Strong external difference families (SEDFs) have applications to cryptography and are rich combinatorial structures in their own right; until now, all SEDFs have been in abelian groups. In this paper, we consider SEDFs in both abelian and non-abelian groups. We characterize the order of groups possessing admissible parameters for non-trivial SEDFs, develop non-existence and existence results, several of which extend known results, and present the first family of non-abelian SEDFs. We introduce the concept of equivalence for EDFs and SEDFs, and begin the task of enumerating SEDFs. Complete results are presented for all groups up to order $24$, underpinned by a computational approach.
There is much recent interest in excluded subposets. Given a fixed poset $P$, how many subsets of $[n]$ can found without a copy of $P$ realized by the subset relation? The hardest and most intensely investigated problem of this kind is when $P$ is a diamond, i.e. the power set of a 2 element set. In this paper, we show infinitely many asymptotically tight constructions using random set families defined from posets based on Abelian groups. They are provided by the convergence of Markov chains on groups. Such constructions suggest that the diamond problem is hard.
We consider the case in which mixed graphs (with both directed and undirected edges) are Cayley graphs of Abelian groups. In this case, some Moore bounds were derived for the maximum number of vertices that such graphs can attain. We first show these bounds can be improved if we know more details about the order of some elements of the generating set. Based on these improvements, we present some new families of mixed graphs. For every fixed value of the degree, these families have an asymptotically large number of vertices as the diameter increases. In some cases, the results obtained are show…
Let $v$ be a product of at most three not necessarily distinct primes. We prove that there exists no strong external difference family with more than two subsets in abelian group $G$ of order $v$, except possibly when $G=C_p^3$ and $p$ is a prime greater than $3 \times 10^{12}$.
We study the game of Cops and Robbers, where cops try to capture a robber on the vertices of a graph. Meyniel's conjecture states that for every connected graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, the cop number of $G$ is upper bounded by $O(\sqrt{n})$, i.e., that $O(\sqrt{n})$ suffice to catch the robber. We present several families of abelian Cayley graphs that are Meyniel extremal, i.e., graphs whose cop number is $O(\sqrt{n})$. This proves that the $O(\sqrt{n})$ upper bound for Cayley graphs proved by Bradshaw is tight up to a multiplicative constant. In particular, this shows that Meyniel's conjecture, …
In this paper, we use character-theoretic techniques to give new nonexistence results for $(n,m,k,λ)$-strong external difference families (SEDFs). We also use cyclotomic classes to give two new classes of SEDFs with $m=2$.
We consider strong external difference families (SEDFs); these are external difference families satisfying additional conditions on the patterns of external diferences that occur, and were first defined in the context of classifying optimal strong algebraic manipulation detection codes. We establish new necessary conditions for the existence of (n; m; k; lambda)-SEDFs; in particular giving a near-complete treatment of the lambda = 2 case. For the case m = 2, we obtain a structural characterization for partition type SEDFs (of maximum possible k and lambda), showing that these correspond to Pal…
A number of authors have studied the question of when a graph can be represented as a Cayley graph on more than one nonisomorphic group. The work to date has focussed on a few special situations: when the groups are $p$-groups; when the groups have order $pq$; when the Cayley graphs are normal; or when the groups are both abelian. In this paper, we construct two infinite families of graphs, each of which is Cayley on an abelian group and a nonabelian group. These families include the smallest examples of such graphs that had not appeared in other results.
In this paper, we provide a mathematical framework for characterizing AMD codes that are R-optimal. We introduce a new combinatorial object, the reciprocally-weighted external difference family (RWEDF), which corresponds precisely to an R-optimal weak AMD code. This definition subsumes known examples of existing optimal codes, and also encompasses combinatorial objects not covered by previous definitions in the literature. By developing structural group-theoretic characterizations, we exhibit infinite families of new RWEDFs, and new construction methods for known objects such as near-complete …
In this paper, we study the existence of $(v,m,k,λ)$-strong external difference families (SEDFs). We use character-theoretic techniques to show that no SEDF exists when $v$ is prime, $k > 1$ and $m > 2$. In the case where $v$ is the product of two distinct odd primes, some necessary conditions are derived, which can be used to rule out certain parameter sets. Further, we show that, when $m=3$ or $4$ and $v > m$, a $(v,m,k,λ)$-SEDF does not exist.
