Cyclotomic constructions of external difference families and disjoint difference families

External difference families (EDFs) are a type of new combinatorial designs originated from cryptography. Some results had been obtained by Chang and Ding, the connection between EDFs and disjoint difference families (DDFs) was also established. In this paper, further cyclotomic constructions of EDFs and DDFs are presented, and several classes of EDFs and DDFs are obtained. Answers to problems 1 and 4 by Chang and Ding are also given. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 17: 333–341, 2009     

Exhaustive determination of (1023, 511, 255)-cyclic difference sets

An exhaustive search for (1023, 511, 255)-cyclic difference sets has been conducted. A total of 10 non-equivalent (1023, 511, 255)-cyclic difference sets have been found, all of which are members of previously known or conjectured infinite families. A fast and effective autocorrelation test method was utilized that can also facilitate the testing of longer sequences.

     

A Class of 2‐(3n7, 3n−17, (3n−17−1)/2) Designs

Generalized Hadamard matrices are used for the construction of a class of quasi‐residual nonresolvable BIBD's with parameters . The designs are not embeddable as residual designs into symmetric designs if n is even. The construction yields many nonisomorphic designs for every given n ≥ 2, including more than 10¹⁷ nonisomorphic 2‐(63,21,10) designs. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 460–464, 2007     

Strong difference families,difference covers,and their applications for relative difference families

In (M. Buratti, J Combin Des 7:406–425, 1999), Buratti pointed out the lack of systematic treatments of constructions for relative difference families. The concept of strong difference families was introduced to cover such a problem. However, unfortunately, only a few papers consciously using the useful concept have appeared in the literature in the past 10 years. In this paper, strong difference families, difference covers and their connections with relative difference families and optical orthogonal codes are discussed.      

Skew‐Hadamard matrices of orders 436, 580, and 988 exist

We construct two difference families on each of the cyclic groups of order 109, 145, and 247, and use them to construct skew‐Hadamard matrices of orders 436, 580, and 988. Such difference families and matrices are constructed here for the first time. The matrices are constructed by using the Goethals‐Seidel array. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 16: 493–498, 2008     

Some New Orders of Hadamard and Skew‐Hadamard Matrices

We construct Hadamard matrices of orders and , and skew‐Hadamard matrices of orders and . As far as we know, such matrices have not been constructed previously. The constructions use the Goethals–Seidel array, suitable supplementary difference sets on a cyclic group and a new efficient matching algorithm based on hashing techniques.     

The Existence of （v, 4, 1） Disjoint Difference Families with v a Prime Power

A （v, k, λ） difference family （（v, k, λ）-DF in short） over an abelian group G of order v, is a collection F=（Bi｜i ∈ I} of k-subsets of G, called base blocks, such that any nonzero element of G can be represented in precisely A ways as a difference of two elements lying in some base blocks in F. A （v, k, λ）-DDF is a difference family with disjoint blocks. In this paper, by using Weil＇s theorem on character sum estimates, it is proved that there exists a （p^n, 4, 1）-DDF, where p = 1 （rood 12） is a prime number and n ≥1.     

Solving the equation −uxx − ϵuyy = f(x,y, u) by an O(h4) finite difference method

The semi‐linear equation −u_xx − ϵu_yy = f(x, y, u) with Dirichlet boundary conditions is solved by an O(h⁴) finite difference method, which has local truncation error O(h²) at the mesh points neighboring the boundary and O(h⁴) at most interior mesh points. It is proved that the finite difference method is O(h⁴) uniformly convergent as h → 0. The method is considered in the form of a system of algebraic equations with a nine diagonal sparse matrix. The system of algebraic equations is solved by an implicit iterative method combined with Gauss elimination. A Mathematica module is designed for the purpose of testing and using the method. To illustrate the method, the equation of twisting a springy rod is solved. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 16: 395–407, 2000     

Nonsymmetric 2‐(v,k,λ) designs,with (r,λ) = 1, admitting a solvable flag‐transitive automorphism group of affine type

Nonsymmetric $2‐\left(v,k,\lambda \right)$ designs, with $\left(r,\lambda \right)=1$, admitting a solvable flag‐transitive automorphism group of affine type not contained in $A\mathrm{\Gamma }{L}_1\left(v\right)$ are classified.     

Infinite families of 2- and 3-designs with parameters v = p + 1, k = (p − 1)/2i + 1, where p odd prime, 2e T (p − 1), e ≥ 2, 1 ≤ i ≤ e

Let p be an odd prime number such that p − 1 = 2^em for some odd m and e ≥ 2. In this article, by using the special linear fractional group PSL(2, p), for each i, 1 ≤ i ≤ e, except particular cases, we construct a 2-design with parameters v = p + 1, k = (p − 1)/2ⁱ + 1 and λ = ((p − 1)/2ⁱ+1)(p − 1)/2 = k(p − 1)/2, and in the case i = e we show that some of these 2-designs are 3-designs. Likewise, by using the linear fractional group PGL(2,p) we construct an infinite family of 3-designs with the same v k and λ = k(k − 2). These supplement a part of [4], in which we gave an infinite family of 3-designs with parameters v = q + 1, k = (q + 1)/2 = (q − 1)/2 + 1 and λ = (q + 1)(q − 3)/8 = k(k − 2)/2, where q is a prime power such that q − 1 = 2m for some odd m and q > 7. Some of the designs given in this article and in [4] fill in a few blanks in the table of Chee, Colbourn, and Kreher [2]. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Exponential number of inequivalent difference sets in ℤ

