard designs

Let n be the order of a Hadamard design, and G any finite group. Then there exists many non-isomorphic Hadamard designs of order 2^{12|G| + 13} n with automorphism group isomorphic to G.This research was supported in part by the National Science Foundation.     

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.      

Hadamard Matrices and Dihedral Groups

Let D _2p be a dihedral group of order 2p, where p is an odd integer. Let ZD _2p be the group ring of D _2p over the ring Z of integers. We identify elements of ZD _2p and their matrices of the regular representation of ZD _2p . Recently we characterized the Hadamard matrices of order 28 ([6] and [7]). There are exactly 487 Hadamard matrices of order 28, up to equivalence. In these matrices there exist matrices with some interesting properties. That is, these are constructed by elements of ZD ₆. We discuss relation of ZD _2p and Hadamard matrices of order n=8p+4, and give some examples of Hadamard matrices constructed by dihedral groups.     

Quasi-symmetric 2-(31, 7, 7) designs and a revision of Hamada's conjecture

It is proved by use of the classification of the doubly even (32, 16) codes, that in addition to the design formed by the planes in PG(4, 2), there are exactly four other nonisomorphic quasi-symmetric 2-(31, 7, 7) designs, and they all have 2-rank 16. This shows that the “only if” part of the following conjecture due to Hamada, is not true in general: “If N(D) is an incidence matrix of a design D with the parameters of a design G defined by the flats of a given dimension in PG(t, q) or AG(t, q), then rank_q N(D) ⩾ rank_q N(G), with equality if and only if D is isomorphic with G.” The five quasi-symmetric 2-(31, 7, 7) designs are extendable to nonisomorphic 3-(32, 8, 7) designs having 2-rank 16, one of which is formed by the 3-flats in AG(5, 2), thus the designs arising from a finite affine geometry also are not characterized by their ranks in general. A quasi-symmetric 2-(45, 9, 8) design yielding a pseudo-geometric strongly regular graph with parameters (r, k, t) = (15, 10, 6) is also constructed on the base of the known extremal doubly even (48, 24) code.     

Skew Hadamard designs and their codes

Skew Hadamard designs (4n – 1, 2n – 1, n – 1) are associated to order 4n skew Hadamard matrices in the natural way. We study the codes spanned by their incidence matrices A and by I + A and show that they are self-dual after extension (resp. extension and augmentation) over fields of characteristic dividing n. Quadratic Residues codes are obtained in the case of the Paley matrix. Results on the p-rank of skew Hadamard designs are rederived in that way. Codes from skew Hadamard designs are classified. An optimal self-dual code over GF(5) is rediscovered in length 20. Six new inequivalent [56, 28, 16] self-dual codes over GF(7) are obtained from skew Hadamard matrices of order 56, improving the only known quadratic double circulant code of length 56 over GF(7).     

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 left Hadamard transversals in non-solvable groups

Let G be a group of order 4n and t an involution of G. A 2n-subset R of G is called a left Hadamard transversal of G with respect to 〈t〉 if G=R〈t〉 and for some subsets S₁ and S₂ of G. Let H be a subgroup of G such that G=[G,G]H, t∈H, and t^G⊄H, where t^G is the conjugacy class of t and [G,G] is the commutator subgroup of G. In this article, we show that if R satisfies a condition , then R is a (2n,2,2n,n) relative difference set and one can construct a v×v integral matrix B such that BB^T=B^TB=(n/2)I, where v is a positive integer determined by H and t^G (see Theorem 2.6). Using this we show that there is no left Hadamard transversal R satisfying (*) in some simple groups.     

Exponentially Many Hadamard Designs

If there is a Hadamard design of order n, then there are at least 2^{8n−16−9log n} non-isomorphic Hadamard designs of order 2n. Mathematics Subject Classificaion 2000: 05B05     

On generalized Hadamard matrices of minimum rank

Generalized Hadamard matrices of order qⁿ⁻¹ (q—a prime power, n2) over GF(q) are related to symmetric nets in affine 2-(qⁿ,qⁿ⁻¹,(qⁿ⁻¹−1)/(q−1)) designs invariant under an elementary abelian group of order q acting semi-regularly on points and blocks. The rank of any such matrix over GF(q) is greater than or equal to n−1. It is proved that a matrix of minimum q-rank is unique up to a monomial equivalence, and the related symmetric net is a classical net in the n-dimensional affine geometry AG(n,q).     

On symmetric nets and generalized Hadamard matrices from affine designs

Symmetric nets are affine resolvable designs whose duals are also affine. It is shown that. up to isomorphism, there are exactly four symmetric (3, 3)-nets (v=b=27,k=9), and exactly two inequivalent 9×9 generalized Hadamard matrices over the group of order 3. The symmetric (3, 3)-nets are found as subnets of affine resolvable 2-(27, 9, 4) designs. Ten of the 68 non-isomorphic affine resolvable 2-(27, 9, 4) designs are not extensions of symmetric (3, 3)-subnets, providing the first examples of affine 2-(q³, q², q²–1/q–1) designs without symmetric (q, q)-subnets.     

