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.     

A family of relative difference sets associated with Hjelmslev structures over finite projective spaces

In this note, we construct a new family of relative difference sets, with parameters n=q^d, m=q^d+...+q+1, k=q^d-1(q^d-1), ₁ =q^d-1(q^d-q^d-1-1) and ₂ =q^d-2(q-1)(q^d-1-1) where q is a prime power and d 2 an integer. The associated symmetric divisible designs admit natural epimorphisms onto the symmetric designs formed by points and hyperplanes in the corresponding projective spaces PG(d,q). As in the theory of Hjelmslev planes, points with the same image can be recognized from having the larger of the two possible joining numbers, and dually. More formally, these symmetric divisible designs are balanced c-H-structures (in the sense of Drake and Jungnickel [2]) with parameters c=q^d-2 (q-1)² and t=q^d-1 (q-1) over PG_d-1(d,q). These are the first examples of balanced non-uniform c-H-structures of type 2; they can be used in known constructions to obtain new balanced c-H-structures (for suitable c) of arbitrary type. In fact, all these results are special cases of a more general construction involving arbitrary difference sets.The author gratefully acknowledges the hospitality of the University of Waterloo and the financial support of NSERC under grant IS-0367.     

A necessary and sufficient condition for a lower bound for fourth-order pseudodifferential operators

We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the lower bound {fx55-01} to hold for any compact setK ⊂X, an open set ofR ⁿ , andP =P* ∃ ψ _phg ⁴ (X) with p(x, ξ) ~ q ₂ ² + p₃ + p₂ + ..., q₂ beingtransversally elliptic with respect to the characteristic manifold Σ =q ₂ ^-1 (0).     

A New Family of 2-Designs over GF (q) Admitting SLm(q1)

Given a 2-(l,3,q³(q^l-5-1/q-1);q) design for an integer l 5 mod 6(q-1) which admits the action of a Singer cycle Z_l of GL_l(q), we construct a 2-(ml,3,q³(q^l-5-1/q-1);q) design for an arbitrary integer m 3 which admits the action of SL_m(q^l). The construction applied to Suzuki's designs actually provides a new family of 2-designs over GF(q) which admit the SL_m(q^l) action.     

Some new symmetric designs

For q, an odd prime power, we construct symmetric (2q²+2q+1,q²,½q(q-1)) designs having an automorphism group of order q that fixes 2q+1 points. The construction indicates that for each q the number of such designs that are pairwise non-isomorphic is very large.     

Building Symmetric Designs With Building Sets

We introduce a uniform technique for constructing a family of symmetric designs with parameters (v(q ^m+1-1)/(q-1), kq ^m ,q ^m), where m is any positive integer, (v, k, ) are parameters of an abelian difference set, and q = k ²/(k - ) is a prime power. We utilize the Davis and Jedwab approach to constructing difference sets to show that our construction works whenever (v, k, ) are parameters of a McFarland difference set or its complement, a Spence difference set or its complement, a Davis–Jedwab difference set or its complement, or a Hadamard difference set of order 9 · 4 ^d , thus obtaining seven infinite families of symmetric designs.     

New Hadamard matrices and conference matrices obtained via Mathon's construction

We give a formulation, via (1, –1) matrices, of Mathon's construction for conference matrices and derive a new family of conference matrices of order 59^2t+1 + 1,t 0. This family produces a new conference matrix of order 3646 and a new Hadamard matrix of order 7292. In addition we construct new families of Hadamard matrices of orders 69^2t+1 + 2, 109^2t+1 + 2, 8499 ^t ,t 0;q ²(q + 3) + 2 whereq 3 (mod 4) is a prime power and 1/2(q + 5) is the order of a skew-Hadamard matrix); (q + 1)q ²9 ^t ,t 0 (whereq 7 (mod 8) is a prime power and 1/2(q + 1) is the order of an Hadamard matrix). We also give new constructions for Hadamard matrices of order 49 ^t 0 and (q + 1)q ² (whereq 3 (mod 4) is a prime power).This work was supported by grants from ARGS and ACRB.Dedicated to the memory of our esteemed friend Ernst Straus.     

