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2 votes
1 answer
189 views

Tighter lower bound of the lower triangular sum of an arbitrary Latin square

In this math.stackexchange.com question I seek a tighter bound than the one I presented in there in the question. Rob Pratt puts forth a conjecture in his answer motivated by the dual problem of the ...
1 vote
0 answers
41 views

Unexpected non-uniformity of results from some implementations of Jacobson-Matthews seem to show a strange sensitivity to isotopy class

Questions Why do some Jacobson-Matthews (J-M) implementations for generating random latin squares exhibit frequencies inconsistent with an underlying uniform distribution? Further investigation ...
3 votes
2 answers
197 views

Proper Latin sub-squares of generalized Latin squares

Say we have a generalization of a Latin square, where the square is of size $n \times n$, $n = ab$ and each row and each column has $b$ occurrences of each of $[1, \dots, a]$. Is there always ...
2 votes
0 answers
132 views

Proof that a pandiagonal Latin square of order $n$ exists iff $n$ is not a multiple of $2$ or $3$?

A pandiagonal Latin square of order $n$ is an assignment of the numbers $\{0,\ldots,n-1\}$ to the cells of an $n \times n$ grid such that no row, column, or diagonal of any length contains the same ...
1 vote
1 answer
118 views

A bound on the number of partial transversals of a latin square

A Latin Square (LS) of order $n$ is an $n$ on $n$ matrix, each entry contains one of the symbols $1,2,\ldots,n$, and every row and every column contains each symbol exactly once. A (complete) ...
1 vote
0 answers
26 views

What are the limits to the lengths of the sequences of consecutive completed Sudoku when order 9 Latin squares are generated in lexicographic order?

Question: What are the maximum and minimum lengths of the sequences of consecutive completed Sudoku which occur when order 9 Latin squares are generated in (standard) lexicographic order? A minimum ...
1 vote
0 answers
115 views

The condition for mutually orthogonal Latin square

Suppose $A$ and $B$ are Latin squares of order $n$. And suppose any column of $A$ and any column of $B$ have common entry only once. Then are $A$ and $B$ mutually orthogonal? I know the converse is ...
13 votes
3 answers
1k views

Does there exist a Latin square of order 9 for which its 9 broken diagonals and 9 broken antidiagonals are transversals?

A Latin square of order $n$ has $n$ broken diagonals and $n$ broken antidiagonals. When $n \equiv \pm 1 \pmod 6$, we have diagonally cyclic Latin squares in which those $2n$ diagonals are ...
2 votes
1 answer
81 views

Are there any studies about general lexicographical orderings of Latin Squares and random walks on the space of all such orderings of a given order?

Are there any previous studies about the general lexicographical orderings of Latin squares including random walks the space of all such orderings for a given order of Latin squares? Are there any ...
3 votes
0 answers
130 views

Is counting Latin squares #P-complete?

I feel like I should know the answer to this. I did some Googling and didn't easily find the answer... Question: Is counting Latin squares #P-complete? Obviously the corresponding decision problem &...
6 votes
1 answer
164 views

For which divisors $a$ and $b$ of $n$ does there exist a Latin square of order $n$ that can be partitioned into $a \times b$ subrectangles?

There exists a Latin square of order $8$ which can be partitioned into $2 \times 4$ subrectangles: $$ \begin{bmatrix} \color{red} 1 & \color{red} 2 & \color{red} 3 & \color{red} 4 & \...
8 votes
3 answers
433 views

Latin squares with one cycle type?

Cross posting from MSE, where this question received no answers. The following Latin square $$\begin{bmatrix} 1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8\\ 2&1&4&5&6&7&8&3\\...
1 vote
3 answers
187 views

Existence of latin squares with an involutory symmetry

Let $M \in \mathbb{N}$ and let $\pi \in S_{M}$ be an involution with at least one fixed point. I'm interested in finding a latin square $A$ of order $M$ such that $A_{i,j} = \pi(A_{j,i})$ for each $i,...
3 votes
1 answer
131 views

A graph $G$ with two $K_6$ subgraphs, in which any one-factor of $G$ induces a one-factor in exactly one of the $K_6$ subgraphs?

