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A \emph{frequency square} is a matrix in which each row and column is a permutation of the same multiset of symbols. Two frequency squares $F_1$ and $F_2$ with symbol multisets $M_1$ and $M_2$ are \emph{orthogonal} if the multiset of pairs obtained by superimposing $F_1$ and $F_2$ is $M_1\times M_2$. A set of MOFS is a set of frequency squares in which each pair is orthogonal. We first generalise the classical bound on the cardinality of a set of MOFS to cover the case of \emph{mixed type}, meaning that the symbol multisets are allowed to vary between the squares in the set. A frequency square is \emph{binary} if it only uses the symbols 0 and 1. We say that a set $\mathcal{F}$ of MOFS is \emph{type-maximal} if it cannot be extended to a larger set of MOFS by adding a square whose symbol multiset matches that of at least one square already in $\mathcal{F}$. Building on pioneering work by Stinson, several recent papers have found conditions that are sufficient to show that a set of binary MOFS is type-maximal. We generalise these papers in several directions, finding new conditions that imply type-maximality. Our results cover sets of binary frequency squares of mixed type. Also, where previous papers used parity arguments, we show the merit of arguments that use moduli greater than 2.

In this paper, we study skew frame starters, which are strong frame starters that satisfy an additional "skew" property. We prove three new non-existence results for cyclic skew frame starters of certain types. We also construct several small examples of previously unknown cyclic skew frame starters by computer.

A transversal in an $n \times n$ latin square is a collection of $n$ entries not repeating any row, column, or symbol. Kwan showed that almost every $n \times n$ latin square has $\bigl((1 + o(1)) n / e^2\bigr)^n$ transversals as $n \to \infty$. Using a loose variant of the circle method we sharpen this to $(e^{-1/2} + o(1)) n!^2 / n^n$. Our method works for all latin squares satisfying a certain quasirandomness condition, which includes both random latin squares with high probability as well as multiplication tables of quasirandom groups., 26 pages, 3 figures. Final version incorporating referee's comments. To appear in Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society

A partial Latin square of order $n$ can be represented by a $3$-dimensional chess-board of size $n\times n\times n$ with at most $n^2$ non-attacking rooks. Based on this representation, we apply a uniform method to prove the M. Hall's, Ryser's and Cruse's theorems for completion of partial Latin squares. With the help of this proof, we extend the scope of Cruse's theorem to compact bricks, which appear to be independent of their environment. Without losing any completion you can replace a dot by a rook if the dot must become rook, or you can eliminate the dots that are known not to become rooks. Therefore, we introduce primary and secondary extension procedures that are repeated as many times as possible. If the procedures do not decide whether a PLSC can be completed or not, a new necessary condition for completion can be formulated for the dot structure of the resulting PLSC, the BUG condition.

A partial Latin square of order $n$ can be represented by a $3$-dimensional chess-board of size $n\times n\times n$ with at most $n^2$ non-attacking rooks. In Latin squares, a subsystem and its most distant mate together have as many rooks as their capacity. That implies a simple capacity condition for the completion of partial Latin squares which is in fact the Cruse's necessary condition for characteristic matrices. Andersen-Hilton proved that, except for certain listed cases, a PLS of order $n$ can be completed if it contains only $n$ symbols. Andersen proved it for $n+1$ symbols, listing the cases to be excluded. Identifying the structures of the chess-board that can be overloaded with $n$ or $n+1$ rooks, it follows that a PLS derived from a chess-board with at most $n+1$ non-attacking rooks can be completed exactly if it satisfies the capacity condition. In a layer of a Latin square, two subsystems of a remote couple are in balance. Thus, a necessary condition for completion of a layer can be formulated, the balance condition. For an LSC, each 1-dimensional subspace of the chess-board contains exactly one rook. Consequently, for the PLSCs derived from partial Latin squares, we examine certain sets of 1-dimensional subspaces because they indicate the number of missing rooks.

