English

Combinations without specified separations

Combinatorics 2024-09-06 v3

Abstract

We consider the restricted subsets of Nn={1,2,,n}\mathbb{N}_n=\{1,2,\ldots,n\} with q1q\geq1 being the largest member of the set Q\mathcal{Q} of disallowed differences between subset elements. We obtain new results on various classes of problem involving such combinations lacking specified separations. In particular, we find recursion relations for the number of kk-subsets for any Q\mathcal{Q} when NqQ2|\mathbb{N}_q-\mathcal{Q}|\leq2. The results are obtained, in a quick and intuitive manner, as a consequence of a bijection we give between such subsets and the restricted-overlap tilings of an (n+q)(n+q)-board (a linear array of n+qn+q square cells of unit width) with squares (1×11\times1 tiles) and combs. A (w1,g1,w2,g2,,gt1,wt)(w_1,g_1,w_2,g_2,\ldots,g_{t-1},w_t)-comb is composed of tt sub-tiles known as teeth. The ii-th tooth in the comb has width wiw_i and is separated from the (i+1)(i+1)-th tooth by a gap of width gig_i. Here we only consider combs with wi,giZ+w_i,g_i\in\mathbb{Z}^+. When performing a restricted-overlap tiling of a board with such combs and squares, the leftmost cell of a tile must be placed in an empty cell whereas the remaining cells in the tile are permitted to overlap other non-leftmost filled cells of tiles already on the board.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.08167,
  title  = {Combinations without specified separations},
  author = {Michael A. Allen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.08167},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

12 pages, 6 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T03:41:57.517Z