The Subconstituent Algebra of an Association Scheme, (Part I)

We introduce a method for studying commutative association schemes with many vanishing intersection numbers and/or Krein parameters, and apply the method to the P- and Q-polynomial schemes. Let Y denote any commutative association scheme, and fix any vertex x of Y. We introduce a non-commutative, associative, semi-simple -algebra T = T(x) whose structure reflects the combinatorial structure of Y. We call T the subconstituent algebra of Y with respect to x. Roughly speaking, T is a combinatorial analog of the centralizer algebra of the stabilizer of x in the automorphism group of Y.In general, the structure of T is not determined by the intersection numbers of Y, but these parameters do give some information. Indeed, we find a relation among the generators of T for each vanishing intersection number or Krein parameter.We identify a class of irreducible T-moduIes whose structure is especially simple, and say the members of this class are thin. Expanding on this, we say Y is thin if every irreducible T(y)-module is thin for every vertex y of Y. We compute the possible thin, irreducible T-modules when Y is P- and Q-polynomial. The ones with sufficiently large dimension are indexed by four bounded integer parameters. If Y is assumed to be thin, then sufficiently large dimension means dimension at least four.We give a combinatorial characterization of the thin P- and Q-polynomial schemes, and supply a number of examples of these objects. For each example, we show which irreducible T-modules actually occur.We close with some conjectures and open problems.