A $d$-dimensional generalization of a Latin square of order $n$ can be considered as a chess-board of size $n\times n\times \ldots\times n$ ($d$ times), containing $n^d$ cells with $n^{d-1}$ non-attacking rooks. Each cell is identified by a $d$-tuple $(e_1,e_2,\ldots ,e_d)$ where $e_i \in \{1,2,\ldots ,n\}$. For $d = 3$ we prove that such a chess-board represents precisely one main class. A subsystem $T$ induced by a family of sets $$ over $\{1,2,\ldots ,n\}$ is real if $E_i \subset \{1,2,\ldots ,n\}$ for each $i \in \{1,2,\ldots ,d\}$. The density of $T$ is the ratio of contained rooks to the number of cells in $T$. The distance between two subsystems is the minimum Hamming distance between cell pairs. Replacing $k$ sets of $$ by their complements, a subsystem $U$ is obtained with distance $k$ between $T$ and $U$. All these subsystems, including $T$, form a partition of the chess-board. We prove that in such a partition, the number of rooks in a $U$ and the density of $U$ can be determined from the number of rooks in $T$ and the number of cells in $T$ and $U$ and the value of $(-1)^k$. We examine the subsystem couple $(T,U)$ in the $2$- and $3$-dimensional cases, where $U$ is the most distant unique subsystem from a real $T$. On the fly, a new identity of binomial coefficients is proved.

In an earlier paper by three of the present authors and Csaba Schneider, it was shown that, for $$m\ge 2$$ m ≥ 2 , a set of $$m+1$$ m + 1 partitions of a set $$\Omega $$ Ω , any m of which are the minimal non-trivial elements of a Cartesian lattice, either form a Latin square (if $$m=2$$ m = 2 ), or generate a join-semilattice of dimension m associated with a diagonal group over a base group G. In this paper we investigate what happens if we have $$m+r$$ m + r partitions with $$r\ge 2$$ r ≥ 2 , any m of which are minimal elements of a Cartesian lattice. If $$m=2$$ m = 2 , this is just a set of mutually orthogonal Latin squares. We consider the case where all these squares are isotopic to Cayley tables of groups, and give an example to show the groups need not be all isomorphic. For $$m>2$$ m > 2 , things are more restricted. Any $$m+1$$ m + 1 of the partitions generate a join-semilattice admitting a diagonal group over a group G. It may be that the groups are all isomorphic, though we cannot prove this. Under an extra hypothesis, we show that G must be abelian and must have three fixed-point-free automorphisms whose product is the identity. (We describe explicitly all abelian groups having such automorphisms.) Under this hypothesis, the structure gives an orthogonal array, and conversely in some cases. If the group is cyclic of prime order p, then the structure corresponds exactly to an arc of cardinality $$m+r$$ m + r in the $$(m-1)$$ ( m - 1 ) -dimensional projective space over the field with p elements, so all known results about arcs are applicable. More generally, arcs over a finite field of order q give examples where G is the elementary abelian group of order q. These examples can be lifted to non-elementary abelian groups using p-adic techniques.

A relation on a $k$-net$(n)$ (or, equivalently, a set of $k-2$ mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order $n$) is an $\mathbb{F}_{2}$ linear dependence within the incidence matrix of the net. Dukes and Howard (2014) showed that any 6-net(10) satisfies at least two non-trivial relations, and classified the relations that could appear in such a net. We find that, up to equivalence, there are $18\,526\,320$ pairs of MOLS satisfying at least one non-trivial relation. None of these pairs extend to a triple. We also rule out one other relation on a set of $3$-MOLS from Dukes and Howard's classification.

In this paper, I survey frame starters, as well as orthogonal and strong frame starters, in abelian groups. I mainly recall and re-examine existence and nonexistence results, but I will prove some new results as well.

A frequency $n$-cube $F^n(q;l_0,...,l_{m-1})$ is an $n$-dimensional $q$-by-...-by-$q$ array, where $q = l_0+...+l_{m-1}$, filled by numbers $0,...,m-1$ with the property that each line contains exactly $l_i$ cells with symbol $i$, $i = 0,...,m-1$ (a line consists of $q$ cells of the array differing in one coordinate). The trivial upper bound on the number of frequency $n$-cubes is $m^{(q-1)^{n}}$. We improve that lower bound for $n>2$, replacing $q-1$ by a smaller value, by constructing a testing set of size $s^{n}$, $s

E. R. Lamken prove in [5] that there exists a partitioned balanced tournament design of side $n$, PBTD($n$), for $n$ a positive integer, $n \ge 5$, except possibly for $n \in \{9,11,15\}$. In this article, we show the existence of PBTD($n$) for $n \in \{9,11,15\}$. As a consequence, the existence of PBTD($n$) has been completely determined.

