Signs on Latin squares (Q1342759)

A Latin square, \(L\), of order \(n\) is an \(n\times n\) matrix such that each element in an \(n\)-set \(S\) occurs exactly once in each row and column of \(L\). Each row and column of \(L\) can be thought of as a permutation of \(S\). With each \(L\), the authors associate \(rc\in \{++,+-,-+,--\}\) where \(r\) (respectively \(c\)) is \(+\) if \(L\) has an even number of rows (respectively columns) that are odd permutations, and where \(r\) (respectively \(c\)) is \(-\) if \(L\) has an odd number of rows (respectively columns) that are odd permutations. They show that for \(n= 3\) or \(n\geq 5\), each of the four possible values for \(rc\) occurs for at least one \(L\). Moreover, for odd \(n\geq 3\) they show that each value occurs equally often. For even \(n\) they conjecture that if \(n\equiv 0\pmod 4\) then \(++\) occurs most often and the other three values occur equally often, otherwise \(--\) occurs most often with the others occurring equally often. The conjecture is verified for \(n= 2\), 4, 6, and 8, with computer assistance for \(n= 6\) and 8. They provide a detailed description of the methods used for investigating \(n= 8\) and note that larger cases are computationally beyond their current methods.