Association scheme

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The theory of association schemes arose in statistics, in the theory of experimental design for the analysis of variance.^[1][2][3] In mathematics, association schemes belong to both algebra and combinatorics. In algebraic combinatorics, association schemes provide a unified approach to many topics, for example combinatorial designs and the theory of error-correcting codes.^[4][5] In algebra, association schemes generalize groups, and the theory of association schemes generalizes the character theory of linear representations of groups.^[6][7][8]