A $(v, k, \lambda)$ symmetric design is said to have the symmetric difference property (SDP) if the symmetric difference of any three blocks is either a block or the complement of a block. Symmetric designs fulfilling this property have the nice property of having minimal rank, which makes them interesting to study. Thus, SDP designs become useful in coding theory applications. We show in this paper that difference sets formed by direct product construction of difference sets whose developments have the SDP also have the SDP. We also establish a few results regarding isomorphisms in product constructed SDP designs., Comment: 9 pages

An embedding of a code is a mapping that preserves distances between codewords. We prove that any code with code distance $\rho$ and length $d$ can be embedded into an MDS code with the same code distance and length but under a larger alphabet. As a corollary we obtain embeddings of systems of partial mutually orthogonal Latin cubes and $n$-ary quasigroups., Comment: 7 pages

A Latin square of order $n$ is an $n\times n$ array which contains $n$ distinct symbols exactly once in each row and column. We define the adjacent distance between two adjacent cells (containing integers) to be their difference modulo $n$, and inner distance of a Latin square to be the minimum of adjacent distances in the Latin square. By first establishing upper bounds and then constructing squares with said inner distance, we found the maximum inner distance of an $n \times n$ Latin square to be $\left\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\right\rfloor$. We then studied special kinds of Latin squares such as pandiagonals (also known as Knut-Vik designs), as well as Sudoku Latin squares. This research was conducted at the REU at Moravian College on Research Challenges of Computational and Experimental Mathematics, with support from the National Science Foundation., This research was done as part of an REU at Moravian College. This was supported by the NSF Grant Number DMS-1852378

We settle the existence of certain "anti-magic" cubes using combinatorial block designs and graph decompositions to align a handful of small examples.

Column replacement techniques for creating covering arrays rely on the construction of perfect and distributing hash families with few rows, having as many columns as possible for a specified number of symbols. To construct distributing hash families in which the number of rows is less than the strength, we examine a method due to Blackburn and extend it in three ways. First, the method is generalized from homogeneous hash families (in which every row has the same number of symbols) to heterogeneous ones. Second, the extension treats distributing hash families, in which only separation into a prescribed number of parts is required, rather than perfect hash families, in which columns must be completely separated. Third, the requirements on one of the main ingredients are relaxed to permit the use of a large class of distributing hash families, which we call fractal. Constructions for fractal perfect and distributing hash families are given, and applications to the construction of perfect hash families of large strength are developed., Comment: 21 pages, 0 figures

Statistical design of experiments is widely used in scientific and industrial investigations. A generalized minimum aberration (GMA) orthogonal array is optimum under the well-established, so-called GMA criterion, and such an array can extract as much information as possible at a fixed cost. Finding GMA arrays is an open (yet fundamental) problem in design of experiments because constructing such arrays becomes intractable as the number of runs and factors increase. We develop two directed enumeration algorithms that call the integer programming with isomorphism pruning algorithm of Margot (2007) for the purpose of finding GMA arrays. Our results include 16 GMA arrays that were not previously in the literature, along with documentation of the efficiencies that made the required calculations possible within a reasonable budget of computer time. We also validate heuristic algorithms against a GMA array catalog, by showing that they quickly output near GMA arrays, and then use the heuristics to find near GMA arrays when enumeration is computationally burdensome., Comment: 15 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1501.02281

Дано решение открытой проблемы олимпиады по криптографии NSUCRYPTO-2018: показано, что не существует ортогональных массивов OA (16L, 11, 2, 4) с L = 6 и 7. Этот результат позволяет определить минимальные веса некоторых корреляционно-иммунных булевых функций высокого порядка.

We develop a limit theory of Latin squares, paralleling the recent limit theories of dense graphs and permutations. We introduce a notion of density, an appropriate version of the cut distance, and a space of limit objects - so-called Latinons. Key results of our theory are the compactness of the limit space and the equivalence of the topologies induced by the cut distance and the left-convergence. Last, using Keevash's recent results on combinatorial designs, we prove that each Latinon can be approximated by a finite Latin square., 66 pages, 1 figure, final version published in Discrete Analysis

We define a cover of a Latin square to be a set of entries that includes at least one representative of each row, column and symbol. A cover is minimal if it does not contain any smaller cover. A partial transversal is a set of entries that includes at most one representative of each row, column and symbol. A partial transversal is maximal if it is not contained in any larger partial transversal. We explore the relationship between covers and partial transversals. We prove the following: (1) The minimum size of a cover in a Latin square of order n is $$n+a$$ if and only if the maximum size of a partial transversal is either $$n-2a$$ or $$n-2a+1$$ . (2) A minimal cover in a Latin square of order n has size at most $$\mu _n=3(n+1/2-\sqrt{n+1/4})$$ . (3) There are infinitely many orders n for which there exists a Latin square having a minimal cover of every size from n to $$\mu _n$$ . (4) Every Latin square of order n has a minimal cover of a size which is asymptotically equal to $$\mu _n$$ . (5) If $$1\leqslant k\leqslant n/2$$ and $$n\geqslant 5$$ then there is a Latin square of order n with a maximal partial transversal of size $$n-k$$ . (6) For any $$\varepsilon >0$$ , asymptotically almost all Latin squares have no maximal partial transversal of size less than $$n-n^{2/3+\varepsilon }$$ .

