Almost Difference Sets in Nonabelian Groups

Abstract

We give two new constructions of almost difference sets. The first is a generic construction of $(q^{2}(q+1),q(q^{2}-1),q(q^{2}-q-1),q^{2}-1)$ almost difference sets in certain groups of order $q^{2}(q+1)$ ($q$ is an odd prime power) having ($\mathbb{F}_{q},+)$ as a subgroup. The construction occurs in any group of order $p^{2}(p+1)$ ($p$ is an odd prime) having ($\mathbb{F}_{p^{2}},+)$ as an additive subgroup. This construction yields several infinite families of almost difference sets, many of which occur in nonabelian groups. The second construction yields $(4p,2p+1,p,p-1)$ almost difference sets in dihedral groups of order $4p$ where $p\equiv 3 \ ({\rm mod} \ 4)$ is a prime. Moreover, it turns out that some of the infinite families of almost difference sets obtained have Cayley graphs which are Ramanujan graphs. \keywords{Difference set \and Almost difference set \and Nonabelian group}