On completely free elements in finite fields

Letq>1 be a prime power,m>1 an integer,GF(q ^m) andGF (q) the Galois fields of orderq ^m andq, respectively. We show that the different module structures of (GF(q ^m), +) arising from the intermediate fields of the field extensionGF(q ^m) overGF (q), can be studied simultaneously with the help of some basic properties of cyclotomic polynomials. The results can be generalized to finite cyclic Galois extensions over arbitrary fields.In 1986, D. Blessenohl and K. Johnsen proved that there exist elements inGF(q ^m) which generate normal bases inGF(q ^m) overany intermediate fieldGF(q ^d) ofGF(q ^m) overGF(q). Such elements are called completely free inGF(q ^m) overGF(q). Using our ideas, we give a detailed and constructive proof of the most difficult part of that theorem, i.e., the existence of completely free elements inGF(q ^m), overGF(q) provided thatm is a prime power. The general existence problem of completely free elements is easily reduced to this special case.Furthermore, we develop a recursive formula for the number of completely free elements inGF(q ^m) overGF(q) in the case wherem is a prime power.     

Ovoids and spreads of finite classical polar spaces

LetP be a finite classical polar space of rankr, r2. An ovoidO ofP is a pointset ofP, which has exactly one point in common with every totally isotropic subspace of rankr. It is proved that the polar spaceW _n (q) arising from a symplectic polarity ofPG(n, q), n odd andn > 3, that the polar spaceQ(2n, q) arising from a non-singular quadric inPG(2n, q), n > 2 andq even, that the polar space Q^–(2n + 1,q) arising from a non-singular elliptic quadric inPG(2n + 1,q), n > 1, and that the polar spaceH(n,q ²) arising from a non-singular Hermitian variety inPG(n, q ²)n even andn > 2, have no ovoids.LetS be a generalized hexagon of ordern (1). IfV is a pointset of order n³ + 1 ofS, such that every two points are at distance 6, thenV is called an ovoid ofS. IfH(q) is the classical generalized hexagon arising fromG ₂ (q), then it is proved thatH(q) has an ovoid iffQ(6, q) has an ovoid. There follows thatQ(6, q), q=3^2h+1, has an ovoid, and thatH(q), q even, has no ovoid.A regular system of orderm onH(3,q ²) is a subsetK of the lineset ofH(3,q ²), such that through every point ofH(3,q ²) there arem (> 0) lines ofK. B. Segre shows that, ifK exists, thenm=q + 1 or (q + l)/2.If m=(q + l)/2,K is called a hemisystem. The last part of the paper gives a very short proof of Segre's result. Finally it is shown how to construct the 4-(11, 5, 1) design out of the hemisystem with 56 lines (q=3).     

The number of connected sparsely edged graphs. III. Asymptotic results

The number of connected graphs on n labeled points and q lines (no loops, no multiple lines) is f(n,q). In the first paper of this series I showed how to find an (increasingly complicated) exact formula for f(n,n+k) for general n and successive k. The method would give an asymptotic approximation to f(n,n+k) for any fixed k as n → ∞. Here I find this approximation when k = o(n^1/3), a much more difficult matter. The problem of finding an approximation to f(n,q) when q > n + Cn^1/3 and (2 q/n) - log n → - ∞ is open.     

Unitals and inversive planes

We show that if U is a Buekenhout-Metz unital (with respect to a point P) in any translation plane of order q ² with kernel containing GF(q), then U has an associated 2-(q²,q+1,q) design which is the point-residual of an inversive plane, generalizing results of Wilbrink, Baker and Ebert. Further, our proof gives a natural, geometric isomorphism between the resulting inversive plane and the (egglike) inversive plane arising from the ovoid involved in the construction of the Buekenhout-Metz unital. We apply our results to investigate some parallel classes and partitions of the set of blocks of any Buekenhout-Metz unital.     

On the directions problem in <Emphasis Type="Italic">AG</Emphasis>(<Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>, <Emphasis Type="Italic">q</Emphasis>)

We prove that if q = p ^h , p a prime, do not exist sets U í AG(n,q){U {\subseteq} AG(n,q)}, with |U| = q ^k and 1 < k < n, determining N directions where

On the number of lines in planar spaces

SupposeS is a planar space withv>4 points and letq be the positive real number such thatv=q ³+q²+q+1. Assuming a weak non-degeneracy condition, we shall show thatS has at least (q²+1)(q²+q+1) lines with equality iffq is a prime power andS=PG(3,q).     

Unitals which meet Baer subplanes in 1 moduloq points

We prove that a parabolic unitalU in a translation plane of orderq ² with kernel containing GF(q) is a Buekenhout-Metz unital if and only if certain Baer subplanes containing the translation line of meetU in 1 moduloq points. As a corollary we show that a unital 16-03 in PG(2,q ²) is classical if and only if it meets each Baer subplane of PG(2,q ²) in 1 moduloq points.     

