An Exhaustive Census of Main-Diagonal Symmetric Costas Arrays of Orders 37-42

We determine by exhaustive enumeration all main-diagonal symmetric Costas arrays of orders 37 through 42. There are 4 arrays of order 37, none of order 38, 16 of order 39, 2 of order 40, 12 of order 41, and 4 of order 42. All belong to known finite-field constructions. The arrays at orders 37-40 are Lempel arrays over $\mathbb{F}_{41}$ or their corner deletions and augmentations; the twelve arrays at order 41 are the Lempel arrays over $\mathbb{F}_{43}$; and the order-42 census consists of two corner augmentations and a reverse-complement pair in the Rickard-Golomb family. Combined with the published census through order 36, these results show that no sporadic main-diagonal symmetric Costas array occurs at orders 24-42. We also develop a collision model for random involutions. The first two terms of its collision exponent are derived analytically, $n^2/18+n^{3/2}/360$, with an $O(n)$ remainder. The lower-order model and clumping correction are empirical. The six new censuses are consistent with the model's prediction of a rapidly declining expected sporadic population.