I'm seeking a simple graph $G$ of the following type: It contains two disjoint copies of $K_6$ (the complete graph on 6 nodes), $H$ and $H'$ say. Any one-factor of $G$ must contain either (a) a one ...
10 votes
0 answers
141 views

Smallest counterexample to Stein's conjecture?

An equi-$n$-square is an $n$ by $n$ array of cells filled with the symbols $1,2,\dots,n$ so that each symbol occurs exactly $n$ times. (Every Latin square of order $n$ is an equi-$n$-square, but the ...
3 votes
1 answer
311 views

Evans conjecture for symmetric latin squares

The Evans conjecture ( which was proved later by Smetaniuk) states that for any $n$, if at most $n-1$ entries of a partial $n\times n$ latin square are filled, it can be completed to the full latin ...
2 votes
2 answers
228 views

The edge precoloring extension problem for complete graphs

Consider coloring the edges of a complete graph on even order. This can be seen as the completion of an order $n$ symmetric Latin square except the leading diagonal. My question pertains to whether we ...
2 votes
1 answer
167 views

graph built from orthogonal Latin Squares

I've asked the following question on MathExchange site, with a bounty, with no answer or comments. Maybe I would have additional comments here. The problem came to be while reading some articles on ...
5 votes
0 answers
105 views

Dinitz Conjecture extension to rectangles

The Dinitz Conjecture, which was proved later in a more general form by Galvin, stated that given an $n\times n$ array, its elements could be filled exactly like a latin square, where the elements in ...
5 votes
2 answers
211 views

Coloring in Combinatorial Design Generalizing Latin Square

I have a question about a combinatorial design very similar to a Latin Square, which is arising out of an open problem in graph theory. The design is an $n \times n$ matrix whose entries we want to ...
4 votes
1 answer
113 views

Bounding the number of orthogonal Latin squares from above

As is usual, let $N(n)$ denote the maximum size of a set of mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order $n$. I am wondering what results hold that bound $N(n)$ from above; the only ones I can think of ...
20 votes
1 answer
1k views

Symmetric polynomial from graphs

Let $g$ be a directed, connected multigraph, on $n$ vertices, without loops. Define $$P_g(x_1,\dots,x_n) := Sym\left[ \prod_{(i,j) \in g} (x_i-x_j) \right]$$ where $(i,j)$ is the directed edge ...
1 vote
0 answers
383 views

Minimal-information description of sudoku solution (Latin square)

Sudoku puzzles consist of a $9 \times 9$ grid of cells in which some cells contain integers from the set $\{ 1, \ldots, 9 \}$ and the task is to fill in the remaining cells such that the numbers $1$ ...
4 votes
0 answers
114 views

Has the existence of a 3-MOLS(10) containing a self-orthogonal Latin square and its transpose been eliminated?

McKay, Meynert, Myrvold (2006) (Small latin squares, quasigroups, and loops, DOI:10.1002/jcd.20105, author copy) computationally eliminate the possibility of set of 3 mutually orthogonal Latin squares ...
4 votes
0 answers
191 views

Does every $n\times n\times n$ Latin cube contain a Latin transversal?

In 1967 H. J. Ryser conjectured that every Latin square of odd order has a Latin transversal. Similar to Latin squares, we may consider Latin cubes. QUESTION: Let $n$ be any positive integer. Does ...
2 votes
1 answer
259 views

How to generate a Latin square $M'$ in the same main class as $M \in \mathrm{LS}(9)$ which agrees with $L$ in the most cells?

I'm brainstorming an idea for storing a compressed list of main class representatives of Latin squares of order $9$. One way to compress the list would be to store one Latin square $L_1$, and for $i \...
1 vote
1 answer
113 views

Is there a way to estimate the number of Latin squares with a given autotopism?

An autotopism of a Latin square $L$ of order $n$ is a triple of permutations $(\alpha,\beta,\gamma)$ for which $L$ is stabilized after permuting the rows by $\alpha$, the columns by $\beta$, and the ...
8 votes
0 answers
88 views

Is recognizing if a Latin square is isotopic to its transpose more efficient than computing its symmetry group?

Ihrig and Ihrig (2007) described a mathematical method for determining if a Latin square is isotopic to its transpose (where isotopic Latin squares vary by permuting the rows, columns and symbols). ...
7 votes
2 answers
186 views

Do successive maximum permutations pick latin squares uniformly?

