Let $D(n)$ be the maximal determinant for $n times n$ ${pm 1}$-matrices, and ${mathcal R}(n) = D(n)/n^{n/2}$ be the ratio of $D(n)$ to the Hadamard upper bound. We give several new lower bounds on ${mathcal R}(n)$ in terms of $d$, where $n = h+d$, $h$ is the order of a Hadamard matrix, and $h$ is maximal subject to $h le n$. A relatively simple bound is [{mathcal R}(n) ge left(frac{2}{pi e}right)^{d/2} left(1 - d^2left(frac{pi}{2h}right)^{1/2}right) ;text{ for all }; n ge 1.] An asymptotically sharper bound is [{mathcal R}(n) ge left(frac{2}{pi e}right)^{d/2} expleft(dleft(frac{pi}{2h}right)^{1/2} + ; Oleft(frac{d^{5/3}}{h^{2/3}}right)right).] We also show that [{mathcal R}(n) ge left(frac{2}{pi e}right)^{d/2}] if $n ge n_0$ and $n_0$ is sufficiently large, the threshold $n_0$ being independent of $d$, or for all $nge 1$ if $0 le d le 3$ (which would follow from the Hadamard conjecture). The proofs depend on the probabilistic method, and generalise previous results that were restricted to the cases $d=0$ and $d=1$.
Download