English

Magic partially filled arrays on abelian groups

Combinatorics 2022-09-22 v1

Abstract

In this paper we introduce a special class of partially filled arrays. A magic partially filled array MPFΩ(m,n;s,k)\mathrm{MPF}_\Omega(m,n; s,k) on a subset Ω\Omega of an abelian group (Γ,+)(\Gamma,+) is a partially filled array of size m×nm\times n with entries in Ω\Omega such that (i)(i) every ωΩ\omega \in \Omega appears once in the array; (ii)(ii) each row contains ss filled cells and each column contains kk filled cells; (iii)(iii) there exist (not necessarily distinct) elements x,yΓx,y\in \Gamma such that the sum of the elements in each row is xx and the sum of the elements in each column is yy. In particular, if x=y=0Γx=y=0_\Gamma, we have a zero-sum magic partially filled array 0MPFΩ(m,n;s,k){}^0\mathrm{MPF}_\Omega(m,n; s,k). Examples of these objects are magic rectangles, Γ\Gamma-magic rectangles, signed magic arrays, (integer or non integer) Heffter arrays. Here, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a magic rectangle with empty cells, i.e., of an MPFΩ(m,n;s,k)\mathrm{MPF}_\Omega(m,n;s,k) where Ω={1,2,,nk}Z\Omega=\{1,2,\ldots,nk\}\subset\mathbb{Z}. We also construct zero-sum magic partially filled arrays when Ω\Omega is the abelian group Γ\Gamma or the set of its nonzero elements.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2209.10246,
  title  = {Magic partially filled arrays on abelian groups},
  author = {Fiorenza Morini and Marco Antonio Pellegrini},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2209.10246},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T01:48:19.994Z