The disjoint-transversal conjecture for row-Latin rectangles

Let AA be an m×nm\times n row-Latin rectangle based on kk. A transversal selects one entry from each column, with all selected entries distinct, and pairwise disjoint transversals share no entries.

Disjoint-transversal conjecture. If m2n1m\ge2n-1, then AA has m(n1)m-(n-1) pairwise disjoint transversals.

This generalizes the observed behavior of the matrices Rm,nR_{m,n}, for which the bound is attained. The claim is presented as an open problem for general row-Latin rectangles.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Glenn G. Chappell, “A Matroid Generalization of a Result on Row-Latin Rectangles”, arXiv:math/9807036 (1998).

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