Uniformity in association schemes and coherent configurations: cometric Q-antipodal schemes and linked systems

Inspired by some intriguing examples, we study uniform association schemes and uniform coherent configurations, including cometric Q-antipodal association schemes. After a review of imprimitivity, we show that an imprimitive association scheme is uniform if and only if it is dismantlable, and we cast these schemes in the broader context of certain --- uniform --- coherent configurations. We also give a third characterization of uniform schemes in terms of the Krein parameters, and derive information on the primitive idempotents of such a scheme. In the second half of the paper, we apply these results to cometric association schemes. We show that each such scheme is uniform if and only if it is Q-antipodal, and derive results on the parameters of the subschemes and dismantled schemes of cometric Q-antipodal schemes. We revisit the correspondence between uniform indecomposable three-class schemes and linked systems of symmetric designs, and show that these are cometric Q-antipodal. We obtain a characterization of cometric Q-antipodal four-class schemes in terms of only a few parameters, and show that any strongly regular graph with a ("non-exceptional") strongly regular decomposition gives rise to such a scheme. Hemisystems in generalized quadrangles provide interesting examples of such decompositions. We finish with a short discussion of five-class schemes as well as a list of all feasible parameter sets for cometric Q-antipodal four-class schemes with at most six fibres and fibre size at most 2000, and describe the known examples. Most of these examples are related to groups, codes, and geometries.Comment: 42 pages, 1 figure, 1 table. Published version, minor revisions, April 201

Uniformity in Association schemes and Coherent Configurations: Cometric Q-Antipodal Schemes and Linked Systems

2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 05E30, Secondary 05B25, 05C50, 51E12

Distance-regular graphs

This is a survey of distance-regular graphs. We present an introduction to distance-regular graphs for the reader who is unfamiliar with the subject, and then give an overview of some developments in the area of distance-regular graphs since the monograph 'BCN' [Brouwer, A.E., Cohen, A.M., Neumaier, A., Distance-Regular Graphs, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1989] was written.Comment: 156 page

The Terwilliger algebra of an almost-bipartite P- and Q-polynomial association scheme

Let $Y$ denote a $D$-class symmetric association scheme with $D \geq 3$, and suppose $Y$ is almost-bipartite P- and Q-polynomial. Let $x$ denote a vertex of $Y$ and let $T=T(x)$ denote the corresponding Terwilliger algebra. We prove that any irreducible $T$-module $W$ is both thin and dual thin in the sense of Terwilliger. We produce two bases for $W$ and describe the action of $T$ on these bases. We prove that the isomorphism class of $W$ as a $T$-module is determined by two parameters, the dual endpoint and diameter of $W$. We find a recurrence which gives the multiplicities with which the irreducible $T$-modules occur in the standard module. We compute this multiplicity for those irreducible $T$-modules which have diameter at least $D-3$.Comment: 22 page

Semigroups, rings, and Markov chains

We analyze random walks on a class of semigroups called ``left-regular bands''. These walks include the hyperplane chamber walks of Bidigare, Hanlon, and Rockmore. Using methods of ring theory, we show that the transition matrices are diagonalizable and we calculate the eigenvalues and multiplicities. The methods lead to explicit formulas for the projections onto the eigenspaces. As examples of these semigroup walks, we construct a random walk on the maximal chains of any distributive lattice, as well as two random walks associated with any matroid. The examples include a q-analogue of the Tsetlin library. The multiplicities of the eigenvalues in the matroid walks are ``generalized derangement numbers'', which may be of independent interest.Comment: To appear in J. Theoret. Proba