Related papers: The $n$-queens problem

A chessboard has the property that every row and every column has as many white squares as black squares. In this mostly methodological note, we address the problem of counting such rectangular arrays with a fixed (numeric) number of rows,…

Let $\tau_{m,n}$ denote the maximal number of points on the discrete torus (discrete toric grid) of sizes $m \times n$ with no three collinear points. The value $\tau_{m,n}$ is known for the case where $\gcd(m,n)$ is prime. It is also known…

We consider a problem proposed by Linial and Wilf to determine the structure of graphs that allows the maximum number of $q$-colorings among graphs with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges. Let $T_r(n)$ denote the Tur\'{a}n graph - the complete…

We prove an asymptotic for the number of additive triples of bijections $\{1,\dots,n\}\to\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$, that is, the number of pairs of bijections $\pi_1,\pi_2\colon \{1,\dots,n\}\to\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}$ such that the pointwise…

We use an invariant-theoretic method to compute certain twists of the modular curves X(n) for n=7,9,11. Searching for rational points on these twists enables us to find non-trivial pairs of n-congruent elliptic curves over Q, i.e. pairs of…

We study the proportional chore division problem where a protocol wants to divide an undesirable object, called chore, among $n$ different players. The goal is to find an allocation such that the cost of the chore assigned to each player be…

In this paper we study the number $M_{m,n}$ of ways to place nonattacking pawns on an $m\times n$ chessboard. We find an upper bound for $M_{m,n}$ and analyse its asymptotic behavior. It turns out that $\lim_{m,n\to\infty}(M_{m,n})^{1/mn}$…

We study the disproportionate version of the classical cake-cutting problem: how efficiently can we divide a cake, here $[0,1]$, among $n$ agents with different demands $\alpha_1, \alpha_2, \dots, \alpha_n$ summing to $1$? When all the…

Let $T(\Z_m \times \Z_n)$ denote the maximal number of points that can be placed on an $m \times n$ discrete torus with "no three in a line," meaning no three in a coset of a cyclic subgroup of $\Z_m \times \Z_n$. By proving upper bounds…

PARITY is the problem of determining the parity of a string $f$ of $n$ bits given access to an oracle that responds to a query $x\in\{0,1,...,n-1\}$ with the $x^{\rm th}$ bit of the string, $f(x)$. Classically, $n$ queries are required to…

The Tur{\'a}n inequalities and the Laguerre inequalities are closely related to the Laguerre-P\'{o}lya class and the Riemann hypothesis. These inequalities have been extensively studied in the literature. In this paper, we propose a method…

A formal n-square is the set of positions in an square matrix of size n. A shuffle of a formal n-square consists of independent rotations of each row and of each column. A key result turns out to be valid at least for n <= 34 and n = 37:…

The no-(k+1)-in line problem seeks the maximum number of points that can be selected from an $n \times n$ square lattice such that no $k+1$ of them are collinear. The problem was first posed more than $100$ years ago for the special case…

Let Q(N;q,a) denotes the number of squares in the arithmetic progression qn+a, for n=0, 1,...,N-1, and let Q(N) be the maximum of Q(N;q,a) over all non-trivial arithmetic progressions qn + a. Rudin's conjecture asserts that Q(N)=O(Sqrt(N)),…

We consider Chess played on an $m \times n$ board (with $m$ and $n$ arbitrary positive integers), with only the two kings and the white rook remaining, but placed at arbitrary positions. Using the symbolic finite state method, developed by…

We study the process of bootstrap percolation on n x n permutation matrices, inspired by the work of Shapiro and Stephens [5]. In this percolation model, cells mutate (from 0 to 1) if at least two of their cardinal neighbors contain a 1,…

Chess graphs encode the moves that a particular chess piece can make on an $m\times n$ chessboard. We study through these graphs through the lens of chip-firing games and graph gonality. We provide upper and lower bounds for the gonality of…

Turan's method, as expressed in his books, is a careful study of trigonometric polynomials from different points of view. The present article starts from a problem asked by Turan: how to construct a sequence of real numbers x(j) (j=…

The problem of determining which permutations can be sorted using certain switchyard networks dates back to Knuth in 1968. In this work, we are interested in permutations which are sortable on a double-ended queue (called a deque), or on…

We obtain congruences for the number a(n) of cubic partitions using modular forms. The notion of cubic partitions is introduced by Chan and named by Kim in connection with Ramanujan's cubic continued fractions. Chan has shown that a(n) has…