Suppose we start with a $n\times n$ matrix with entries sampled independently and uniformly at random from $[0,1]$. The weight of a set of entries will simply be the sum of those entries. A ...
7 votes
0 answers
190 views

Signatures of latin squares: what about the extremal cases?

For a latin square (LS) of order $n$, we will define a cut (or maybe general transversal, I don't know whether there is an entrenched name for this) as a collection of $n$ cells such that no two share ...
12 votes
0 answers
513 views

Converse of Frobenius

Enumerate the elements of a finite group $G$ as follows: $g_1,g_2,\dots,g_n$. Introduce $n$ variables indexed by the elements of $G$: $x_{g_1},\dots,x_{g_n}$. Consider the matrix $X_G$ with entries $...
8 votes
1 answer
406 views

Determinant of symmetric Latin square

Let $n=2m$ be an even number. Let us construct $n\times n$ symmetric matrices $S_n$ in the following way. The entries are indeterminates $X_1,\ldots,X_{n-1}$. We choose a $1$-factorization of the ...
27 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the name of this combinatorial object and place to read about it?

The title is admittedly noninformative but I could not figure out how to squeeze into it the description of the object I am interested in. Judge by yourself. I have an alphabet on $d$ symbols. I want ...
2 votes
0 answers
68 views

What is the minimum number of filled cells in a partial Latin rectangle with autotopism group $\cong C_2$ and autoparatopism group $\cong S_3$?

Definitions: a partial Latin rectangle is an $r \times s$ matrix containing symbols from $[n] \cup \{\cdot\}$ such that each row and each column contains at most one copy of any symbol in $[n]$. The ...
1 vote
1 answer
280 views

Creating a Latin rectangle from a projective plane

Given a projective plane I'd like to form a latin rectangle from the lines. In particular, I'd like to take each line from the plane, order the elements in some way, and stick them into the matrix as ...
5 votes
0 answers
143 views

Lower bound on the number of k-plexes in a Latin square

Let $A$ be an order-$n$ Latin square. A $k$-plex of $A$ is a set of entries , $k$ from each row and column and $k$ from each symbol. My question is: Is there a Latin square with a large number of $k$-...
4 votes
1 answer
478 views

Are all symmetric idempotent Latin squares known?

Are all symmetric idempotent Latin squares known? There is such a square of order $n$ if and only if $n$ is odd. However, is there a classification of all of them? (The motivation for the question ...
12 votes
0 answers
258 views

Proving that the set of $\lfloor n/3 \rfloor+1$ partial Latin squares given by Pebody is unavoidable?

Introduction Cutler and Öhman (2006) attribute to Pebody (via personal communication) a construction of a set of $k:=\lfloor n/3 \rfloor+1$ partial Latin squares which are unavoidable (i.e., any ...
5 votes
0 answers
184 views

Existence problem for a generalisation of Latin squares (matrices with fixed row and column sets)

Let $R_1,\ldots,R_n$ and $C_1,\ldots,C_n$ be sets of size n. When does there exist an $n \times n$ matrix in which the $i$-th row is a permutation of $R_i$, for all $1 \leq i \leq n$, and the $j$-...
8 votes
1 answer
811 views

(0,1)-matrix congruence: is it known?

[[UPDATE: This work has now been published at SIAM J Discrete Math.: Formulae for the Alon–Tarsi Conjecture.]] By equating two formulae (one congruence by Glynn (1) (which has just appeared) and one ...
3 votes
2 answers
414 views

What is the number of k-regular subgraphs of $K_{12,12}$?

I'm thinking about making an attempt at counting the number of Latin squares of order 12. Currently I'm in (what I call) the "sanity check" stage, where we check that the ranges that need searching ...
4 votes
1 answer
534 views

Diagonally-cyclic Steiner Latin squares

A Steiner triple system is a decomposition of $K_n$ into $K_3$, such as $S=\{013,026,045,124,156,235,346\}$. Steiner triple systems give rise to a Steiner Latin squares, such as $L$ below. \[L=\left(...
13 votes
0 answers
1k views

Finding a chromatic polynomial by polynomial fitting

I would like to find the chromatic polynomial χ for the n by m rook's graph Gn,m for as many values of n and m possible. The rooks graph is also (a) the line graph of the complete bipartite graph ...