English

The number of non-isomorphic arithmetic expressions that can be constructed using +,-,x and /

Combinatorics 2026-02-24 v1 Number Theory

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to count the number of distinct functions of n variables, up to permutation of the variables, that can be constructed using each variable exactly once, without constants, using only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We refer to such a function as an arithmetic expression. Under this definition, two expressions are identical if they represent the same rational function; for example, x1x2x3x_1-x_2-x_3 and x1(x2+x3)x_1-(x_2+x_3) are identical arithmetic expressions, as are x1(x2+x3)x_1(x_2+x_3) and (x2+x3)x1(x_2+x_3)x_1. Two arithmetic expressions are said to be isomorphic if one can be obtained from the other by a permutation of the variables. For example, (x1x2)/x3(x_1-x_2)/x_3 and (x2x3)/x1(x_2-x_3)/x_1 are isomorphic. The first few values of the number of non-isomorphic arithmetic expressions with n variables are: 1,4,18,93,500,2844,16621,99674,608448,...1,4,18,93,500,2844,16621,99674,608448,... In order to accomplish this enumeration, we classify the set of all arithmetic expressions into 12 disjoint categories. Counting all non-isomorphic expressions in each category allows us to obtain the total required quantity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.18522,
  title  = {The number of non-isomorphic arithmetic expressions that can be constructed using +,-,x and /},
  author = {Boaz Cohen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.18522},
  year   = {2026}
}