English

Overlapping latin subsquares and full products

Combinatorics 2015-09-21 v1

Abstract

We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for there to exist a latin square of order nn containing two subsquares of order aa and bb that intersect in a subsquare of order cc. We also solve the case of two disjoint subsquares. We use these results to show that: (a) A latin square of order nn cannot have more than nm(nh)/(mh)\frac nm{n \choose h}/{m\choose h} subsquares of order mm, where h=(m+1)/2h=\lceil(m+1)/2\rceil. Indeed, the number of subsquares of order mm is bounded by a polynomial of degree at most 2m+2\sqrt{2m}+2 in nn. (b) For all n5n\ge5 there exists a loop of order nn in which every element can be obtained as a product of all nn elements in some order and with some bracketing.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1509.05665,
  title  = {Overlapping latin subsquares and full products},
  author = {Joshua M. Browning and Petr Vojtěchovský and Ian M. Wanless},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.05665},
  year   = {2015}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T10:59:55.413Z