Zero-sum squares in bounded discrepancy \(\{-1,1\}\)-matrices (Q2236819)

Summary: For \(n\geqslant 5\), we prove that every \(n\times n\) matrix \(\mathcal{M}=(a_{i,j})\) with entries in \(\{-1,1\}\) and absolute discrepancy \(\vert\text{disc}(\mathcal{M})\vert=\vert\sum a_{i,j}\vert\leqslant n\) contains a zero-sum square except for the split matrices (up to symmetries). Here, a square is a \(2\times 2\) sub-matrix of \(\mathcal{M}\) with entries \(a_{i,j}\), \(a_{i+s,s}\), \(a_{i,j+s}\), \(a_{i+s,j+s}\) for some \(s\geqslant 1\), and a split matrix is a matrix with all entries above the diagonal equal to \(-1\) and all remaining entries equal to 1. In particular, we show that for \(n\geqslant 5\) every zero-sum \(n\times n\) matrix with entries in \(\{-1,1\}\) contains a zero-sum square.