Mutually orthogonal latin squares with large holes

Two latin squares are orthogonal if, when they are superimposed, every ordered pair of symbols appears exactly once. This definition extends naturally to 'incomplete' latin squares each having a hole on the same rows, columns, and symbols. If an incomplete latin square of order n has a hole of order m, then it is an easy observation that n >= 2m. More generally, if a set oft incomplete mutually orthogonal latin squares of order n have a common hole of order in, then n >= (t + 1)m. In this article, we prove such sets of incomplete squares exist for all n, m >> 0 satisfying n >= 8(t + 1)(2)m. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.