Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2003.03920

A new representation of mutually orthogonal frequency squares

Jonathan Jedwab·Tabriz Popatia
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Mutually orthogonal frequency squares (MOFS) of type $F(mλ;λ)$ generalize the structure of mutually orthogonal Latin squares: rather than each of $m$ symbols appearing exactly once in each row and in each column of each square, the repetition number is $λ\ge 1$. A classical upper bound for the number of such MOFS is $\frac{(mλ-1)^2}{m-1}$. We introduce a new representation of MOFS of type $F(mλ;λ)$, as a linear combination of $\{0,1\}$ arrays. We use this representation to give an elementary proof of the classical upper bound, together with a structural constraint on a set of MOFS achieving the upper bound. We then use this representation to establish a maximality criterion for a set of MOFS of type $F(mλ;λ)$ when $m$ is even and $λ$ is odd, which simplifies and extends a previous analysis [T. Britz, N.J. Cavenagh, A. Mammoliti, I.M. Wanless, Mutually orthogonal binary frequency squares, Electron. J. Combin., 27(#P3.7), 2020, 26 pages] of the case when $m=2$ and $λ$ is odd.

Explore related subjects

math.CO

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Jonathan Jedwab, Tabriz Popatia. 2020-11-23. A new representation of mutually orthogonal frequency squares. https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.03920

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

Adjunctions, Box Products, and Forcing Families

Sidorenko's conjecture states that the number of copies of any given bipartite graph in another graph of given density is asymptotically minimized by a random graph. For bipartite graphs containing a cycle, the forcing conjecture further asserts that asymptotic equality characterizes quasi-random graphs. We establish an adjoint identity for a general class of graph-substitution operators and use it to obtain Sidorenko and forcing results for balanced blow-ups, subdivisions, Cartesian products, and strong products.

math.CO↗
arXiv2026

On the Cost Number of Graphs with Determining Number Two

A distinguishing vertex coloring of a graph $G$ is a vertex coloring such that only the identity automorphism of $G$ preserves the coloring. A graph is $2$-distinguishable if it admits a distinguishing vertex coloring with two colors, and its cost $ρ(G)$ is the minimum size of a color class in such a coloring. The determining number of a graph $G$, denoted by $Det(G)$, is the minimum size of a subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ such that only the trivial automorphism fixes every element of $S$ pointwise. Boutin (J. Combin. Math. Combin. Comput. 85: 161-171, 2013) asked if $ρ(G)$ and $Det(G)$ can be arbitrarily far apart. While the case for $Det(G) = 1$ is trivial, the answer remained unknown for $Det(G) \ge 2$. In this manuscript, we show that if $Det(G)=2$ then not only is $ρ(G)$ bounded, but in fact $ρ(G) \leq 4$. This is the first resolution of Boutin's question for any nontrivial fixed determining number. Moreover, for every fixed $Det(G)= n$, we construct examples giving a lower bound on any possible upper bound for $ρ(G)$ in terms of $n$.

math.CO↗