The strong Kronecker product (Q1328396)

The paper obtains algebraic structure theorems and properties for the strong Kronecker product of two block matrices, \(M= [M_{ij}]\) and \(N= [N_{jk}]\), where \(i= 1,\dots,r\), \(j= 1,\dots,t\), \(k= 1,\dots,u\), each \(M_{ij}\) is an \(m\times p\) submatrix, each \(N_{jk}\) is an \(n\times q\) matrix, namely: \(M\circ N= [L_{ik}]\), \(i= 1,\dots,r\), \(k= 1,\dots,u\) and \(L_{ik}= M_{i1}\times N_{ik}+ M_{i2}\times N_{2k}+\cdots+ M_{it}\times N_{tk}\) are \(mn\times pq\) matrices, \(M_{ij}\times N_{jk}\) being the usual Kronecker product. This operation preserves orthogonality, is associative (Theorem 1) and satisfies some relationships with respect to the Hadamard product. The results are then applied to give new multiplication theorems for Hadamard matrices, complex Hadamard matrices and other related orthogonal matrices, obtaining complex Hadamard matrices of order \(8abcd\) from some complex Hadamard matrices of orders \(2a\), \(2b\), \(2c\), and \(2d\), complex Hadamard matrices of order \(32abcdef\) from Hadamard matrices of orders \(4a\), \(4b\), \(4c\), \(4d\), \(4e\), and \(4f\). A pair of disjoint amicable orthogonal designs \(\text{OD}(8hn; 2hn; 2hn)\) from Hadamard matrices of orders \(4h\) and \(4n\) are also obtained as a consequence of the main results in the paper.