An array is row-Latin if no symbol is repeated within any row. An array is Latin if it and its transpose are both row-Latin. A transversal in an $n\times n$ array is a selection of $n$ different symbols from different rows and different columns. We prove that every $n \times n$ Latin array containing at least $(2-\sqrt{2}) n^2$ distinct symbols has a transversal. Also, every $n \times n$ row-Latin array containing at least $\frac14(5-\sqrt{5})n^2$ distinct symbols has a transversal. Finally, we show by computation that every Latin array of order $7$ has a transversal, and we describe all smaller Latin arrays that have no transversal.

I recently came across a combinatorial design problem involving progressive dinner parties (also known as safari suppers). In this note, I provide some elementary methods of designing schedules for these kinds of dinner parties., revised version corrects a few small typos and removes the exception in Theorem 3.7

A frequency $n$-cube $F^n(4;2,2)$ is an $n$-dimensional $4$-by-...-by-$4$ array filled by $0$s and $1$s such that each line contains exactly two $1$s. We classify the frequency $4$-cubes $F^4(4;2,2)$, find a testing set of size $25$ for $F^3(4;2,2)$, and derive an upper bound on the number of $F^n(4;2,2)$. Additionally, for any $n$ greater than $2$, we construct an $F^n(4;2,2)$ that cannot be refined to a latin hypercube, while each of its sub-$F^{n-1}(4;2,2)$ can. Keywords: frequency hypercube, frequency square, latin hypercube, testing set, MDS code, Comment: v.2: revised; computational data attached

A frequency square is a square matrix in which each row and column is a permutation of the same multiset of symbols. A frequency square is of type $$(n;\lambda )$$ if it contains $$n/\lambda $$ symbols, each of which occurs $$\lambda $$ times per row and $$\lambda $$ times per column. In the case when $$\lambda =n/2$$ we refer to the frequency square as binary. A set of k-MOFS $$(n;\lambda )$$ is a set of k frequency squares of type $$(n;\lambda )$$ such that when any two of the frequency squares are superimposed, each possible ordered pair occurs equally often. A set of k-maxMOFS $$(n;\lambda )$$ is a set of k-MOFS $$(n;\lambda )$$ that is not contained in any set of $$(k+1)$$ -MOFS $$(n;\lambda )$$ . For even n, let $$\mu (n)$$ be the smallest k such that there exists a set of k-maxMOFS(n; n/2). It was shown in Britz et al. (Electron. J. Combin. 27(3):#P3.7, 26 pp, 2020) that $$\mu (n)=1$$ if n/2 is odd and $$\mu (n)>1$$ if n/2 is even. Extending this result, we show that if n/2 is even, then $$\mu (n)>2$$ . Also, we show that whenever n is divisible by a particular function of k, there does not exist a set of $$k'$$ -maxMOFS(n; n/2) for any $$k'\leqslant k$$ . In particular, this means that $$\limsup \mu (n)$$ is unbounded. Nevertheless we can construct infinite families of maximal binary MOFS of fixed cardinality. More generally, let $$q=p^u$$ be a prime power and let $$p^v$$ be the highest power of p that divides n. If $$0\leqslant v-uh

We show that for each reduced odd latin square of even order there exists at least one map such that its image is a reduced even latin square of the same order. We prove that this map is injective. As a consequence, we can show that the number of even latin squares of even order is bounded from below by the number of odd latin squares of the same order. This gives a positive answer to the Alon-Tarsi conjecture on even latin squares

It is known that N ( n ) , the maximum number of mutually orthogonal latin squares of order n, satisfies the lower bound N ( n ) ≥ n 1 / 14.8 for large n. For h ≥ 2 , relatively little is known about the quantity N ( h n ) , which denotes the maximum number of ‘HMOLS’ or mutually orthogonal latin squares having a common equipartition into n holes of a fixed size h. We generalize a difference matrix method that had been used previously for explicit constructions of HMOLS. An estimate of R.M. Wilson on higher cyclotomic numbers guarantees our construction succeeds in suitably large finite fields. Feeding this into a generalized product construction, we are able to establish the lower bound N ( h n ) ≥ ( log ⁡ n ) 1 / δ for any δ > 2 and all n > n 0 ( h , δ ) .

