Uniform Generation of Random Latin Rectangles

Brendan D. McKay1, Nicholas C. Wormald2
1Computer Science Department Australian National University GPO Box 4, ACT 2601 AUSTRALIA
2Department of Mathematics and Statistics University of Auckland Private Bag, Auckland NEW ZEALAND

Abstract

We show how to generate \(k \times n\) Latin rectangles uniformly at random in expected time \(O(nk^3)\), provided \(k = o(n^{1/3})\). The algorithm uses a switching process similar to that recently used by us to uniformly generate random graphs with given degree sequences.