Three classes of partitioned difference families and their optimal constant composition codes (Q2158233)

The theory of cyclotomy is an old topic of elementary number theory that can date back to Gauss. Cyclotomic and generalized cyclotomic numbers are related to difference sets, sequences, coding theory, and cryptography. Let \(A\) be an additive group of order \(n\) and \(P = {B_{i} : 0 \leq i < m}\) be a collection of nonempty subsets (blocks) of \(A\). \(P\) is called a difference family (DF) in \(A\), if every nonzero element of \(A\) occurs exactly \(\lambda\) times in the multiset \(\Delta P =\bigcup^{m-1}_{i=0}\Delta B_{i}\), where the multiset \(\Delta (B_{i}) = \{ b -b' : b, b' \in B_{i}, b \ne b' \}\). Let \(K\) be the multiset \(\{ |B_{i}| : 0 \neq i < m \}\). In brief, one says that \(P\) is an \((A,K, \lambda)\) DF. If \(A\) is a cyclic group of order \(n\), we also denote \(P\) as an \((n,K, \lambda)\) DF. A difference family is called disjoint (DDF) if its blocks are pairwise disjoint. Let \(P\) be an \((A,K, \lambda)\) DF, if \(P\) forms a partition of \(A\), then it is called a partitioned difference family (PDF) and denoted as an \((A,K, \lambda)\) PDF. In the sequel, we sometimes use a more informative notation to describe the multiset \(K\): an \((A, [k_{1}^{u_{1}} k_{2}^{u_{2}} \cdots k_{s}^{u_{s}} ], \lambda)\) DF is a difference family in which there are \(u_{i}\) blocks of size \(ki\) for \(1 \leq i \leq s\). Let \(R = \mathrm{GF}(q_{1})\times \mathrm{GF}(q_{2})\times\cdots\times \mathrm{GF}(q_{k})\) where \(q_{1},q_{2},\dots,g_{k}\) are powers of primes and there are three constructions. The following are the main results of the article based on the three constructions: Theorem 1. The set \(\mathcal{P}\) generated by Construction \(1\) is an \((R\times \mathbb{Z}_{e}, [{(e - 1)}^{\frac{ev-1}{e-1}} \mathbf{1}^{1}],e - 2)\) PDF. Theorem 2. The set \(\mathcal{S}\) generated by Construction \(2\) is an \((R\times \mathbb{Z}_{e}, [{(e - 1)}^{\frac{v-1}{2e}} \mathbf{1}^{\frac{v+1}{2}}],e - 2)\) PDF. Theorem 3. For any \(1 \leq a < k^{\frac{q^{m}-1}{e}}\) , we have \(|(D + a) \cap D| = k^{\frac{q^{m}-1}{e}}\) and the set \(\mathcal{J}\) defined by Construction 3 is a \((\mathbb{Z}_{\frac{q^{m}-1}{e}}\times \mathbb{Z}_{k}, [k^{\frac{q^{m-1}-1}{e}}\mathbf{1}^{k \frac{q^{m}-q^{m-1}}{e}}],k \frac{q^{m-2}-1}{e})\) PDF. The partitioned difference family has an application in constant composition code in coding theory. There is a prospect for widening the theory considered in the paper for researchers. The limiting of references will help the readers to get a better understanding of the topics in the article. In the introduction, there are some unnecessary references which obstruct the smooth reading of the article.