Two $n \times n$ Latin squares $L_1, L_2$ are said to be orthogonal if, for every ordered pair $(x,y)$ of symbols, there are coordinates $(i,j)$ such that $L_1(i,j) = x$ and $L_2(i,j) = y$. A $k$-MOLS is a sequence of $k$ pairwise-orthogonal Latin squares, and the existence and enumeration of these objects has attracted a great deal of attention. Recent work of Keevash and Luria provides, for all fixed $k$, log-asymptotically tight bounds on the number of $k$-MOLS. To study the situation when $k$ grows with $n$, we bound the number of ways a $k$-MOLS can be extended to a $(k+1)$-MOLS. These bounds are again tight for constant $k$, and allow us to deduce upper bounds on the total number of $k$-MOLS for all $k$. These bounds are close to tight even for $k$ linear in $n$, and readily generalize to the broader class of gerechte designs, which include Sudoku squares., 18 pages

A Latin array is a matrix of symbols in which no symbol occurs more than once within a row or within a column. A diagonal of an $n\times n$ array is a selection of $n$ cells taken from different rows and columns of the array. The weight of a diagonal is the number of different symbols on it. We show via computation that every Latin array of order $n\le11$ has a diagonal of weight at least $n-1$. A corollary is the existence of near transversals in Latin squares of these orders. More generally, for all $k\le20$ we compute a lower bound on the order of any Latin array that does not have a diagonal of weight at least $n-k$.

This note presents a short proof of Euler's 36 officer conjecture. This implies that there is no affine plane of order $6$, but we also give a direct proof.

With a computer-aided approach based on the connection with equitable partitions, we establish the uniqueness of the orthogonal array OA$(1536,13,2,7)$, constructed in [D.G.Fon-Der-Flaass. Perfect $2$-Colorings of a Hypercube, Sib. Math. J. 48 (2007), 740-745] as an equitable partition of the $13$-cube with quotient matrix $[[0,13],[3,10]]$. By shortening the OA$(1536,13,2,7)$, we obtain $3$ inequivalent orthogonal arrays OA$(768,12,2,6)$, which is a complete classification for these parameters too. After our computing, the first parameters of unclassified binary orthogonal arrays OA$(N,n,2,t)$ attending the Friedman bound $N\ge 2^n(1-n/2(t+1))$ are OA$(2048,14,2,7)$. Such array can be obtained by puncturing any binary $1$-perfect code of length $15$. We construct orthogonal arrays with these and similar parameters OA$(N=2^{n-m+1},n=2^m-2,2,t=2^{m-1}-1)$, $m\ge 4$, that are not punctured $1$-perfect codes. Additionally, we prove that any orthogonal array OA$(N,n,2,t)$ with even $t$ attending the bound $N \ge 2^n(1-(n+1)/2(t+2))$ induces an equitable $3$-partition of the $n$-cube., 18pp. V.2: revised accepted version; the title was changed

A subgraph of an edge-coloured graph is called rainbow if all its edges have distinct colours. The study of rainbow subgraphs goes back more than two hundred years to the work of Euler on Latin squares and has been the focus of extensive research ever since. Euler posed a problem equivalent to finding properly $n$-edge-coloured complete bipartite graphs $K_{n,n}$ which can be decomposed into rainbow perfect matchings. While there are proper edge-colourings of $K_{n,n}$ without even a single rainbow perfect matching, the theme of this paper is to show that with some very weak additional constraints one can find many disjoint rainbow perfect matchings. In particular, we prove that if some fraction of the colour classes have at most $(1-o(1)) n$ edges then one can nearly-decompose the edges of $K_{n,n}$ into edge-disjoint perfect rainbow matchings. As an application of this, we establish in a very strong form a conjecture of Akbari and Alipour and asymptotically prove a conjecture of Barat and Nagy. Both these conjectures concern rainbow perfect matchings in edge-colourings of $K_{n,n}$ with quadratically many colours. Using our techniques, we also prove a number of results on near-decompositions of graphs into other rainbow structures like Hamiltonian cycles and spanning trees. Most notably, we prove that any properly coloured complete graph can be nearly-decomposed into spanning rainbow trees. This asymptotically proves the Brualdi-Hollingsworth and Kaneko-Kano-Suzuki conjectures which predict that a perfect decomposition should exist under the same assumptions.

A classical recursive construction for mutually orthogonal latin squares (MOLS) is shown to hold more generally for a class of permutation codes of length $n$ and minimum distance $n-1$. When such codes of length $p+1$ are included as ingredients, we obtain a general lower bound $M(n,n-1) \ge n^{1.079}$ for large $n$, gaining a small improvement on the guarantee given from MOLS.