Slices of the unitary spread

We prove that slices of the unitary spread of Q⁺(7,q)\mathcal{Q}^{+}(7,q), q≡2 (mod 3), can be partitioned into five disjoint classes. Slices belonging to different classes are non-equivalent under the action of the subgroup of PΓO ⁺(8,q) fixing the unitary spread. When q is even, there is a connection between spreads of Q⁺(7,q)\mathcal{Q}^{+}(7,q) and symplectic 2-spreads of PG(5,q) (see Dillon, Ph.D. thesis, 1974 and Dye, Ann. Mat. Pura Appl. (4) 114, 173–194, 1977). As a consequence of the above result we determine all the possible non-equivalent symplectic 2-spreads arising from the unitary spread of Q⁺(7,q)\mathcal{Q}^{+}(7,q), q=2^2h+1. Some of these already appeared in Kantor, SIAM J. Algebr. Discrete Methods 3(2), 151–165, 1982. When q=3 ^h , we classify, up to the action of the stabilizer in PΓO(7,q) of the unitary spread of Q(6,q), those among its slices producing spreads of the elliptic quadric Q^-(5,q)\mathcal{Q}^{-}(5,q).     

The autotopism group of ap-primitive semifield plane of orderq 4

Let κ be a semifield plane of order q⁴ with kernel K≅GF(q²), where q=p^r, p is prime. Previously, Johnson determined the form of p-primitive semifield planes of order q⁴, q=p^r, and Cordero specified the form of autotopisms and proved the solvability of an autotopism group for the particular case q=p. The goal of the present article is to give an explication of the form of autotopisms and prove the solvability of an autotopism group in the general case. Translated fromAlgebra i Logika, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 334–344, May–June, 1996.     

Approximate Solution to Inverse Scattering Problem for Potentials With Small Support

Let q(x) be a real-valued function with compact support D⊂ℝ³. Given the scattering amplitude A(α′, α, k) for all α′, α∈S² and a fixed frequency k>0, the moments of q(x) up to the second order are found using a computationally simple and relatively stable two-step procedure. First, one finds the zeroth moment (total intensity) and the first moment (centre of inertia) of the potential q. Second, one refines the above moments and finds the tensor of the second central moments of q. Asymptotic error estimates are given for these moments as d = diam(D)→0. Physically, this means that (k²+sup∣q(x))d²<1 and sup∣q(x)∣d<k. The found moments give an approximate position and the shape of the support of q. In particular, an ellipsoid D̃ and a real constant q̃ are found, such that the potential q̃ (x) = q̃, x∈D̃, and q̃ (x) = 0, x∉ D̃, produces the scattering data which fit best the observed scattering data and has the same zeroth, first, and second moments as the desired potential. A similar algorithm for finding the shape of D given only the modulus of the scattering amplitude A(α′,α) is also developed.     

On the chromaticity of certain subgraphs of a q-tree

We show that a graph G on n ? q + 1 vertices (where q ? 2) has the chromatic polynomial P(G;λ) = λ(λ ? 1) … (λ ? q + 2) (λ ? q + 1)² (λ ? q)^n?q?1 if and only if G can be obtained from a q-tree Ton n vertices by deleting an edge contained in exactly q ? 1 triangles of T. Furthermore, we prove that these graphs are triangulated.     

On the asymptotic existence of complex Hadamard matrices

Let N = N(q) be the number of nonzero digits in the binary expansion of the odd integer q. A construction method is presented which produces, among other results, a block circulant complex Hadamard matrix of order 2^αq, where α ≥ 2N - 1. This improves a recent result of Craigen regarding the asymptotic existence of Hadamard matrices. We also present a method that gives complex orthogonal designs of order 2^α+1q from complex orthogonal designs of order 2^α. We also demonstrate the existence of a block circulant complex Hadamard matrix of order 2^βq, where © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 5:319–327, 1997     

Hadamard matrices constructed from supplementary difference sets in the class ℋ︁1

In this article we give the definition of the class ??₁ and prove: (1) ??₁(v) ≠ ? for v ∈ ?? = ??₁ ∪ ??₂ ∪ ??₃ where (2) there exists 2 ? {2q²; q² ± q, q²;q² ± q} supplementary difference sets for q² ∈ ??; (3) there exists an Hadamard matrix of order 4v for v ∈ ??; (4) if t is an order of T-matrices, there exists an Hadamard matrix of order 4tv for v ∈ ??. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.