English

Shortest polygonal chains covering each planar square grid

Combinatorics 2024-04-22 v3

Abstract

Given any nZ+n \in \mathbb{Z}^{+}, we constructively prove the existence of covering paths and circuits in the plane which are characterized by the same link length of the minimum-link covering trails for the two-dimensional grid Gn2:={0,1,,n1}×{0,1,,n1}G_n^2 := \{0,1, \ldots, n-1\} \times \{0, 1, \ldots, n-1\}. Furthermore, we introduce a general algorithm that returns a covering cycle of analogous link length for any even value of nn. Finally, we provide the tight upper bound n23+52n^2 - 3 + 5 \cdot \sqrt{2} units for the minimum total distance travelled to visit all the nodes of Gn2G_n^2 with a minimum-link trail (i.e., a trail with 2n22 \cdot n - 2 edges if nn is above two).

Cite

@article{arxiv.2207.08708,
  title  = {Shortest polygonal chains covering each planar square grid},
  author = {Marco Ripà},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.08708},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

18 pages, 13 figures; introduction improved, Kato's conjecture reformulated, and appendix moved after references

R2 v1 2026-06-25T01:01:07.075Z