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This is a front-end for the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, made by Christian Perfect. The idea is to provide OEIS entries in non-ancient HTML, and then to think about how they're presented visually. The source code is on GitHub.

A001998 Bending a piece of wire of length n+1; walks of length n+1 on a tetrahedron; also non-branched catafusenes with n+2 condensed hexagons.

Original entry on oeis.org

1, 2, 4, 10, 25, 70, 196, 574, 1681, 5002, 14884, 44530, 133225, 399310, 1196836, 3589414, 10764961, 32291602, 96864964, 290585050, 871725625, 2615147350, 7845353476, 23535971854, 70607649841, 211822683802, 635467254244, 1906400965570, 5719200505225, 17157599124190
Offset: 0

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Author

N. J. A. Sloane

Keywords

Comments

The wire stays in the plane, there are n bends, each is R,L or O; turning the wire over does not count as a new figure.
Equivalently, walks of n+1 steps on a tetrahedron, visiting n+2 vertices, with n "corners"; the symmetry group is S4, reversing a walk does not count as different. Simply interpret R,L,O as instructions to turn R, turn L, or retrace the last step. Walks are not self-avoiding.
Also, it appears that a(n) gives the number of equivalence classes of n-tuples of 0, 1 and 2, where two n-tuples are equivalent if one can be obtained from the other by a sequence of operations R and C, where R denotes reversal and C denotes taking the 2's complement (C(x)=2-x). This has been verified up to a(19)=290585050. Example: for n=3 there are ten equivalence classes {000, 222}, {001, 100, 122, 221}, {002, 022, 200, 220}, {010, 212}, {011, 110, 112, 211}, {012, 210}, {020, 202}, {021, 102, 120, 201}, {101, 121}, {111}, so a(3)=10. - John W. Layman, Oct 13 2009
There exists a bijection between chains of n+2 hexagons and the above described equivalence classes of n-tuples of 0,1, and 2. Namely, for a given chain of n+2 hexagons we take the sequence of the numbers of vertices of degree 2 (0, 1, or 2) between the consecutive contact vertices on one side of the chain; switching to the other side we obtain the 2's complement of this sequence; reversing the order of the hexagons, we obtain the reverse sequence. The inverse mapping is straightforward. For example, to a linear chain of 7 hexagons there corresponds the 5-tuple 11111. - Emeric Deutsch, Apr 22 2013
If we treat two wire bends (or walks, or tuples) related by turning over (or reversing) as different in any of the above-given interpretations of this sequence, we get A007051 (or A124302). Also, a(n-1) is the sum of first 3 terms in n-th row of A284949, see crossrefs therein. - Andrey Zabolotskiy, Sep 29 2017
a(n-1) is the number of color patterns (set partitions) in an unoriented row of length n using 3 or fewer colors (subsets). - Robert A. Russell, Oct 28 2018
From Allan Bickle, Jun 02 2022: (Start)
a(n) is the number of (unlabeled) 3-paths with n+6 vertices. (A 3-path with order n at least 5 can be constructed from a 4-clique by iteratively adding a new 3-leaf (vertex of degree 3) adjacent to an existing 3-clique containing an existing 3-leaf.)
Recurrences appear in the papers by Bickle, Eckhoff, and Markenzon et al. (End)
a(n) is also the number of distinct planar embeddings of the (n+1)-alkane graph (up to at least n=9, and likely for all n). - Eric W. Weisstein, May 21 2024

Examples

			There are 2 ways to bend a piece of wire of length 2 (bend it or not).
For n=4 and a(n-1)=10, the 6 achiral patterns are AAAA, AABB, ABAB, ABBA, ABCA, and ABBC.  The 4 chiral pairs are AAAB-ABBB, AABA-ABAA, AABC-ABCC, and ABAC-ABCB. - _Robert A. Russell_, Oct 28 2018

References

  • A. T. Balaban, Enumeration of Cyclic Graphs, pp. 63-105 of A. T. Balaban, ed., Chemical Applications of Graph Theory, Ac. Press, 1976; see p. 75.
  • S. J. Cyvin, B. N. Cyvin, and J. Brunvoll, Enumeration of tree-like octagonal systems: catapolyoctagons, ACH Models in Chem. 134 (1997), 55-70.
  • M. R. Nester (1999). Mathematical investigations of some plant interaction designs. PhD Thesis. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. [See A056391 for pdf file of Chap. 2.]
  • R. C. Read, The Enumeration of Acyclic Chemical Compounds, pp. 25-61 of A. T. Balaban, ed., Chemical Applications of Graph Theory, Ac. Press, 1976. [I think this reference does not mention this sequence. - N. J. A. Sloane, Aug 10 2006]
  • N. J. A. Sloane, A Handbook of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1973 (includes this sequence).
  • N. J. A. Sloane and Simon Plouffe, The Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences, Academic Press, 1995 (includes this sequence).

