Wide enough Latin rectangles are perfects

Abstract: Given two integers

m

and

n

with

m l e q n

, a Latin rectangle of size

m i m e s n

is a bi-dimensional array with

m

rows and

n

columns filled with symbols from an alphabet with

n

symbols, such that each row contains a permutation of the alphabet and each column contains no repeated symbols. Two rows

a

and

b

of a Latin rectangle

R

define a permutation

R_{a, b}

assigning the symbol

y

to the symbol

x

if they are in the same column,

x

is in row

a

and

y

is in row

b

. A Latin rectangle

R

is perfect is the permutation

R_{a, b}

is cyclic, for each pair of rows

a

and

b

. We prove that for each integer

m

and each large enough odd integer

n

there is a perfect Latin rectangle

R

of size

m i m e s n

. It is a partial (asymptotic) answer to a well-known conjecture which says that the same property holds for each odd integer

m l e q n

.

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