English

Maximizing Alternating Paths via Entropy

Combinatorics 2025-05-08 v1

Abstract

We prove that if GG is an nn-vertex graph whose edges are coloured with red and blue, then the number of colour-alternating walks of length 2k+12k+1 with k+1k+1 red edges and kk blue edges is at most kk(k+1)k+1(2k+1)2k1n2k+2k^k(k+1)^{k+1}(2k+1)^{-2k-1}n^{2k+2}. This solves a problem that was recently posed by Basit, Granet, Horsley, K\"undgen and Staden. Our proof involves an application of the entropy method.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2505.03903,
  title  = {Maximizing Alternating Paths via Entropy},
  author = {Hao Chen and Felix Christian Clemen and Jonathan A. Noel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2505.03903},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T23:23:35.745Z