English

Extendibility of Latin Hypercuboids

Combinatorics 2025-02-14 v1

Abstract

A Latin hypercuboid of order nn is a dd-dimensional matrix of dimensions n×n××n×kn\times n\times\cdots\times n\times k, with symbols from a set of cardinality nn such that each symbol occurs at most once in each axis-parallel line. If k=nk=n the hypercuboid is a Latin hypercube. The Latin hypercuboid is \emph{completable} if it is contained in a Latin hypercube of the same order and dimension. It is \emph{extendible} if it can have one extra layer added. In this note we consider which Latin hypercuboids are completable/extendible. We also consider a generalisation that involves multidimensional arrays of sets that satisfy certain balance properties. The extendibility problem corresponds to choosing representatives from the sets in a way that is analogous to a choice of a Hall system of distinct representatives, but in higher dimensions. The completability problem corresponds to partitioning the sets into such SDRs. We provide a construction for such an array of sets that does not have the property analogous to completability. A related concept was introduced by H\"aggkvist under the name (m,m,m)(m,m,m)-array. We generalise a construction of (m,m,m)(m,m,m)-arrays credited to Pebody, but show that it cannot be used to build the arrays that we need.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.08868,
  title  = {Extendibility of Latin Hypercuboids},
  author = {Candida Bowtell and Alice Devillers and André Kündgen and Padraig Ó Catháin and Ian M. Wanless},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.08868},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:42:24.914Z