Tuscan-K squares (Q1121893)

An Italian square is an \(n\times n\) array in which each of the symbols 1,2,...,n appears exactly once in each row. A Tuscan-K square is an Italian square with the further property that for any two symbols a and b, and for each t from 1 to K, there is at most one row in which b is the t th symbol to the right of a. A circular Tuscan-K array is an \(n\times (n+1)\) array in which each of the \(n+1\) symbols 1, 1,2,...,n appears exactly once in each of the n rows, and in which the Tuscan-K property holds when the rows are taken to be circular. A Tuscan square is also called a Tuscan-1 square or a row complete Latin square. This paper proves that an \(n\times (n+1)\) polygonal path circular Tuscan-n array exists only if \(n+1\) is prime. The result that an \(n\times n\) polygonal path Tuscan-(n-1) square exists if and only if an \(\infty \times n\) single periodic Costas array exists, is illustrated. A construction for K orthogonal \((n+1)\times (n+1)\) Latin squares, if an \(n\times (n+1)\) circular Tuscan-K array exists is given. The authors review Tuscan-2 squares found by computer, and discuss nine questions.