Links

Crossrefs

Cf. A036359, A002216, A005963, A000228, A001997, A001444, A038766, A007051.
Column 3 of A320750, offset by one. Column k = 0 of A323942, offset by two.
Cf. A124302 (oriented), A107767 (chiral), A182522 (achiral), with varying offsets.
Column 3 of A320750.
The numbers of unlabeled k-paths for k = 2..7 are given in A005418, A001998, A056323, A056324, A056325, and A345207, respectively.
The sequences above converge to A103293(n+1).

Programs

  • GAP
    a:=[];; for n in [2..45] do if n mod 2 =0 then Add(a,((3^((n-2)/2)+1)/2)^2); else Add(a,  3^((n-3)/2)+(1/4)*(3^(n-2)+1)); fi; od; a; # Muniru A Asiru, Oct 28 2018
  • Maple
    A001998 := proc(n) if n = 0 then 1 elif n mod 2 = 1 then (1/4)*(3^n+4*3^((n-1)/2)+1) else (1/4)*(3^n+2*3^(n/2)+1); fi; end;
A001998:=(-1+3*z+2*z**2-8*z**3+3*z**4)/(z-1)/(3*z-1)/(3*z**2-1); # conjectured by Simon Plouffe in his 1992 dissertation; gives sequence with an extra leading 1
  • Mathematica
    a[n_?OddQ] := (1/4)*(3^n + 4*3^((n - 1)/2) + 1); a[n_?EvenQ] := (1/4)*(3^n + 2*3^(n/2) + 1); Table[a[n], {n, 0, 27}] (* Jean-François Alcover, Jan 25 2013, from formula *)
LinearRecurrence[{4,0,-12,9},{1,2,4,10},30] (* Harvey P. Dale, Apr 10 2013 *)
Ach[n_, k_] := Ach[n, k] = If[n<2, Boole[n==k && n>=0], k Ach[n-2,k] + Ach[n-2,k-1] + Ach[n-2,k-2]] (* A304972 *)
k=3; Table[Sum[StirlingS2[n,j]+Ach[n,j],{j,k}]/2,{n,40}] (* Robert A. Russell, Oct 28 2018 *)
  • PARI
    Vec((1-2*x-4*x^2+6*x^3)/((1-x)*(1-3*x)*(1-3*x^2)) + O(x^50)) \\ Colin Barker, May 15 2016

Formula

a(n) = if n mod 2 = 0 then ((3^((n-2)/2)+1)/2)^2 else 3^((n-3)/2)+(1/4)*(3^(n-2)+1).
G.f.: (1-2*x-4*x^2+6*x^3) / ((1-x)*(1-3*x)*(1-3*x^2)). - Corrected by Colin Barker, May 15 2016
a(n) = 4*a(n-1)-12*a(n-3)+9*a(n-4), with a(0)=1, a(1)=2, a(2)=4, a(3)=10. - Harvey P. Dale, Apr 10 2013
a(n) = (1+3^n+3^(1/2*(-1+n))*(2-2*(-1)^n+sqrt(3)+(-1)^n*sqrt(3)))/4. - Colin Barker, May 15 2016
E.g.f.: (2*sqrt(3)*sinh(sqrt(3)*x) + 3*exp(2*x)*cosh(x) + 3*cosh(sqrt(3)*x))/6. - Ilya Gutkovskiy, May 15 2016
From Robert A. Russell, Oct 28 2018: (Start)
a(n-1) = (A124302(n) + A182522(n)) / 2 = A124302(n) - A107767(n-1) = A107767(n-1) + A182522(n).
a(n-1) = Sum_{j=1..k} (S2(n,j) + Ach(n,j)) / 2, where k=3 is the maximum number of colors, S2 is the Stirling subset number A008277, and Ach(n,k) = [n>=0 & n<2 & n==k] + [n>1]*(k*Ach(n-2,k) + Ach(n-2,k-1) + Ach(n-2,k-2)).
a(n-1) = A057427(n) + A056326(n) + A056327(n). (End)
a(2*n) = A007051(n)^2; a(2*n+1) = A007051(n)*A007051(n+1). - Todd Simpson, Mar 25 2024

Extensions

Offset and Maple code corrected by Colin Mallows, Nov 12 1999
Term added by Robert A. Russell, Oct 30 2018

Started in 1964 by Neil J. A. Sloane | Maintained by The OEIS Foundation Inc.

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