Hadamard matrices of order 28 with automorphisms of order 7

The only primes which can divide the order of the automorphism group of a Hadamard matrix of order 28 are 13, 7, 3, and 2, and there are precisely four inequivalent matrices with automorphisms of order 13 (Tonchev, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A35 (1983), 43–57). In this paper we show that there are exactly twelve inequivalent Hadamard matrices of order 28 with automorphisms of order 7. In particular, there are precisely seven matrices with transitive automorphism groups.     

On Hadamard matrices of order 2(p+1) with an automorphism of odd prime order p

In this paper, we investigate Hadamard matrices of order 2(p + 1) with an automorphism of odd prime order p. In particular, the classification of such Hadamard matrices for the cases p = 19 and 23 is given. Self‐dual codes related to such Hadamard matrices are also investigated. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 11: 367–380, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10052     

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.     

Modules over group rings of solvable groups with rank restrictions on subgroups

Let A be an R G-module over a commutative ring R, where G is a group of infinite section p-rank (0-rank), C _G (A) = 1, A is not a Noetherian R-module, and the quotient A/C _A (H) is a Noetherian R-module for every proper subgroup H of infinite section p-rank (0-rank). We describe the structure of solvable groups G of this type.     

Extension sets,affine designs,and Hamada’s conjecture

We introduce the notion of an extension set for an affine plane of order q to study affine designs \({\mathcal {D}}'\) with the same parameters as, but not isomorphic to, the classical affine design \({\mathcal {D}} = \mathrm {AG}_2(3,q)\) formed by the points and planes of the affine space \(\mathrm {AG}(3,q)\) which are very close to this geometric example in the following sense: there are blocks \(B'\) and B of \({\mathcal {D}'}\) and \({\mathcal {D}}\), respectively, such that the residual structures \({\mathcal {D}}'_{B'}\) and \({\mathcal {D}}_B\) induced on the points not in \(B'\) and B, respectively, agree. Moreover, the structure \({\mathcal {D}}'(B')\) induced on \(B'\) is the q-fold multiple of an affine plane \({\mathcal {A}}'\) which is determined by an extension set for the affine plane \(B \cong AG(2,q)\). In particular, this new approach will result in a purely theoretical construction of the two known counterexamples to Hamada’s conjecture for the case \(\mathrm {AG}_2(3,4)\), which were discovered by Harada et al. [7] as the result of a computer search; a recent alternative construction, again via a computer search, is in [23]. On the other hand, we also prove that extension sets cannot possibly give any further counterexamples to Hamada’s conjecture for the case of affine designs with the parameters of some \(\mathrm {AG}_2(3,q)\); thus the two counterexamples for \(q=4\) might be truly sporadic. This seems to be the first result which establishes the validity of Hamada’s conjecture for some infinite class of affine designs of a special type. Nevertheless, affine designs which are that close to the classical geometric examples are of interest in themselves, and we provide both theoretical and computational results for some particular types of extension sets. Specifically, we obtain a theoretical construction for one of the two affine designs with the parameters of \(\mathrm {AG}_2(3,3)\) and 3-rank 11 and for an affine design with the parameters of \(\mathrm {AG}_2(3,4)\) and 2-rank 17 (in both cases, just one more than the rank of the classical example).     

Automorphisms of higher‐dimensional Hadamard matrices

This article derives from first principles a definition of equivalence for higher‐dimensional Hadamard matrices and thereby a definition of the automorphism group for higher‐dimensional Hadamard matrices. Our procedure is quite general and could be applied to other kinds of designs for which there are no established definitions for equivalence or automorphism. Given a two‐dimensional Hadamard matrix H of order ν, there is a Product Construction which gives an order ν proper n‐dimensional Hadamard matrix P⁽ⁿ⁾(H). We apply our ideas to the matrices P⁽ⁿ⁾(H). We prove that there is a constant c > 1 such that any Hadamard matrix H of order ν > 2 gives rise via the Product Construction to cν inequivalent proper three‐dimensional Hadamard matrices of order ν. This corrects an erroneous assertion made in the literature that ”P⁽ⁿ⁾(H) is equivalent to “P⁽ⁿ⁾(H′) whenever H is equivalent to H′.” We also show how the automorphism group of P⁽ⁿ⁾(H) depends on the structure of the automorphism group of H. As an application of the above ideas, we determine the automorphism group of P⁽ⁿ⁾(Hk) when Hk is a Sylvester Hadamard matrix of order 2^k. For ν = 4, we exhibit three distinct families of inequivalent Product Construction matrices P⁽ⁿ⁾(H) where H is equivalent to H₂. These matrices each have large but non‐isomorphic automorphism groups. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 507–544, 2008