On the packing number of $ 3 $-token graph of the path graph $ P_n $

In 2018, J. M. Gómez et al. showed that the problem of finding the packing number $ \rho(F_2(P_n)) $ of the 2-token graph $ F_2(P_n) $ of the path $ P_n $ of length $ n\ge 2 $ is equivalent to determining the maximum size of a binary code $ S' $ of constant weight $ w = 2 $ that can correct a s...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Christophe Ndjatchi, Joel Alejandro Escareño Fernández, L. M. Ríos-Castro, Teodoro Ibarra-Pérez, Hans Christian Correa-Aguado, Hugo Pineda Martínez
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: AIMS Press 2024-03-01
Series:AIMS Mathematics
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Online Access:https://www.aimspress.com/article/doi/10.3934/math.2024571?viewType=HTML
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Summary:In 2018, J. M. Gómez et al. showed that the problem of finding the packing number $ \rho(F_2(P_n)) $ of the 2-token graph $ F_2(P_n) $ of the path $ P_n $ of length $ n\ge 2 $ is equivalent to determining the maximum size of a binary code $ S' $ of constant weight $ w = 2 $ that can correct a single adjacent transposition. By determining the exact value of $ \rho(F_2(P_n)) $, they proved a conjecture of Rob Pratt. In this paper, we study a related problem, which consists of determining the packing number $ \rho(F_3(P_n)) $ of the graph $ F_3(P_n) $. This problem corresponds to the Sloane's problem of finding the maximum size of $ S' $ of constant weight $ w = 3 $ that can correct a single adjacent transposition. Since the maximum packing set problem is computationally equivalent to the maximum independent set problem, which is an NP-hard problem, then no polynomial time algorithms are expected to be found. Nevertheless, we compute the exact value of $ \rho(F_3(P_n)) $ for $ n\leq 12 $, and we also present some algorithms that produce a lower bound for $ \rho(F_3(P_n)) $ with $ 13\leq n\leq 44 $. Finally, we establish an upper bound for $ \rho(F_3(P_n)) $ with $ n\geq 13 $.
ISSN:2473-6988