A partial transversal T of a Latin square L is a set of entries of L in which each row, column and symbol is represented at most once. A partial transversal is maximal if it is not contained in a larger partial transversal. Any maximal partial transversal of a Latin square of order n has size at least ⌈ n 2 ⌉ and at most n. We say that a Latin square is omniversal if it possesses a maximal partial transversal of all plausible sizes and is near-omniversal if it possesses a maximal partial transversal of all plausible sizes except one. Evans (2019) showed that omniversal Latin squares of order n exist for any odd n ≠ 3 . By extending this result, we show that an omniversal Latin square of order n exists if and only if n ∉ { 3 , 4 } and n ≢ 2 ( mod 4 ) . Furthermore, we show that near-omniversal Latin squares exist for all orders n ≡ 2 ( mod 4 ) . Finally, we show that no non-trivial finite group has an omniversal Cayley table, and only 15 finite groups have a near-omniversal Cayley table. In fact, as n grows, Cayley tables of groups of order n miss a constant fraction of the plausible sizes of maximal partial transversals. In the course of proving this, we partially solve the following interesting problem in combinatorial group theory. Suppose that we have two finite subsets R , C ⊆ G of a group G such that | { r c : r ∈ R , c ∈ C } | = m . How large do | R | and | C | need to be (in terms of m) to be certain that R ⊆ x H and C ⊆ H y for some subgroup H of order m in G, and x , y ∈ G ?

This paper deals with distinct computational methods to enumerate the set $\mathrm{PLR}(r,s,n;m)$ of $r \times s$ partial Latin rectangles on $n$ symbols with $m$ non-empty cells. For fixed $r$, $s$, and $n$, we prove that the size of this set is a symmetric polynomial of degree $3m$, and we determine the leading terms (the monomials of degree $3m$ through $3m-9$) using inclusion-exclusion. For $m \leq 13$, exact formulas for these symmetric polynomials are determined using a chromatic polynomial method. Adapting Sade's method for enumerating Latin squares, we compute the exact size of $\mathrm{PLR}(r,s,n;m)$, for all $r \leq s \leq n \leq 7$, and all $r \leq s \leq 6$ when $n=8$. Using an algebraic geometry method together with Burnside's Lemma, we enumerate isomorphism, isotopism, and main classes when $r \leq s \leq n \leq 6$. Numerical results have been cross-checked where possible., Comment: 36 pages, 2 figures, 15 tables

It is inevitable that the $L_{g}(s)$ association scheme with $g\geq 3, s\geq g+2$ is a pseudo-$L_{g}(s)$ association scheme. On the contrary, although $s^2$ treatments of the pseudo-$L_{g}(s)$ association scheme can form one $L_{g}(s)$ association scheme, it is not always an $L_{g}(s)$ association scheme. Mainly because the set of cardinality $s$, which contains two first-associates treatments of the pseudo-$L_{g}(s)$ association scheme, is non-unique. Whether the order $s$ of a Latin square $\mathbf{L}$ is a prime power or not, the paper proposes two new conditions in order to extend a $POL(s,w)$ containing $\mathbf{L}$. It has been known that a $POL(s,w)$ can be extended to a $POL(s,s-1)$ so long as Bruck's \cite{brh} condition $s\geq \frac{(s-1-w)^4-2(s-1-w)^3+2(s-1-w)^2+(s-1-w)}{2}$ is satisfied, Bruck's condition will be completely improved through utilizing six properties of the $L_{w+2}(s)$ association scheme in this paper. Several examples are given to elucidate the application of our results., Comment: 52 pages

Computing the autotopism group of a partial Latin rectangle can be performed in a variety of ways. This pilot study has two aims: (a) to compare these methods experimentally, and (b) to identify the design goals one should have in mind for developing practical software. To this end, we compare six families of algorithms (two backtracking methods and four graph automorphism methods), with and without the use of entry invariants, on two test suites. We consider two entry invariants: one determined by the frequencies of row, column, and symbol representatives, and one determined by $2 \times 2$ submatrices. We find: (a) with very few entries, many symmetries often exist, and these should be identified mathematically rather than computationally, (b) with an intermediate number of entries, a quick-to-compute entry invariant was effective at reducing the need for computation, (c) with an almost-full partial Latin rectangle, more sophisticated entry invariants are needed, and (d) the performance for (full) Latin squares is significantly poorer than other partial Latin rectangles of comparable size, obstructed by the existence of Latin squares with large (possibly transitive) autotopism groups., Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, 1 table

Difference arrays are used in applications such as software testing, authentication codes and data compression. Pseudo-orthogonal Latin squares are used in experimental designs. A special class of pseudo-orthogonal Latin squares are the mutually nearly orthogonal Latin squares (MNOLS) first discussed in 2002, with general constructions given in 2007. In this paper we develop row complete MNOLS from difference covering arrays. We will use this connection to settle the spectrum question for sets of 3 mutually pseudo-orthogonal Latin squares of even order, for all but the order 146.

