\(\mathbb{Z}\)-Cyclic \(DTWh(p)/OTWh(p)\), The Empirical Study Continued For Primes \( p \equiv 2^k + 1 \pmod{2^{k+1}} , k=8\)

Stephanie Costa1, Norman J. Finiziot 2, Christopher Teixeira1
1Rhode Island College, Providence, RI
2University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.

Abstract

In the past few years, several studies have appeared that relate to the existence of \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic directed-triplewhist tournaments and \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic ordered-triplewhist tournaments. In these studies, the number of players in the tournament is taken to be a prime \( p \) of the form \( p \equiv 2^k + 1 \pmod{2^k+1} \), where \( k \geq 2 \). For the cases \( k = 2, 3, 4 \) it has been shown [6,4,5,12] that \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic directed-triplewhist tournaments and \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic ordered-triplewhist tournaments exist for all such primes except for the impossible cases \( p = 5, 13, 17 \). For the cases \( k = 5, 6, 7 \) it has been shown [13] that \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic directed-triplewhist tournaments exist for all such primes less than \( 3{,}200{,}000 \) and that \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic ordered-triplewhist tournaments exist for all such primes less than \( 3{,}200{,}000 \) with the exception that existence or non-existence of these designs for \( p = 97, 193, 449, 577, 641, 1409 \) is an open question. Here the case \( k = 8 \) is considered. It is established that \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic directed-triplewhist tournaments and \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic ordered-triplewhist tournaments exist for all primes \( p \equiv 257 \pmod{512} \), \( p \leq 6{,}944{,}177 \), except possibly for \( p = 257, 769, 3329 \). For \( p = 3329 \) we are able to construct a \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic directed-triplewhist tournament, but the existence of a \( \mathbb{Z} \)-cyclic ordered-triplewhist tournament remains an open question. Furthermore, for each type of design it is conjectured that our basic constructions will produce these designs whenever \( p > 5{,}299{,}457 \).

Keywords: Z-cyclic designs, whist tournaments, directedwhist designs, ordered- whist designs, triplewhist designs, directed triplewhist designs, ordered triple- whist designs.