Kantor [ 5 ] proved an exponential lower bound on the number of pairwise inequivalent difference sets in the elementary abelian group of order 2^2s+2. Dillon [ 3 ] generalized a technique of McFarland [ 6 ] to provide a framework for determining the number of inequivalent difference sets in 2‐groups with a large elementary abelian direct factor. In this paper, we consider the opposite end of the spectrum, the rank 2 group ? , and compute an exponential lower bound on the number of pairwise inequivalent difference sets in this group. In the process, we demonstrate that Dillon difference sets in groups ? can be constructed via the recursive construction from [ 2 ] and we show that there are exponentially many pairwise inequivalent difference sets that are inequivalent to any Dillon difference set. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 11: 249–259, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10046     

The spectrum of BSA(v, 3, λ; α) with α = 2,3

In this article, a kind of auxiliary design BSA^* for constructing BSAs is introduced and studied. Two powerful recursive constructions on BSAs from 3‐IGDDs and BSA^*s are exploited. Finally, the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a BSA(v, 3, λ; α) with α = 2, 3 are established. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 61–76, 2007     

A Regularization Procedure for Σn−i=1fi(zj)xi = g(zj), ( j = 1, 2, …, n)

A regularization procedure for linear systems of the type fi(z_j)x_i = g(zj), (j = 1, 2, …, n) is presented, which is particularly useful in the case when z₁, z₂, …, z_n are close to each other. The associated numerical algorithm was tested on several examples for which analytic solutions do exist and was found to yield highly accurate results.     

The spectrum of α‐resolvable designs with block size four

Abstact: An α‐resolvable BIBD is a BIBD with the property that the blocks can be partitioned into disjoint classes such that every class contains each point of the design exactly α times. In this paper, we show that the necessary conditions for the existence of α‐resolvable designs with block size four are sufficient, with the exception of (α, ν, λ) = (2, 10, 2). © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 9: 1–16, 2001     

An affine design with v = m2h and k = m2h−1 not equivalent to a complete set of F(mh; mh−1) MOFS

Existing sufficient conditions for the construction of a complete set of mutually orthogonal frequency squares from an affine resolvable design are improved to give necessary and sufficient conditions. In doing so a design is exhibited that proves that the class of complete sets of MOFS under consideration is a proper subset of the class of affine resolvable designs with matching parameters. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 7: 331–340, 1999     

Generalized Steiner systems GS4 (2, 4, v,g) for g = 2, 3, 6

Generalized Steiner systems GS_d(t, k, v, g) were first introduced by Etzion and used to construct optimal constant‐weight codes over an alphabet of size g + 1 with minimum Hamming distance d, in which each codeword has length v and weight k. Much work has been done for the existence of generalized Steiner triple systems GS(2, 3, v, g). However, for block size four there is not much known on GS_d(2, 4, v, g). In this paper, the necessary conditions for the existence of a GS_d(t, k, v, g) are given, which answers an open problem of Etzion. Some singular indirect product constructions for GS_d(2, k, v, g) are also presented. By using both recursive and direct constructions, it is proved that the necessary conditions for the existence of a GS₄(2, 4, v, g) are also sufficient for g = 2, 3, 6. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 9: 401–423, 2001     

More results on perfect (3,3,6k + 4; 6k − 2)‐threshold schemes

A (2,3)‐packing on X is a pair (X, ), where is a set of 3‐subsets (called blocks) of X, such that any pair of distinct points from X occurs together in at most one block. Its leave is a graph (X,E) such that E consists of all the pairs which do not appear in any block of . In this article, we shall construct a set of 6k ? 2 disjoint (2,3)‐packings of order 6k + 4 with K_1,3 ∪ 3kK₂ or G₁ ∪ (3k ? 1)K₂ as their common leave for any integer k ≥ 1 with a few possible exceptions (G₁ is a special graph of order 6). Such a system can be used to construct perfect threshold schemes as noted by Schellenberg and Stinson ( 22 ). © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs     

Investigation of solvable (120, 35, 10) difference sets

Abelian difference sets with parameters (120, 35, 10) were ruled out by Turyn in 1965. Turyn's techniques do not apply to nonabelian groups. We attempt to determine the existence of (120, 35, 10) difference sets in the 44 nonabelian groups of order 120. We prove that if a solvable group admits a (120, 35, 10) difference set, then it admits a quotient group isomorphic to the cyclic group of order 24 or to U₂₄ ? 〈x,y : x⁸ = y³ = 1, xyx^?1 = y^?1〉. We describe a computer search, which rules out solutions with a ?₂₄ quotient. The existence question remains undecided in the three solvable groups admitting a U₂₄ quotient. The question also remains undecided for the three nonsolvable groups of order 120. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The spectrum of cyclic BSA(ν, 3, λ; α) with α = 2, 3

Balanced sampling plans excluding contiguous units (or BSEC) were first introduced by Hedayat, Rao, and Stufken in 1988. In this paper, we generalize the concept of a cyclic BSEC to a cyclic balanced sampling plan to avoid the selection of adjacent units (or CBSA for short) and use Langford and extended Langford sequences to construct a cyclic BSA(ν, 3, λ; α) with α = 2, 3. We finally establish the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a cyclic BSA(ν, 3, λ; α) where α = 2, 3. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs.