Some new maximal sets of mutually orthogonal Latin squares (Q1404323)

A set of \(t\) mutually orthogonal Latin squares is maximal if it cannot be embedded in a larger set. The problem of constructing such maximal sets can be formulated in a geometric language and is then part of Galois geometries. In the present paper a computer classification of maximal partial spreads of \(\text{PG}(3,4)\setminus \text{PG}(3,2)\) is used for the construction of maximal sets of \(7\) and of \(8\) orthogonal Latin squares of order \(16\) whose existence had hitherto been unknown. Another link to Galois geometries involving spreads and ovoids in hyperbolic quadrics permits among others a computer-free construction of \(7\) orthogonal Latin squares of order \(16.\)