The free semigroup of magic squares (Q1919165)

The authors studies a law of composition upon magic (semimagic or panmagic) squares, already introduced in the literature, that provides the set of all magic (semimagic or panmagic) squares with a structure of semigroup. He then proves a conjecture of \textit{A. Adler} and \textit{S.-Y. R. Li} [Am. Math. Mon. 84, 618-627 (1977; Zbl 0389.05018)] and \textit{A. Adler} [Electron. J. Comb. 4, No. 1, Research Paper R15 (1997; Zbl 0885.05007)], that this semigroup is free.