In this expository paper, we mainly study orthogonal arrays (OAs) of strength two having a row that is repeated $m$ times. It turns out that the Plackett-Burman bound (\cite{PB}) can be strengthened by a factor of $m$ for orthogonal arrays of strength two that contain a row that is repeated $m$ times. This is a consequence of a more general result due to Mukerjee, Qian and Wu \cite{Muk} that applies to orthogonal arrays of arbitrary strength $t$. We examine several proofs of the Plackett-Burman bound and discuss which of these proofs can be strengthened to yield the aforementioned bound for OAs of strength two with repeated rows. We also briefly discuss related bounds for $t$-designs, and OAs of strength $t$, when $t > 2$.

We construct sequencings for many groups that are a semi-direct product of an odd-order abelian group and a cyclic group of odd prime order. It follows from these constructions that there is a group-based complete Latin square of order $n$ if and only if $n \in \{ 1,2,4\}$ or there is a non-abelian group of order $n$., Comment: 12 pages

This paper will present some intuitive interpretation of the adjugate transformations of arbitrary Latin square. With this trick, we can generate the adjugates of arbitrary Latin square directly from the original one without generating the orthogonal array. The relations of isotopisms and adjugate transformations in composition will also be shown. It will solve the problem that when F1*I1=I2*F2 how can we obtain I2 and F2 from I1 and F1, where I1 and I2 are isotopisms while F1 and F2 are adjugate transformations and "{*}" is the composition of transformations. These methods could distinctly simplify the computation on a computer for the issues related to main classes of Latin squares. This will improve the efficiency apparently in computation for some related problems., Comment: Any comments and criticise are appreciated

We construct orthogonal arrays OA λ ( k , n ) (of strength two) having a row that is repeated m times, where m is as large as possible. In particular, we consider OAs where the ratio m ∕ λ is as large as possible; these OAs are termed optimal. We provide constructions of optimal OAs for any k ≥ n + 1 , albeit with large λ . We also study basic OAs; these are optimal OAs in which gcd ( m , λ ) = 1 . We construct a basic OA with n = 2 and k = 4 t + 1 , provided that a Hadamard matrix of order 8 t + 4 exists. This completely solves the problem of constructing basic OAs with n = 2 , modulo the Hadamard matrix conjecture.

In 1975 Stein conjectured that in every $n\times n$ array filled with the numbers $1, \dots, n$ with every number occuring exactly $n$ times, there is a partial transversal of size $n-1$. In this note we show that this conjecture is false by constructing such arrays without partial transverals of size $n-\frac{1}{42}\ln n$.

A $k$-plex in a latin square of order $n$ is a selection of $kn$ entries that includes $k$ representatives from each row and column and $k$ occurrences of each symbol. A $1$-plex is also known as a transversal.It is well known that if $n$ is even then $B_n$, the addition table for the integers modulo $n$, possesses no transversals. We show that there are a great many latin squares that are similar to $B_n$ and have no transversal. As a consequence, the number of species of transversal-free latin squares is shown to be at least $n^{n^{3/2}(1/2-o(1))}$ for even $n\rightarrow\infty$.We also produce various constructions for latin squares that have no transversal but do have a $k$-plex for some odd $k>1$. We prove a 2002 conjecture of the second author that for all even orders $n>4$ there is a latin square of order $n$ that contains a $3$-plex but no transversal. We also show that for odd $k$ and $m\geq 2$, there exists a latin square of order $2km$ with a $k$-plex but no $k'$-plex for odd $k'

