Searcharxiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2507.23039

Character theoretic techniques for nonabelian partial difference sets

Seth R. Nelson·Eric Swartz
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

A $(v,k,\lambda, \mu)$-partial difference set (PDS) is a subset $D$ of size $k$ of a group $G$ of order $v$ such that every nonidentity element $g$ of $G$ can be expressed in either $\lambda$ or $\mu$ different ways as a product $xy^{-1}$, $x, y \in D$, depending on whether or not $g$ is in $D$. If $D$ is inverse closed and $1 \notin D$, then the Cayley graph ${\rm Cay}(G,D)$ is a $(v,k,\lambda, \mu)$-strongly regular graph (SRG). PDSs have been studied extensively over the years, especially in abelian groups, where techniques from character theory have proven to be particularly effective. Recently, there has been considerable interest in studying PDSs in nonabelian groups, and the purpose of this paper is develop character theoretic techniques that apply in the nonabelian setting. We prove that analogues of character theoretic results of Ott about generalized quadrangles of order $s$ also hold in the general PDS setting, and we are able to use these techniques to compute the intersection of a putative PDS with the conjugacy classes of the parent group in many instances. With these techniques, we are able to prove the nonexistence of PDSs in numerous instances and provide severe restrictions in cases when such PDSs may still exist. Furthermore, we are able to use these techniques constructively, computing several examples of PDSs in nonabelian groups not previously recognized in the literature, including an infinite family of genuinely nonabelian PDSs associated to the block-regular Steiner triple systems originally studied by Clapham and related infinite families of genuinely nonabelian PDSs associated to the block-regular Steiner $2$-designs first studied by Wilson.

Explore related subjects

math.CO

Keep this discovery

BibTeXRIS

Seth R. Nelson, Eric Swartz. 2025-07-30. Character theoretic techniques for nonabelian partial difference sets. https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.23039

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Balanced even cycles in signed graphs:Tur\'an bounds, double covers, and parity obstructions

We study Tur\'an problems for balanced even cycles in simple signed graphs, where signed subgraphs are considered up to switching. For every balanced bipartite signed graph, the signed and ordinary Tur\'an numbers differ by at most a factor of two. Our main structural results concern the underlying graphs that admit a signing in which every $2k$-cycle is unbalanced. We characterize these graphs by the absence of an odd dependence among their $2k$-cycle incidence vectors, give a cohomological formulation, and construct subgraph-minimal obstructions of arbitrarily large order. In particular, there is no finite forbidden-subgraph characterization. We also give an exact closed-walk criterion for cycles in double covers and derive a direct signed breadth-first-search upper bound. As applications, we prove \[ \hex(n,C_{+4})=\left(\frac{\sqrt2}{2}+o(1)\right)n^{3/2} \] and study the signed hexagon number $R_6(n)=\hex(n,\{C_{-3},C_{+6}\})$. We characterize the underlying graphs counted by $R_6$ and express it as an extremal problem for ordinary $C_6$-free graphs with a prescribed involution. For every sufficiently large $n$, we construct examples with $\Omega(n^{4/3})$ edges, and we give an equivariant construction attaining the coefficient obtained from the F\"uredi--Naor--Verstra\"ete lower bound by double-cover transfer. Finally, we give $n$-vertex $C_{+10}$-free signed graphs with $\Omega(n^{6/5})$ edges and use octagon examples to illustrate the limitations of theta-freeness as a signing criterion.

math.CO↗
arXiv2026

Fractional DP-colorings of $d$-degenerate locally sparse graphs

Bernshteyn, Kostochka, and Zhu (2020) introduced the notion of fractional DP-coloring, which generalizes both fractional coloring and fractional list coloring. Among several foundational results, they proved that every $d$-degenerate bipartite graph $G$ satisfies $\chi_f^{\mathrm{DP}} \le (1 + o(1))\frac{d}{\log d}$, and that this bound is optimal---a stark contrast to ordinary fractional coloring. In this paper, we extend this upper bound to all $d$-degenerate triangle-free graphs, proving that $\chi_f^{\mathrm{DP}} \le (4 + o(1))\frac{d}{\log d}$. This generalizes a recent result of Martinsson and Steiner (2025) for ordinary fractional coloring. We derive this result as a corollary of a more general upper bound concerning locally sparse graph orderings. Specifically, a $d$-degenerate graph $G$ is left $k$-locally-sparse if it admits a degeneracy ordering in which, for every vertex $v$, the subgraph induced by its back-neighbors contains at most $k$ edges. We show that if a $d$-degenerate graph $G$ is left $\frac{d^2}{f}$-locally-sparse, then \[ \chi_f^{\mathrm{DP}}(G) \le (8 + o(1))\frac{d}{\log f}. \] This immediately yields an identical upper bound on the ordinary fractional chromatic number $\chi_f(G)$, improving upon the leading constants of previously known bounds. Additionally, we establish the asymptotic sharpness of this result up to the leading constant. For any $1 \ll f \le d^2$, we construct $d$-degenerate graphs that are left $\frac{d^2}{f}$-locally-sparse and satisfy $\chi_f(G) \ge (1 - o(1))\frac{d}{\log f}$. Finally, as applications of our main theorem, we obtain improved upper bounds on the fractional DP-chromatic number of $d$-degenerate $K_{1,t,t}$-free graphs, as well as $K_{t,t,t}$-free graphs with maximum degree $\Delta$. Notably, these bounds improve upon existing results even in the setting of ordinary fractional coloring.

math.CO↗
arXiv2026

Erd\H{o}s-S\'{o}s for digraphs

It is shown that every Eulerian digraph on $n$ vertices with more than $(t-1)n$ arcs contains every oriented tree with $t$ edges. The digraphs have no loops or repeated arcs, but opposite arcs are permitted. The bound is sharp for each fixed oriented tree, as witnessed by disjoint unions of complete bidirected graphs. Previously, such tight bounds were not known, even just for directed paths. This can be considered as a directed analog of the recently proved Erd\H{o}s-S\'os conjecture. The result was proved by GPT-6 Astra.

math.CO↗