Commuting pairs in quasigroups (Q6916612)

In this work, a pair \((x, y)\) in a quasigroup \((Q, \ast)\) is called a commuting pair if\N\[\Nx \ast y = y \ast x \quad \text{for all } x, y \in Q.\N\]\NThe symbol \(\mathcal{C}(Q)\) denotes the number of commuting pairs in \(Q\), that is,\N\[\N\mathcal{C}(Q) = \bigl| \{ (x, y) \in Q^2 \mid x \ast y = y \ast x \} \bigr|.\N\]\NLet \(n\) be a positive integer and define\N\[\N\mathcal{C}(n) = \bigcup_{Q} \mathcal{C}(Q) \quad \text{and} \quad \mathcal{D}(n) = \{ n, n+2, n+4, \ldots, n^2 - 6 \} \cup \{ n^2 \}.\N\]\NIf \(\mathcal{C}(n) = \mathcal{D}(n)\), then \(n\) is said to be \textit{saturated}.\N\NThe paper presents two main theorems, derived from several technical lemmas. The first one, Theorem 1.2, states that for any positive integer \(n\) and any integer \(k \in \mathcal{D}(n)\), there exists a quasigroup of order \(n\) having exactly \(k\) commuting pairs. Using Theorem~1.2, the authors further prove Theorem 1.3, which provides a characterization of the set \(\mathcal{K}(q)\) of positive integers \(n\) such that there exists a quasigroup \(Q\) of order \(n\) with \(\frac{\mathcal{C}(Q)}{n^2} = q\) for each \(q \in (0,1) \cap \mathbb{Q}\).