In this paper, we provide an application to the random distance-t walk in finite planes and derive asymptotic formulas (as $q \to \infty $) for the probability of return to start point after $\ell $ steps based on the “vertical” equidistribution of Kloosterman sums established by N. Katz. This work relies on a “Euclidean” association scheme studied in prior work of W. M. Kwok, E. Bannai, O. Shimabukuro, and H. Tanaka. We also provide a self-contained computation of the P-matrix and intersection numbers of this scheme for convenience in our application as well as a more explicit form for the intersection numbers in the planar case.

A subset Y of the general linear group $\text{GL}(n,q)$ is called t-intersecting if $\text{rk}(x-y)\le n-t$ for all $x,y\in Y$ , or equivalently x and y agree pointwise on a t-dimensional subspace of $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ for all $x,y\in Y$ . We show that, if n is sufficiently large compared to t, the size of every such t-intersecting set is at most that of the stabiliser of a basis of a t-dimensional subspace of $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ . In case of equality, the characteristic vector of Y is a linear combination of the characteristic vectors of the cosets of these stabilisers. We also give similar results for subsets of $\text{GL}(n,q)$ that intersect not necessarily pointwise in t-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ and for cross-intersecting subsets of $\text{GL}(n,q)$ . These results may be viewed as variants of the classical Erdős–Ko–Rado Theorem in extremal set theory and are q-analogs of corresponding results known for the symmetric group. Our methods are based on eigenvalue techniques to estimate the size of the largest independent sets in graphs and crucially involve the representation theory of $\text{GL}(n,q)$ .

A connected graph G is $\mathcal {CF}$ -connected if there is a path between every pair of vertices with no crossing on its edges for each optimal drawing of G. We conjecture that a complete bipartite graph $K_{m,n}$ is $\mathcal {CF}$ -connected if and only if it does not contain a subgraph of $K_{3,6}$ or $K_{4,4}$ . We establish the validity of this conjecture for all complete bipartite graphs $K_{m,n}$ for any $m,n$ with $\min \{m,n\}\leq 6$ , and conditionally for $m,n\geq 7$ on the assumption of Zarankiewicz’s conjecture that $\mathrm {cr}(K_{m,n})=\big \lfloor \frac {m}{2} \big \rfloor \big \lfloor \frac {m-1}{2} \big \rfloor \big \lfloor \frac {n}{2} \big \rfloor \big \lfloor \frac {n-1}{2} \big \rfloor $ .

This paper contributes to the regular covers of a complete bipartite graph minus a matching, denoted $K_{n,n}-nK_{2}$, whose fiber-preserving automorphism group acts 2-arc-transitively. All such covers, when the covering transformation group $K$ is either cyclic or $\mathbb{Z}_{p}^{2}$ with $p$ a prime, have been determined in Xu and Du [‘2-arc-transitive cyclic covers of $K_{n,n}-nK_{2}$’, J. Algebraic Combin.39 (2014), 883–902] and Xu et al. [‘2-arc-transitive regular covers of $K_{n,n}-nK_{2}$ with the covering transformation group $\mathbb{Z}_{p}^{2}$’, Ars. Math. Contemp.10 (2016), 269–280]. Finally, this paper gives a classification of all such covers for $K\cong \mathbb{Z}_{p}^{3}$ with $p$ a prime.

The paper defines a new type of product of association schemes (and of the related objects, permutation groups and orthogonal block structures), which generalizes the direct and wreath products (which are referred to as ‘crossing’ and ‘nesting’ in the statistical literature). Given two association schemes $\mathcal{Q}_r$ for $r\,{=}\,1,2$, each having an inherent partition $F_r$ (that is, a partition whose equivalence relation is a union of adjacency relations in the association scheme), a product of the two schemes is defined, which reduces to the direct product if $F_1=U_1$ or $F_2=E_2$, and to the wreath product if $F_1 = E_1$ and $F_2 = U_2$, where $E_r$ and $U_r$ are the relation of equality and the universal relation on $\mathcal{Q}_r$. The character table of the crested product is calculated, and it is shown that, if the two schemes $\mathcal{Q}_1$ and $\mathcal{Q}_2$ have formal duals, then so does their crested product (and a simple description of this dual is given). An analogous definition for permutation groups with intransitive normal subgroups is created, and it is shown that the constructions for association schemes and permutation groups are related in a natural way.

The definition can be generalized to association schemes with families of inherent partitions, or permutation groups with families of intransitive normal subgroups. This time the correspondence is not so straightforward, and it works as expected only if the inherent partitions (or orbit partitions) form a distributive lattice.

The paper concludes with some open problems.

Combining results on quadrics in projective geometries with an algebraic interplay between finite fields and Galois rings, the first known family of partial difference sets with negative Latin square type parameters is constructed in nonelementary abelian groups, the groups $\Z_4^{2k}\times \Z_2^{4 \ell-4k}$ for all $k$ when $\ell$ is odd and for all $k < \ell$ when $\ell$ is even. Similarly, partial difference sets with Latin square type parameters are constructed in the same groups for all $k$ when $\ell$ is even and for all $k<\ell$ when $\ell$ is odd. These constructions provide the first example where the non-homomorphic bijection approach outlined by Hagita and Schmidt can produce difference sets in groups that previously had no known constructions. Computer computations indicate that the strongly regular graphs associated to the partial difference sets are not isomorphic to the known graphs, and it is conjectured that the family of strongly regular graphs will be new.

The isomorphism problem for circulant graphs (Cayley graphs over the cyclic group) which has been open since 1967 is completely solved in this paper. The main result of the paper gives an efficient isomorphism criterion for circulant graphs of arbitrary order. This result also solves an isomorphism problem for colored circulant graphs and some classes of cyclic codes.

In an earlier paper [10], we studied a generalized Rao bound for ordered orthogonal arrays and $(T,\,M,\,S)$-nets. In this paper, we extend this to a coding-theoretic approach to ordered orthogonal arrays. Using a certain association scheme, we prove a MacWilliams-type theorem for linear ordered orthogonal arrays and linear ordered codes as well as a linear programming bound for the general case. We include some tables which compare this bound against two previously known bounds for ordered orthogonal arrays. Finally we show that, for even strength, the $\text{LP}$ bound is always at least as strong as the generalized Rao bound.

Let $X$ be a graph with vertex set $V$ and let $A$ be its adjacency matrix. If $E$ is the matrix representing orthogonal projection onto an eigenspace of $A$ with dimension $m$, then $E$ is positive semi-definite. Hence it is the Gram matrix of a set of $\left| V \right|$ vectors in ${{R}^{m}}$. We call the convex hull of a such a set of vectors an eigenpolytope of $X$. The connection between the properties of this polytope and the graph is strongest when $X$ is distance regular and, in this case, it is most natural to consider the eigenpolytope associated to the second largest eigenvalue of $A$. The main result of this paper is the characterisation of those distance regular graphs $X$ for which the 1-skeleton of this eigenpolytope is isomorphic to $X$.