Strong external difference families (SEDFs) were introduced by Paterson and Stinson as a more restrictive version of external difference families. SEDFs can be used to produce optimal strong algebraic manipulation detection codes. We characterize the parameters $(v, m, k, λ)$ of a nontrivial SEDF that is near-complete (satisfying $v=km+1$). We construct the first known nontrivial example of a $(v, m, k, λ)$ SEDF having $m > 2$. The parameters of this example are $(243,11,22,20)$, giving a near-complete SEDF, and its group is $\mathbb{Z}_3^5$. We provide a comprehensive framework for the study …
We introduce the concept of a disjoint partial difference family (DPDF) and an external partial difference family (EPDF), a natural generalisation of the much-studied structures of disjoint difference family (DDF), external difference family (EDF) and partial difference set (PDS). We establish properties and constructions, and indicate connections to other recently-studied combinatorial structures. We show how DPDFs and EPDFs may be formed from collections of PDSs, and also present cyclotomic methods yielding DPDFs and EPDFs whose component sets are not in general PDSs. As part of this, we dev…
A generalized strong external difference family (briefly $(v, m; k_1,\dots,k_m; λ_1,\dots,λ_m)$-GSEDF) was introduced by Paterson and Stinson in 2016. In this paper, we construct some new GSEDFs for $m=2$ and use them to obtain some results on graph decomposition. We also give some nonexistence results for GSEDFs. Especially, we prove that a $(v, 3;k_1,k_2,k_3; λ_1,λ_2,λ_3)$-GSEDF does not exist when $k_1+k_2+k_3< v$.
We address a question of Cavenagh and Wanless asking: which finite abelian groups arise as the canonical group of a spherical latin bitrade? We prove the existence of an infinite family of finite abelian groups that do not arise as canonical groups of spherical latin bitrades. Using a connection between abelian sandpile groups of digraphs underlying directed Eulerian spherical embeddings, we go on to provide several, general, families of finite abelian groups that do arise as canonical groups. These families include: any abelian group in which each component of the Smith Normal Form has compos…
For a fixed odd prime $\ell$, we present new families of identities defined on various subposets of the poset of isomorphism classes of finite abelian $\ell$-groups, generalizing identities of Hall and Cohen-Lenstra. We also present a $q$-series identity.
A geometric method for obtaining an infinite family of Cayley digraphs of constant density on finite Abelian groups is presented. The method works for any given degree and it is based on consecutive dilates of a minimum distance diagram associated with a given initial Cayley digraph. The method is used to obtain infinite families of dense or asymptotically dense Cayley digraphs. In particular, for degree $d=3$, an infinite family of maximum known density is proposed.
Combinatorial transfer: a new method for constructing infinite families of nonabelian difference sets, partial difference sets, and relative difference sets
This paper provides a combinatorial characterization of weak algebraic manipulation detection (AMD) codes via a kind of generalized external difference families called bounded standard weighted external difference families (BSWEDFs). By means of this characterization, we improve a known lower bound on the maximum probability of successful tampering for the adversary's all possible strategies in weak AMD codes. We clarify the relationship between weak AMD codes and BSWEDFs with various properties. We also propose several explicit constructions for BSWEDFs, some of which can generate new optimal…
A finite group is said to be weakly separable if every algebraic isomorphism between two $S$-rings over this group is induced by a combinatorial isomorphism. In the paper we prove that every abelian weakly separable group belongs to one of several explicitly given families only.
Strong external difference family (SEDF) and its generalizations GSEDF, BGSEDF in a finite abelian group $G$ are combinatorial designs raised by Paterson and Stinson [7] in 2016 and have applications in communication theory to construct optimal strong algebraic manipulation detection codes. In this paper we firstly present some general constructions of these combinatorial designs by using difference sets and partial difference sets in $G$. Then, as applications of the general constructions, we construct series of SEDF, GSEDF and BGSEDF in finite fields by using cyclotomic classes.
