A quasigroup is a set QQ with a binary operation \cdot such that for all a,bQa,b\in Q, the equations

ax=bandya=bax=b\quad\text{and}\quad ya=b

each have unique solutions x,yQx,y\in Q.

A quasigroup with an identity element is called a .

Equivalent characterizations

Equivalently, a quasigroup is a whose Cayley table forms a Latin square—each element appears exactly once in each row and column.

Examples
  • (Z,)(\mathbb{Z},-) — integers under subtraction
  • (R+,÷)(\mathbb{R}^+,\div) — positive reals under division
  • Any Latin square defines a quasigroup