Cayley table of a group of order n with 2n entries deleted

117 Views Asked by At

Let $G$ be a group of order $n$, on elements $x_1, ..., x_n$.

Let's draw the Cayley table of the group, that is, table $A$ with $a_{i,j}$ = [number of $x_i \circ x_j$ in the list $x_1, ..., x_n$] After that, if we erase $K$ entries of the table, for some $K$ it's always possible to determine the deleted entries, and for some $K$ it's not possible since there exist some group $G'$ (maybe, isomorphic to $G$ and maybe not) whose Cayley table is different from $A$, but only in some of the erased cells.

The question is, whether it's always possible to determine original table (for all sufficiently large $n$) if $K=2n$.

Here's what I know so far:

if $K=4n-4$, the table can't be reconstructed when we delete 2 rows and 2 columns, corresponding to identity and some other element $x$ (so, after that we won't be able to determine the difference between them, and different tables for the same group count as different)

if $K=n$, it's possible for $n \neq 4$, because

  • if some column contains only one empty cell, we know what was written in that cell, since all elements in any column must be different

  • after that, you have at least $\lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil$ columns in which you know every single entry

  • Subset of $G$, corresponding to such columns, form a subgroup of $G$, since if you know $x\circ y$ for any $x$, and $x\circ z$ for any $x$ in $G$, then you know $x \circ y \circ z$ for any $x$ in $G$, and $y^{-1}=y^{n-1}$. Let's denote that subgroup $H$.

  • So if you know more than $\frac{n}{2}$ columns, you can reconstruct the table, and the only case when you can't is when $n$ is even and in exactly $\frac{n}{2}$ columns exactly two entries are unknown.

  • The set of elements corresponding to not-yet-known columns is a coset of $H$ ($H$ is subgroup of index 2). That is, its elements are of the form $gh$, $h \in H$, where $g$ is fixed. To know what is $gh_i \circ gh_j$, it's sufficient to know which element equals $gh_i g$ (since we know how to multiply by elements of $H$). And to determine $gh_ig$ we look at cells corresponding to $gh_i \circ gh_j$ (they are in the same column) For all $j$ (except maybe two) we know the value of $g h_i g h_j$ and so, if $n>4$, we definitely know what is $gh_i g$.

  • The same for $h_i \circ gh_j$

So, I'm asking about $K=2n$. Those tricks with subgroup of index two won't work, but I don't think that there are counterexamples for arbitrarily large $n$.

Sorry for my English and unnecessary longishness of description. Feel free to edit the question.