On the completion of $\epsilon$-dense partial Latin squares

Shikang Yu; Tao Feng

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arXiv · 2606.31143

On the completion of $\epsilon$-dense partial Latin squares

Shikang Yu·Tao Feng

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Abstract

A partial Latin square of order $n$ is called $\epsilon$-dense if each row and each column contains at most $\epsilon n$ filled cells, and each symbol occurs at most $\epsilon n$ times. A partial Latin square is said to be completable if its empty cells can be filled to obtain a Latin square. Daykin and H\"{a}ggkvist conjectured that every $\frac{1}{4}$-dense partial Latin square is completable. In this paper, we show that for all sufficiently large integers $n$, every $\frac{2}{25}$-dense partial Latin square of order $n$ is completable. The proof is obtained by establishing that there exists an $\eta > 0$ such that every triangle-divisible balanced tripartite graph on $3n$ vertices with partite minimum degree at least $(\frac{23}{25}-\eta)n$ admits a fractional triangle decomposition.

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Shikang Yu, Tao Feng. 2026-06-30. On the completion of $\epsilon$-dense partial Latin squares. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.31143

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