English

Canonical labelling of Latin squares in average-case polynomial time

Combinatorics 2024-05-08 v2

Abstract

A Latin square of order nn is an n×nn\times n matrix in which each row and column contains each of nn symbols exactly once. For ϵ>0\epsilon>0, we show that with high probability a uniformly random Latin square of order nn has no proper subsquare of order larger than n1/2log1/2+ϵnn^{1/2}\log^{1/2+\epsilon}n. Using this fact we present a canonical labelling algorithm for Latin squares of order nn that runs in average time bounded by a polynomial in nn. The algorithm can be used to solve isomorphism problems for many combinatorial objects that can be encoded using Latin squares, including quasigroups, Steiner triple systems, Mendelsohn triple systems, 11-factorisations, nets, affine planes and projective planes.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.06205,
  title  = {Canonical labelling of Latin squares in average-case polynomial time},
  author = {Michael J. Gill and Adam Mammoliti and Ian M. Wanless},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.06205},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

New reference added, minor typos fixed