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Cycles of quadratic Latin squares and anti-perfect $1$-factorisations

Combinatorics 2023-07-18 v3

Abstract

A Latin square of order nn is an n×nn \times n matrix of nn symbols, such that each symbol occurs exactly once in each row and column. For an odd prime power qq let Fq\mathbb{F}_q denote the finite field of order qq. A quadratic Latin square is a Latin square L[a,b]\mathcal{L}[a, b] defined by, (L[a,b])i,j={i+a(ji)if ji is a quadratic residue in Fq,i+b(ji)otherwise,(\mathcal{L}[a, b])_{i, j} = \begin{cases} i + a(j-i) & \text{if } j-i \text{ is a quadratic residue in } \mathbb{F}_q, \\ i + b(j-i) & \text{otherwise}, \end{cases} for some {a,b}Fq\{a, b\} \subseteq \mathbb{F}_q such that abab and (a1)(b1)(a-1)(b-1) are quadratic residues in Fq\mathbb{F}_q. Quadratic Latin squares have previously been used to construct perfect 11-factorisations, mutually orthogonal Latin squares and atomic Latin squares. We first characterise quadratic Latin squares which are devoid of 2×22 \times 2 Latin subsquares. Let GG be a graph and F\mathcal{F} a 11-factorisation of GG. If the union of every pair of 11-factors in F\mathcal{F} induces a Hamiltonian cycle in GG then F\mathcal{F} is called perfect, and if there is no pair of 11-factors in F\mathcal{F} which induce a Hamiltonian cycle in GG then F\mathcal{F} is called anti-perfect. We use quadratic Latin squares to construct new examples of anti-perfect 11-factorisations of complete graphs and complete bipartite graphs. We also demonstrate that for each odd prime pp, there are only finitely many orders qq, which are powers of pp, such that quadratic Latin squares of order qq could be used to construct perfect 11-factorisations of complete graphs or complete bipartite graphs.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.2302.12942,
  title  = {Cycles of quadratic Latin squares and anti-perfect $1$-factorisations},
  author = {Jack Allsop},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2302.12942},
  year   = {2023}
}

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26 pages