Cyclotomic skew partial difference sets and partial difference families

Abstract

Skew partial difference sets (skew PDSs) are recently-introduced combinatorial objects closely related to partial difference sets (PDSs). To date, only one construction approach for non-trivial skew PDSs is known, using bent partitions: this produces examples of Latin square type. In this paper we show that these examples are not an isolated phenomenon; we present new constructions for families of skew PDSs using cyclotomy in finite fields. We provide the first constructions for skew PDSs of Paley type, and new constructions for Latin square type (with different parameters to those from bent partitions). Moreover, we show how skew PDSs relate to disjoint and external partial difference families (DPDFs/EPDFs), and provide new cyclotomic constructions of both standard and relative DPDFs and EPDFs.