Products of all elements in a loop and a framework for non-associative analogues of the Hall-Paige conjecture. (Q1028837)

Summary: For a finite loop \(Q\), let \(P(Q)\) be the set of elements that can be represented as a product containing each element of \(Q\) precisely once. Motivated by the recent proof of the Hall-Paige conjecture, we prove several universal implications between the following conditions: (A) \(Q\) has a complete mapping, i.e. the multiplication table of \(Q\) has a transversal, (B) there is no \(N\trianglelefteq Q\) such that \(|N|\) is odd and \(Q/N\cong\mathbb{Z}_{2^m}\) for \(m\geq 1\), and (C) \(P(Q)\) intersects the associator subloop of \(Q\). We prove (A) \(\Rightarrow\) (C) and (B) \(\Leftrightarrow\) (C) and show that when \(Q\) is a group, these conditions reduce to familiar statements related to the Hall-Paige conjecture (which essentially says that in groups (B) \(\Rightarrow\) (A)). We also establish properties of \(P(Q)\), prove a generalization of the Dénes-Hermann theorem, and present an elementary proof of a weak form of the Hall-Paige conjecture.