Related papers: On the Threshold Problem for Latin Boxes

A Latin square of order $n$ is an $n \times n$ matrix of $n$ symbols, such that each symbol occurs exactly once in each row and column. For an odd prime power $q$ let $\mathbb{F}_q$ denote the finite field of order $q$. A quadratic Latin…

A \emph{Latin square} is a matrix of symbols such that each symbol occurs exactly once in each row and column. A Latin square $L$ is \emph{row-Hamiltonian} if the permutation induced by each pair of distinct rows of $L$ is a full cycle…

Let $n$ be a positive integer and $X = [x_{ij}]_{1 \leq i, j \leq n}$ be an $n \times n$\linebreak \noindent sized matrix of independent random variables having joint uniform distribution $$\hbox{Pr} {x_{ij} = k \hbox{for} 1 \leq k \leq n}…

For a set of n points in the plane, we consider the axis--aligned (p,k)-Box Covering problem: Find p axis-aligned, pairwise-disjoint boxes that together contain n-k points. In this paper, we consider the boxes to be either squares or…

A classical recursive construction for mutually orthogonal latin squares (MOLS) is shown to hold more generally for a class of permutation codes of length $n$ and minimum distance $n-1$. When such codes of length $p+1$ are included as…

Two Latin squares $L=[l(i,j)]$ and $M=[m(i,j)]$, of even order $n$ with entries $\{0,1,2,\ldots,n-1\}$, are said to be nearly orthogonal if the superimposition of $L$ on $M$ yields an $n\times n$ array $A=[(l(i,j),m(i,j))]$ in which each…

Constructive and nonconstructive techniques are employed to enumerate Latin squares and related objects. It is established that there are (i) 2036029552582883134196099 main classes of Latin squares of order 11; (ii)…

This paper characterizes when an $m \times n$ rectangle, where $m$ and $n$ are integers, can be tiled (exactly packed) by squares where each has an integer side length of at least 2. In particular, we prove that tiling is always possible…

We demonstrate a novel approach for the random sampling of Latin squares of order~$n$ via probabilistic divide-and-conquer. The algorithm divides the entries of the table modulo powers of $2$, and samples a corresponding binary contingency…

Given an integer partition $(h_1,h_2,\dots,h_k)$ of $n$, is it possible to find an order $n$ latin square with $k$ disjoint subsquares of orders $h_1,\dots,h_k$? This question was posed by L.Fuchs and is only partially solved. Existence has…

We discuss the problem of existence of latin squares without a substructure consisting of six elements $(r_1,c_2,l_3)$, $(r_2,c_3,l_1)$, $(r_3,c_1,l_2)$, $(r_2,c_1,l_3)$, $(r_3,c_2,l_1)$, $(r_1,c_3,l_2)$. Equivalently, the corresponding…

Let $\{U_n\}_{n\geq 0}$ be a Lucas sequence. Then the equation $$|U_n|=m_1!m_2!\cdots m_k!$$ with $1<m_1\leq m_2\leq \cdots\leq m_k$ implies $n\in \{1,2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12\}$. Further the equation $$|U_n|=D_{m_1}D_{m_2}\cdots D_{m_k}, \qquad…

In this paper we propose an algorithm for enumerating diagonal Latin squares of small order. It relies on specific properties of diagonal Latin squares to employ symmetry breaking techniques, and on several heuristic optimizations and bit…

Random instances of constraint satisfaction problems such as k-SAT provide challenging benchmarks. If there are m constraints over n variables there is typically a large range of densities r=m/n where solutions are known to exist with…

In this paper, we derive simple closed-form expressions for the $n$-queens problem and three related problems in terms of permanents of $(0,1)$ matrices. These formulas are the first of their kind. Moreover, they provide the first method…

For every fixed finite field $\F_q$, $p \in (0,1-1/q)$ and $\epsilon > 0$, we prove that with high probability a random subspace $C$ of $\F_q^n$ of dimension $(1-H_q(p)-\epsilon)n$ has the property that every Hamming ball of radius $pn$ has…

The problem of identifying the satisfiability threshold of random $3$-SAT formulas has received a lot of attention during the last decades and has inspired the study of other threshold phenomena in random combinatorial structures. The…

A matrix is given in ``shredded'' form if we are presented with the multiset of rows and the multiset of columns, but not told which row is which or which column is which. The matrix is reconstructible if it is uniquely determined by this…

This is a companion note to the paper "Almost all Steiner triple systems have perfect matchings (arXiv:1611.02246). That paper contains several general lemmas about random Steiner triple systems; in this note we record analogues of these…

A metric probability space $M$ admits thresholds if the random geometric graph on $M$ has a threshold for every monotone graph property. We connect the existence of thresholds to the uniform expansion of $M$ and prove that all standard…