A triple array is a rectangular array containing letters, each letter occurring equally often with no repeats in rows or columns, such that the number of letters common to two rows, two columns, or a row and a column are (possibly different) non-zero constants. Deleting the condition on the letters common to a row and a column gives a double array. We propose the term \emph{sesqui-array} for such an array when only the condition on pairs of columns is deleted. Thus all triple arrays are sesqui-arrays. In this paper we give three constructions for sesqui-arrays. The first gives $(n+1)\times n^2$ arrays on $n(n+1)$ letters for $n\geq 2$. (Such an array for $n=2$ was found by Bagchi.) This construction uses Latin squares. The second uses the \emph{Sylvester graph}, a subgraph of the Hoffman--Singleton graph, to build a good block design for $36$ treatments in $42$ blocks of size~$6$, and then uses this in a $7\times 36$ sesqui-array for $42$ letters. We also give a construction for $K\times(K-1)(K-2)/2$ sesqui-arrays on $K(K-1)/2$ letters. This construction uses biplanes. It starts with a block of a biplane and produces an array which satisfies the requirements for a sesqui-array except possibly that of having no repeated letters in a row or column. We show that this condition holds if and only if the \emph{Hussain chains} for the selected block contain no $4$-cycles. A sufficient condition for the construction to give a triple array is that each Hussain chain is a union of $3$-cycles; but this condition is not necessary, and we give a few further examples. We also discuss the question of which of these arrays provide good designs for experiments., Paper in memory of Anne Penfold Street -- accepted version for Australasian Journal of Combinatorics

An algorithm that uses the cycle structure of the rows, or the columns, of a Latin square to compute its autotopy group is introduced. As a result, a bound for the size of the autotopy group is obtained. This bound is used to show that the computation time for the autotopy group of Latin squares that have two rows or two columns that map from one to the other by a permutation which decomposes into a bounded number of disjoint cycles, is polynomial in the order n .

A \emph{gerechte framework} is a partition of an $n \times n$ array into $n$ regions of $n$ cells each. A \emph{realization} of a gerechte framework is a latin square of order $n$ with the property that when its cells are partitioned by the framework, each region contains exactly one copy of each symbol. A \emph{gerechte design} is a gerechte framework together with a realization. We investigate gerechte frameworks where each region is a rectangle. It seems plausible that all such frameworks have realizations, and we present some progress towards answering this question. In particular, we show that for all positive integers $s$ and $t$, any gerechte framework where each region is either an $s \times t$ rectangle or a $t\times s$ rectangle is realizable., Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures

We show a one-to-one correspondence between arrangements of d lines in the projective plane, and lines in P^{d-2}. We apply this correspondence to classify (3,q)-nets over the complex numbers for all q, 19 pages, to appear in Advances in Geometry. Sections 5, 6 and 7 of old version are worked out in more detail at the beginning of "Arrangements of rational sections over curves and the varieties they define"

We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for there to exist a latin square of order $n$ containing two subsquares of order $a$ and $b$ that intersect in a subsquare of order $c$. We also solve the case of two disjoint subsquares. We use these results to show that: (a) A latin square of order $n$ cannot have more than $\frac nm{n \choose h}/{m\choose h}$ subsquares of order $m$, where $h=\lceil(m+1)/2\rceil$. Indeed, the number of subsquares of order $m$ is bounded by a polynomial of degree at most $\sqrt{2m}+2$ in $n$. (b) For all $n\ge5$ there exists a loop of order $n$ in which every element can be obtained as a product of all $n$ elements in some order and with some bracketing.

Given two integers $m$ and $n$ with $m\leq n$, a Latin rectangle of size $m\times n$ is a bi-dimensional array with $m$ rows and $n$ columns filled with symbols from an alphabet with $n$ symbols, such that each row contains a permutation of the alphabet and each column contains no repeated symbols. Two rows $a$ and $b$ of a Latin rectangle $R$ define a permutation $R_{a,b}$ assigning the symbol $y$ to the symbol $x$ if they are in the same column, $x$ is in row $a$ and $y$ is in row $b$. A Latin rectangle $R$ is perfect is the permutation $R_{a,b}$ is cyclic, for each pair of rows $a$ and $b$. We prove that for each integer $m$ and each large enough odd integer $n$ there is a perfect Latin rectangle $R$ of size $m\times n$. It is a partial (asymptotic) answer to a well-known conjecture which says that the same property holds for each odd integer $m\leq n$.

Sliced Sudoku-based space-filling designs and, more generally, quasi-sliced orthogonal array-based space-filling designs are useful experimental designs in several contexts, including computer experiments with categorical in addition to quantitative inputs and cross-validation. Here, we provide a straightforward construction of doubly orthogonal quasi-Sudoku Latin squares which can be used to generate sliced space-filling designs which achieve uniformity in one and two-dimensional projections for both the full design and each slice. A construction of quasi-sliced orthogonal arrays based on these constructed doubly orthogonal quasi-Sudoku Latin squares is also provided and can, in turn, be used to generate sliced space-filling designs which achieve uniformity in one and two-dimensional projections for the full design and and uniformity in two-dimensional projections for each slice. These constructions are very practical to implement and yield a spectrum of design sizes and numbers of factors not currently broadly available., 15 pages, 9 figures