Related papers: Overlapping latin subsquares and full products

A family $\mbox{$\cal F$}=\{F_1,\ldots,F_m\}$ of subsets of $[n]$ is said to be ordered, if there exists an $1\leq r\leq m$ index such that $n\in F_i$ for each $1\leq i\leq r$, $n\notin F_i$ for each $i>r$ and $|F_i|\leq |F_j|$ for each…

Despite the fact that latin cubes have been studied since in the 1940's, there are only a few results on embedding partial latin cubes, and all these results are far from being optimal with respect to the size of the containing cube. For…

Let $X,Y$ be finite sets, $r,s,h, \lambda \in \mathbb{N}$ with $s\geq r, X\subsetneq Y$. By $\lambda \binom{X}{h}$ we mean the collection of all $h$-subsets of $X$ where each subset occurs $\lambda$ times. A coloring of…

Let $L(n)$ be the number of Latin squares of order $n$, and let $L^{\textrm{even}}(n)$ and $L^{\textrm{odd}}(n)$ be the number of even and odd such squares, so that $L(n) = L^{\textrm{even}}(n) + L^{\textrm{odd}}(n)$. The Alon-Tarsi…

For integers $n>2$ and $k>0$, an $(n\times n)/k$ semi-Latin square is an $n\times n$ array of $k$-subsets (called blocks) of an $nk$-set (of treatments), such that each treatment occurs once in each row and once in each column of the array.…

This paper is concerned with the problem of finding two sets of integers, $\{a_1, a_2, \ldots$, $a_m\}$ and $\{b_1, b_2, \ldots, b_n\}$, such that all the $mn$ sums $a_i+b_j, i=1, \ldots, m, j=1, \ldots, n$, are perfect squares. A method is…

Latin squares have been historically used in order to create statistical designs in which, starting from a small number of experiments, it can be obtained a large experimental space. In this sense, the optimization of the selection of Latin…

Latin squares with a balance property among adjacent pairs of symbols---being "Roman" or "row-complete"---have long been used as uniform crossover designs with the number of treatments, periods and subjects all equal. This has been…

The chromatic number of a Latin square is the least number of partial transversals which cover its cells. This is just the chromatic number of its associated Latin square graph. Although Latin square graphs have been widely studied as…

We prove that every concatenation of $10$ or more binary squares contains an overlap. The bound $10$ is best possible. In contrast, over a ternary alphabet, there are infinitely long overlap-free words that consist of a concatenation of…

We answer a question posed by D\'enes and Keedwell that is equivalent to the following. For each order $n$ what is the smallest size of a partial latin square that cannot be embedded into the Cayley table of any group of order $n$? We also…

A latin bitrade (T1, T2) is a pair of partial latin squares which are disjoint, occupy the same set of non-empty cells, and whose corresponding rows and columns contain the same set of entries. A genus may be associated to a latin bitrade…

In this paper, we first present the relation between a transversal in a Latin square with some concepts in its Latin square graph, and give an equivalent condition for a Latin square has an orthogonal mate. The most famous open problem…

Two $n \times n$ Latin squares $L_1, L_2$ are said to be orthogonal if, for every ordered pair $(x,y)$ of symbols, there are coordinates $(i,j)$ such that $L_1(i,j) = x$ and $L_2(i,j) = y$. A $k$-MOLS is a sequence of $k$…

This article, showing that almost all objects in the title are asymmetric, is re-typed from a manuscript I wrote somewhere around 1980 (after the papers of Bang and Friedland on the permanent conjecture but before those of Egorychev and…

Latin squares are well studied combinatorial objects. In this paper we generalize the concept and propose new objects like Latin triangles, free Latin squares, Latin tetrahedra, free Latin cubes, etc. We start with a classic definition of…

A partial Latin square of order $n$ can be represented by a $3$-dimensional chess-board of size $n\times n\times n$ with at most $n^2$ non-attacking rooks. Based on this representation, we apply a uniform method to prove the M. Hall's,…

A critical set in an n x n array is a set C of given entries, such that there exists a unique extension of C to an n x n Latin square and no proper subset of C has this property. The cardinality of the largest critical set in any Latin…

In an earlier paper by three of the present authors and Csaba Schneider, it was shown that, for $m\ge2$, a set of $m+1$ partitions of a set $\Omega$, any $m$ of which are the minimal non-trivial elements of a Cartesian lattice, either form…

In this paper we study pattern avoidance in Latin Squares, which gives us a two dimensional analogue of the well studied notion of pattern avoidance in permutations. Our main results include enumerating and characterizing the Latin Squares…