English

Subsquares in random Latin rectangles

Combinatorics 2025-05-01 v3

Abstract

Suppose that kk is a function of nn and nn\to\infty. We show that with probability 1O(1/n)1-O(1/n), a uniformly random k×nk\times n Latin rectangle contains no proper Latin subsquare of order 44 or more, proving a conjecture of Divoux, Kelly, Kennedy and Sidhu. We also show that the expected number of subsquares of order 3 is bounded and find that the expected number of subsquares of order 2 is (k2)(1/2+o(1))\binom{k}{2}(1/2+o(1)) for all knk\le n.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.08446,
  title  = {Subsquares in random Latin rectangles},
  author = {Jack Allsop and Ian M. Wanless},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.08446},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:43:08.445Z