Related papers: Substructures in Latin squares

An alternating sign matrix, or ASM, is a $(0, \pm 1)$-matrix where the nonzero entries in each row and column alternate in sign. We generalize this notion to hypermatrices: an $n\times n\times n$ hypermatrix $A=[a_{ijk}]$ is an {\em…

It was shown by van Rees \cite{vR} that a latin square of order $n$ has at most $n^2(n-1)/18$ latin subsquares of order $3$. He conjectured that this bound is only achieved if $n$ is a power of $3$. We show that it can only be achieved if…

We say that a diagonal in an array is {\em $\lambda$-balanced} if each entry occurs $\lambda$ times. Let $L$ be a frequency square of type $F(n;\lambda^m)$; that is, an $n\times n$ array in which each entry from $\{1,2,\dots ,m\}$ occurs…

The problem of completing a partially specified n by n Latin square is solved by an alternative proof, based on filling the rows (or diagonals) from 1 to n, using an extended form of Hall's marriage theorem.

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 $k$…

We introduce a graph attached to mutually orthogonal Sudoku Latin squares. The spectra of the graphs obtained from finite fields are explicitly determined. As a corollary, we then use the eigenvalues to distinguish non-isomorphic Sudoku…

There exists a bijection between the set of Latin squares of order $n$ and the set of feasible solutions of the 3-dimensional planar assignment problem ($3PAP_n$). In this paper, we prove that, given a Latin square isotopism $\Theta$, we…

Latin tableaux are a generalization of Latin squares, which first appeared in the early 2000's in a paper of Chow, Fan, Goemans, and Vondr\'{a}k. Here, we extend the notion of isotopy, a permutation group action, from Latin squares to Latin…

The Dinitz conjecture states that, for each $n$ and for every collection of $n$-element sets $S_{ij}$, an $n\times n$ partial latin square can be found with the $(i,j)$\<th entry taken from $S_{ij}$. The analogous statement for $(n-1)\times…

Let m and n be integers, $2 \leq m \leq n$. An m by n array consists of mn cells, arranged in m rows and n columns, and each cell contains exactly one symbol. A transversal of an array consists of m cells, one from each row and no two from…

The cycle structure of a Latin square autotopism $\Theta=(\alpha,\beta,\gamma)$ is the triple $(\mathbf{l}_{\alpha},\mathbf{l}_{\beta},\mathbf{l}_{\gamma})$, where $\mathbf{l}_{\delta}$ is the cycle structure of $\delta$, for all…

A pair of orthogonal latin cubes of order $q$ is equivalent to an MDS code with distance $3$ or to an ${\rm OA}_1(3,5,q)$ orthogonal array. We construct pairs of orthogonal latin cubes for a sequence of previously unknown orders…

Let $P$ be a partial latin square of prime order $p>7$ consisting of three cyclically generated transversals. Specifically, let $P$ be a partial latin square of the form: \[ P=\{(i,c+i,s+i),(i,c'+i,s'+i),(i,c''+i,s''+i)\mid 0 \leq i< p\} \]…

Let $B_p$ be the Latin square given by the addition table for the integers modulo an odd prime $p$. Here we consider the properties of Latin trades in $B_p$ which preserve orthogonality with one of the $p-1$ MOLS given by the finite field…

An algorithm that uses the cycle structure of the rows, or the columns, of a Latin square to compute its autotopy group is introduced. As a result, a bound for the size of the autotopy group is obtained. This bound is used to show that the…

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…

We study the connection between mutually unbiased bases and mutually orthogonal extraordinary supersquares, a wider class of squares which does not contain only the Latin squares. We show that there are four types of complete sets of…

Let $T = (T^{\textstyle \ast}, T^{\scriptscriptstyle \triangle})$ be a spherical latin bitrade. With each $a=(a_1,a_2,a_3)\in T^{\textstyle \ast}$ associate a set of linear equations $\eq(T,a)$ of the form $b_1+b_2=b_3$, where $b =…

We show that for any n divisible by 3, almost all order-n Steiner triple systems have a perfect matching (also known as a parallel class or resolution class). In fact, we prove a general upper bound on the number of perfect matchings in a…

We offer a piece of evidence that the problems of finding the number of mutually unbiased bases (MUB) and mutually orthogonal Latin squares (MOLS) might not be equivalent. We study a particular procedure which has been shown to relate the…