Binary matrices of optimal autocorrelations as alignment marks

We define a new class of binary matrices by maximizing the peak-sidelobe distances in the aperiodic autocorrelations. These matrices can be used as robust position marks for in-plane spatial alignment. The optimal square matrices of dimensions up to 7 by 7 and optimal diagonally-symmetric matrices of 8 by 8 and 9 by 9 were found by exhaustive searches.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures and 1 tabl

Polyomino convolutions and tiling problems

We define a convolution operation on the set of polyominoes and use it to obtain a criterion for a given polyomino not to tile the plane (rotations and translations allowed). We apply the criterion to several families of polyominoes, and show that the criterion detects some cases that are not detectable by generalized coloring arguments.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures. To appear in \emph{J. of Combin. Theory Ser. A

Parity properties of Costas arrays defined via finite fields

A Costas array of order $n$ is an arrangement of dots and blanks into $n$ rows and $n$ columns, with exactly one dot in each row and each column, the arrangement satisfying certain specified conditions. A dot occurring in such an array is even/even if it occurs in the $i$-th row and $j$-th column, where $i$ and $j$ are both even integers, and there are similar definitions of odd/odd, even/odd and odd/even dots. Two types of Costas arrays, known as Golomb-Costas and Welch-Costas arrays, can be defined using finite fields. When $q$ is a power of an odd prime, we enumerate the number of even/even odd/odd, even/odd and odd/even dots in a Golomb-Costas array. We show that three of these numbers are equal and they differ by $\pm 1$ from the fourth. For a Welch-Costas array of order $p-1$, where $p$ is an odd prime, the four numbers above are all equal to $(p-1)/4$ when $p\equiv 1\pmod{4}$, but when $p\equiv 3\pmod{4}$, we show that the four numbers are defined in terms of the class number of the imaginary quadratic field $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-p})$, and thus behave in a much less predictable manner.Comment: To appear in Advances in Mathematics of Communication

Compressive and Noncompressive Power Spectral Density Estimation from Periodic Nonuniform Samples

This paper presents a novel power spectral density estimation technique for band-limited, wide-sense stationary signals from sub-Nyquist sampled data. The technique employs multi-coset sampling and incorporates the advantages of compressed sensing (CS) when the power spectrum is sparse, but applies to sparse and nonsparse power spectra alike. The estimates are consistent piecewise constant approximations whose resolutions (width of the piecewise constant segments) are controlled by the periodicity of the multi-coset sampling. We show that compressive estimates exhibit better tradeoffs among the estimator's resolution, system complexity, and average sampling rate compared to their noncompressive counterparts. For suitable sampling patterns, noncompressive estimates are obtained as least squares solutions. Because of the non-negativity of power spectra, compressive estimates can be computed by seeking non-negative least squares solutions (provided appropriate sampling patterns exist) instead of using standard CS recovery algorithms. This flexibility suggests a reduction in computational overhead for systems estimating both sparse and nonsparse power spectra because one algorithm can be used to compute both compressive and noncompressive estimates.Comment: 26 pages, single spaced, 9 figure