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