English

Subsquares in random Latin squares and rectangles

Combinatorics 2023-11-10 v2

Abstract

A k×nk \times n partial Latin rectangle is \textit{CC-sparse} if the number of nonempty entries in each row and column is at most CC and each symbol is used at most CC times. We prove that the probability a uniformly random k×nk \times n Latin rectangle, where k<(1/2α)nk < (1/2 - \alpha)n, contains a βn\beta n-sparse partial Latin rectangle with \ell nonempty entries is (1±εn)(\frac{1 \pm \varepsilon}{n})^\ell for sufficiently large nn and sufficiently small β\beta. Using this result, we prove that a uniformly random order-nn Latin square asymptotically almost surely has no Latin subsquare of order greater than cnlognc\sqrt{n\log n} for an absolute constant cc.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.04152,
  title  = {Subsquares in random Latin squares and rectangles},
  author = {Alexander Divoux and Tom Kelly and Camille Kennedy and Jasdeep Sidhu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.04152},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

11 pages; 1 page appendix, corrected a typo in random Steiner system conjecture

R2 v1 2026-06-28T13:14:17.467Z