Related papers: Higher-dimensional cubical sliding puzzles
Over the last decade, Sudoku, a combinatorial number-placement puzzle, has become a favorite pastimes of many all around the world. In this puzzle, the task is to complete a partially filled $9 \times 9$ square with numbers 1 through 9,…
This paper presents a novel construction method for symmetric Sudoku-type games based on Lee distance perfect codes and diameter perfect codes. The proposed method utilizes the tiling property of these codes to define the structure of the…
Given a chain of $HW$ cubes where each cube is marked "turn $90^\circ$" or "go straight", when can it fold into a $1 \times H \times W$ rectangular box? We prove several variants of this (still) open problem NP-hard: (1) allowing some cubes…
This paper studies two families of constraints for two-dimensional and multidimensional arrays. The first family requires that a multidimensional array will not contain a cube of zeros of some fixed size and the second constraint imposes…
Symbolic computation, powered by modern computer algebra systems, has important applications in mathematical reasoning through exact deep computations. The efficiency of symbolic computation is largely constrained by such deep computations…
Consider a periodical (in two independent directions) tiling of the plane with polygons (faces). In this article we shall only give examples using squares, regular hexagons, equilateral triangles and parallelograms ("unions" of two…
We explore the following problem: given a collection of creases on a piece of paper, each assigned a folding direction of mountain or valley, is there a flat folding by a sequence of simple folds? There are several models of simple folds;…
We present a methodology for generating Ising Hamiltonians of tunable complexity and with a priori known ground states based on a decomposition of the model graph into edge-disjoint subgraphs. The idea is illustrated with a spin-glass model…
This paper introduces a new reconfiguration problem of matchings in a triangular grid graph. In this problem, we are given a nearly perfect matching in which each matching edge is labeled, and aim to transform it to a target matching by…
Recently, we have pointed out that sign-coherent 4-dimensional structures can not dominate topological charge fluctuations in QCD vacuum at all scales. Here we show that an enhanced lower-dimensional coherence is possible. In pure SU(3)…
We construct a unilateral lattice tiling of $\mathbb{R}^n$ into hypercubes of two differnet side lengths $p$ or $q$. This generalizes the Pythagorean tiling in $\mathbb{R}^2$. We also show that this tiling is unique up to symmetries, which…
Recent years have seen significant advances in the study of symmetric informationally complete (SIC) quantum measurements, also known as maximal sets of complex equiangular lines. Previously, the published record contained solutions up to…
We consider systems of "pinned balls," i.e., balls that have fixed positions and pseudo-velocities. Pseudo-velocities change according to the same rules as those for velocities of totally elastic collisions between moving balls. The times…
Su-Doku, a popular combinatorial puzzle, provides an excellent testbench for heuristic explorations. Several interesting questions arise from its deceptively simple set of rules. How many distinct Su-Doku grids are there? How to find a…
An edge tessellation is a tiling of the plane generated by reflecting a polygon in its edges. We prove that a polygon generating an edge tessellation is one the following eight types: a rectangle; an equilateral, 60-right, isosceles right,…
Reconfiguration problems involve determining whether two given configurations can be transformed into each other under specific rules. The Token Sliding problem asks whether, given two different set of tokens on vertices of a graph $G$, we…
We prove that two pushing-blocks puzzles are intractable in 2D. One of our constructions improves an earlier result that established intractability in 3D [OS99] for a puzzle inspired by the game PushPush. The second construction answers a…
Based on a previous generalization by the author of Latin squares to Latin boards, this paper generalizes partial Latin squares and related objects like partial Latin squares, completable partial Latin squares and Latin square puzzles. The…
Denote by Q_d the d-dimensional hypercube. Addressing a recent question we estimate the number of ways the vertex set of Q_d can be partitioned into vertex disjoint smaller cubes. Among other results, we prove that the asymptotic order of…
Two new constructions are presented for coils and snakes in the hypercube. Improvements are made on the best known results for snake-in-the-box coils of dimensions 9, 10 and 11, and for some other circuit codes of dimensions between 8 and…