English

A lower bound for the size of the largest critical sets in Latin squares

Combinatorics 2007-05-23 v1

Abstract

A critical set in an n×nn \times n array is a set CC of given entries, such that there exists a unique extension of CC to an n×nn\times n Latin square and no proper subset of CC has this property. The cardinality of the largest critical set in any Latin square of order nn is denoted by \lcsn\lcs{n}. We give a lower bound for \lcsn\lcs{n} by showing that \lcsnn2(12+ln2lnn)+n(1+ln(8π)lnn)ln2lnn.\lcs{n} \geq n^2(1-\frac{2 + \ln 2}{\ln n})+n(1+\frac {\ln (8 \pi)} {\ln n})-\frac{\ln 2}{\ln n}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0701014,
  title  = {A lower bound for the size of the largest critical sets in Latin squares},
  author = {Hamed Hatami and Ebadollah S. Mahmoodian},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0701014},
  year   = {2007}
}