On large set plus of disjoint incomplete Latin squares (Q2144518)

An incomplete Latin square \(L\in\mathrm{ILS}(n;a_1,\ldots, a_k)\) is an \(n\times n\) array whose entries belong to an \(n\)-set \(X\), together with \(k\) pairwise disjoint \(a_i\)-subsets \(A_i\subseteq X\), with \(1\leq i\leq k\), such that: (1) each cell of \(L\) is either empty or contains an element \(L[i,j]\in X\); (2) the subarray indexed by each \(A_i\times A_i\) is empty; and (3) the elements in the \(x^\mathrm{th}\) row or \(x^\mathrm{th}\) column of \(L\) are exactly those of \(X\setminus A_i\), if \(x\in A_i\), or those of \(X\), otherwise. This array is a partitioned incomplete Latin square if \(\sum_{1\leq i\leq k}a_i=n\). In particular, \(\mathrm{PILS}(a_1^{s_1}\ldots a_t^{s_t})\) denotes the set of partitioned incomplete Latin squares with exactly \(s_i\) subsets of size \(a_i\), with \(1\leq i\leq t\). Further, two incomplete Latin squares \(L\) and \(L^\prime\) defined on the same set are disjoint if \(L[i,j]\neq L^\prime[i,j]\), for each non-empty cell \((i,j)\). A large set of disjoint incomplete Latin squares \(\mathrm{LDILS}(n+a;a)\) is a set of \(n\) pairwise disjoint \(\mathrm{ILS}(n+a;a)\) defined on the same set. Similarly, a large set of partitioned incomplete Latin squares \(\mathrm{LSPILS}(g^nu^1)\), with \(g<u\), is a set of \(g\cdot (n-1)\) pairwise disjoint \(\mathrm{PILS}(g^nu^1)\) defined on the same \((gn+u)\)-set. In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of large set plus of disjoint incomplete Latin squares \(\mathrm{LDILS}^+(n+a;a)\). It is the union of a \(\mathrm{LDILS}(n+a;a)\), which is defined on an \((n+a)\)-set \(X\cup Y\) and an \(a\)-subset \(Y\), and a set of \(a\) Latin squares of order \(n\), which are defined on the set \(X\) and whose entries are formed by the \(a\cdot n^2\) ordered triples in \(X\times X\times X\) that are not entries in any of the previous incomplete Latin squares. It follows similarly to the known concept of large set plus of partitioned incomplete Latin squares \(\mathrm{LSPILS}^+(g^nu^1)\). Then, the authors prove that, for every non-negative integer \(a\leq n\), there exists an \(\mathrm{LDILS}^+(n+a,a)\) if and only if \((n,a)\not\in\left\{(2,1),\,(6,5)\right\}\). In addition, they make use of the existence of \(\mathrm{LDILS}^+\) to prove the existence of \(\mathrm{LSPILS}^+(g^{qn}(gu)^1)\), for all \(g\geq 1\), whenever \(q\) is a prime power with \(q\geq u+1\geq 4\), and \(n=\prod_{1\leq i\leq t} p_i^{e_i}\) is such that \(p_1,\ldots,p_t\) are distinct primes and \(e_1,\ldots,e_t\) are positive integers, with \(p_i^{e_i}\geq 4\), for all \(1\leq i\leq t\).