English

Parity properties of Costas arrays defined via finite fields

Combinatorics 2007-06-25 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

A Costas array of order nn is an arrangement of dots and blanks into nn rows and nn 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 ii-th row and jj-th column, where ii and jj 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 qq 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 ±1\pm 1 from the fourth. For a Welch-Costas array of order p1p-1, where pp is an odd prime, the four numbers above are all equal to (p1)/4(p-1)/4 when p1(mod4)p\equiv 1\pmod{4}, but when p3(mod4)p\equiv 3\pmod{4}, we show that the four numbers are defined in terms of the class number of the imaginary quadratic field Q(p)\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{-p}), and thus behave in a much less predictable manner.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0706.3313,
  title  = {Parity properties of Costas arrays defined via finite fields},
  author = {Konstantinos Drakakis and Rod Gow and Scott rickard},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0706.3313},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

To appear in Advances in Mathematics of Communications