43,726 research outputs found
Problems on q-Analogs in Coding Theory
The interest in -analogs of codes and designs has been increased in the
last few years as a consequence of their new application in error-correction
for random network coding. There are many interesting theoretical, algebraic,
and combinatorial coding problems concerning these q-analogs which remained
unsolved. The first goal of this paper is to make a short summary of the large
amount of research which was done in the area mainly in the last few years and
to provide most of the relevant references. The second goal of this paper is to
present one hundred open questions and problems for future research, whose
solution will advance the knowledge in this area. The third goal of this paper
is to present and start some directions in solving some of these problems.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0805.3528 by other author
Steiner t-designs for large t
One of the most central and long-standing open questions in combinatorial
design theory concerns the existence of Steiner t-designs for large values of
t. Although in his classical 1987 paper, L. Teirlinck has shown that
non-trivial t-designs exist for all values of t, no non-trivial Steiner
t-design with t > 5 has been constructed until now. Understandingly, the case t
= 6 has received considerable attention. There has been recent progress
concerning the existence of highly symmetric Steiner 6-designs: It is shown in
[M. Huber, J. Algebr. Comb. 26 (2007), pp. 453-476] that no non-trivial
flag-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist. In this paper, we announce that
essentially also no block-transitive Steiner 6-design can exist.Comment: 9 pages; to appear in: Mathematical Methods in Computer Science 2008,
ed. by J.Calmet, W.Geiselmann, J.Mueller-Quade, Springer Lecture Notes in
Computer Scienc
Coding Theory and Algebraic Combinatorics
This chapter introduces and elaborates on the fruitful interplay of coding
theory and algebraic combinatorics, with most of the focus on the interaction
of codes with combinatorial designs, finite geometries, simple groups, sphere
packings, kissing numbers, lattices, and association schemes. In particular,
special interest is devoted to the relationship between codes and combinatorial
designs. We describe and recapitulate important results in the development of
the state of the art. In addition, we give illustrative examples and
constructions, and highlight recent advances. Finally, we provide a collection
of significant open problems and challenges concerning future research.Comment: 33 pages; handbook chapter, to appear in: "Selected Topics in
Information and Coding Theory", ed. by I. Woungang et al., World Scientific,
Singapore, 201
On the existence of block-transitive combinatorial designs
Block-transitive Steiner -designs form a central part of the study of
highly symmetric combinatorial configurations at the interface of several
disciplines, including group theory, geometry, combinatorics, coding and
information theory, and cryptography. The main result of the paper settles an
important open question: There exist no non-trivial examples with (or
larger). The proof is based on the classification of the finite 3-homogeneous
permutation groups, itself relying on the finite simple group classification.Comment: 9 pages; to appear in "Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer
Science (DMTCS)
The Classification of Flag-transitive Steiner 4-Designs
Among the properties of homogeneity of incidence structures flag-transitivity
obviously is a particularly important and natural one. Consequently, in the
last decades also flag-transitive Steiner tdesigns (i.e. flag-transitive
t-(v,k,1) designs) have been investigated, whereas only by the use of the
classification of the finite simple groups has it been possible in recent years
to essentially characterize all flag-transitive Steiner 2-designs. However,
despite the finite simple group classification, for Steiner t-designs with
parameters t > 2 such characterizations have remained challenging open problems
for about 40 years (cf. [11, p. 147] and [12, p. 273], but presumably dating
back to around 1965). The object of the present paper is to give a complete
classification of all flag-transitive Steiner 4-designs. Our result relies on
the classification of the finite doubly transitive permutation groups and is a
continuation of the author's work [20, 21] on the classification of all
flag-transitive Steiner 3-designs.Comment: 26 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics
Efficient Two-Stage Group Testing Algorithms for Genetic Screening
Efficient two-stage group testing algorithms that are particularly suited for
rapid and less-expensive DNA library screening and other large scale biological
group testing efforts are investigated in this paper. The main focus is on
novel combinatorial constructions in order to minimize the number of individual
tests at the second stage of a two-stage disjunctive testing procedure.
Building on recent work by Levenshtein (2003) and Tonchev (2008), several new
infinite classes of such combinatorial designs are presented.Comment: 14 pages; to appear in "Algorithmica". Part of this work has been
presented at the ICALP 2011 Group Testing Workshop; arXiv:1106.368
Computational complexity of reconstruction and isomorphism testing for designs and line graphs
Graphs with high symmetry or regularity are the main source for
experimentally hard instances of the notoriously difficult graph isomorphism
problem. In this paper, we study the computational complexity of isomorphism
testing for line graphs of - designs. For this class of
highly regular graphs, we obtain a worst-case running time of for bounded parameters . In a first step, our approach
makes use of the Babai--Luks algorithm to compute canonical forms of
-designs. In a second step, we show that -designs can be reconstructed
from their line graphs in polynomial-time. The first is algebraic in nature,
the second purely combinatorial. For both, profound structural knowledge in
design theory is required. Our results extend earlier complexity results about
isomorphism testing of graphs generated from Steiner triple systems and block
designs.Comment: 12 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A
A Census Of Highly Symmetric Combinatorial Designs
As a consequence of the classification of the finite simple groups, it has
been possible in recent years to characterize Steiner t-designs, that is
t-(v,k,1) designs, mainly for t = 2, admitting groups of automorphisms with
sufficiently strong symmetry properties. However, despite the finite simple
group classification, for Steiner t-designs with t > 2 most of these
characterizations have remained longstanding challenging problems. Especially,
the determination of all flag-transitive Steiner t-designs with 2 < t < 7 is of
particular interest and has been open for about 40 years (cf. [11, p. 147] and
[12, p. 273], but presumably dating back to 1965). The present paper continues
the author's work [20, 21, 22] of classifying all flag-transitive Steiner
3-designs and 4-designs. We give a complete classification of all
flag-transitive Steiner 5-designs and prove furthermore that there are no
non-trivial flag-transitive Steiner 6-designs. Both results rely on the
classification of the finite 3-homogeneous permutation groups. Moreover, we
survey some of the most general results on highly symmetric Steiner t-designs.Comment: 26 pages; to appear in: "Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics
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