Construction of parametrized families of general pseudo-bimagic and bimagic squares

Abstract

A magic square of order $n$ is a square array of $n^2$ distinct integers such that the integers of every row, every column and the two diagonals have the same common sum. If a magic square remains a magic square even when each integer is replaced by its square, it is called bimagic. If, however, all the rows and all the columns of the aforementioned square of squares add up to a common sum, but the two diagonals do not, the original magic square is called pseudo-bimagic. Except for one family of $6 \times 6$ pseudo-bimagic squares, parametrized families of bimagic squares have not been published. In this paper we construct parametrized families of $6 \times 6$ pseudo-bimagic squares and $8 \times 8$ bimagic squares. We use these families to construct, for any positive integer $m$, multi-parameter families of pseudo-bimagic squares of order $6m$ and bimagic squares of order $8m$. We also give numerical examples of $6 \times 6$ and $12 \times 12$ pseudo-bimagic squares and an $8 \times 8$ bimagic square.