Schur rings over cyclic groups having Almost Commutative Terwilliger algebras

Abstract

Terwilliger algebras are subalgebras of a matrix algebra constructed from an association scheme. Rie Tanaka defined what it means for a Terwilliger algebra to be almost commutative and gave five equivalent conditions in the case where the association scheme is commutative. A sixth condition for a Terwilliger algebra coming from a commutative Schur ring to be almost commutative has since been discovered. In this paper we first provide a classification of orbit Schur rings that produce an almost commutative Terwilliger algebra for a finite cyclic group. In particular, we show that the subgroup of automorphisms used to form the orbit Schur ring is either trivial, or the whole automorphism group when the cyclic group has prime power order. If the cyclic group has order $2^n$, these are the only options. If the cyclic group has order $p^n$, for an odd prime $p$, then the automorphism subgroup of order $p^{n-1}$ also works. If the group has a non-prime power order then the only orbit Schur ring that produces an almost commutative Terwilliger algebra comes from the trivial subgroup of the automorphism group. We then give a condition for when a wedge product of Schur rings produces an almost commutative Terwilliger algebra. This allows us to determine exactly when a Schur ring over a cyclic group produces an almost commutative Terwilliger algebra.