The size of the smallest latin interchange in a back circulant latin square.
by
Nicholas J Cavenagh
University of Queensland

Given two distinct latin squares L₁ and L₂ of order n, the set of elements of L₁ which differ from those in L₂ is a latin interchange. We show that the size of the smallest latin interchange in the back circulant square of order n is no less than elogp +2, where p is the smallest prime that divides n. We also show that if n is a term in the Fibonacci sequence, there is a latin interchange of size O(logn) in the back circulant latin square of order n.

Date received: November 2, 2000