Related papers: Latin Squares whose transversals share many entrie…
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…
A paper by Cavenagh and Wanless diagnosed the possible intersection of any two transversals of the back circulant Latin square B_n, and used the result to completely determine the spectrum for 2-way k-homogeneous latin trades. We give a…
There exist pairs of orthogonal Latin squares of any order n except if n=2 or n=6 [Bose, Shrikhande and Parker, 1960]. In particular, the problem of Euler's thirty-six officers does not have a solution. However, it has a "quantum solution":…
Ever since E. T. Parker constructed an orthogonal pair of $10\times10$ Latin squares in 1959, an orthogonal triple of $10\times10$ Latin squares has been one of the most sought-after combinatorial designs. Despite extensive work, the…
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.
We report the results of a computer investigation of sets of mutually orthogonal latin squares (MOLS) of small order. For $n\le9$ we 1. Determine the number of orthogonal mates for each species of latin square of order $n$. 2. Calculate the…
Do you want to know what an anti-chiece Latin square is? Or what a non-consecutive toroidal modular Latin square is? We invented a ton of new types of Latin squares, some inspired by existing Sudoku variations. We can't wait to introduce…
A Latin hypercuboid of order $n$ is a $d$-dimensional matrix of dimensions $n\times n\times\cdots\times n\times k$, with symbols from a set of cardinality $n$ such that each symbol occurs at most once in each axis-parallel line. If $k=n$…
In 1975, Stein made a wide generalisation of the Ryser-Brualdi-Stein conjecture on transversals in Latin squares, conjecturing that every equi-$n$-square (an $n\times n$ array filled with $n$ symbols where each symbol appears exactly $n$…
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…
A critical set in an $n \times n$ array is a set $C$ of given entries, such that there exists a unique extension of $C$ to an $n\times n$ Latin square and no proper subset of $C$ has this property. The cardinality of the largest critical…
Given an $n\times n$ array $M$ ($n\ge 7$), where each cell is colored in one of two colors, we give a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of a partition of $M$ into $n$ diagonals, each containing at least one cell of each…
An $n \times n$ partial Latin square $P$ is called $\alpha$-dense if each row and column has at most $\alpha n$ non-empty cells and each symbol occurs at most $\alpha n$ times in $P$. An $n \times n$ array $A$ where each cell contains a…
In an $n \times n$ array filled with symbols, a transversal is a collection of entries with distinct rows, columns and symbols. In this note we show that if no symbol appears more than $\beta n$ times, the array contains a transversal of…
The chromatic number of a cyclic Latin square of order 2n is 2n+2. The available proof for this statement includes a coloring that is rather lengthy. Here, we introduce a coloring of cyclic Latin square of even order 2n (the Latin square of…
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 1990, Kolesova, Lam and Thiel determined the 283,657 main classes of Latin squares of order 8. Using techniques to determine relevant Latin trades and integer programming, we examine representatives of each of these main classes and…
We consider the problem of constructing Latin cubes subject to the condition that some symbols may not appear in certain cells. We prove that there is a constant $\gamma > 0$ such that if $n=2^k$ and $A$ is $3$-dimensional $n\times n\times…
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…
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…