A258338 Ternary ménage problem: number of seating arrangements for n opposite-sex couples around a circular table such that no spouses and no triples of the same sex seat next to each other. Seats are labeled.

0, 8, 84, 3456, 219120, 19281600, 2324085120, 370554347520, 74897768655360, 18761274367718400, 5708008284647961600, 2072453585852572876800, 885341762559654194995200, 439630143301970662603161600, 251099117378080818090596352000, 163464570058143774978660630528000

Offset: 1

Author

Max Alekseyev, May 27 2015

Keywords

• nonn

Comments

Conjecture: (a(n)/n!^2)^(1/n) ~ (3+sqrt(5))/2. - Vaclav Kotesovec, May 29 2015

Links

• Max Alekseyev, Table of n, a(n) for n = 1..100
• M. A. Alekseyev, Weighted de Bruijn Graphs for the Menage Problem and Its Generalizations. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 9843 (2016), 151-162. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-44543-4_12; arXiv:1510.07926 [math.CO], 2015-2016.

Crossrefs

Cf. A114939 (counts up to rotations and reflections)

Cf. A059375, A094047, A000179, A114938, A137729, A137730, A137737, A137749.

Programs

Mathematica

a[1] = 0;
a[n_] := n! Sum[(-1)^j (n-j)! SeriesCoefficient[ SeriesCoefficient[ Tr[ MatrixPower[{{0, 1, 0, y^2, 0, 0}, {z y^2, 0, 1, 0, y^2, 0}, {z y^2, 0, 0, 0, y^2, 0}, {0, 1, 0, 0, 0, z}, {0, 1, 0, y^2, 0, z}, {0, 0, 1, 0, y^2, 0}}, 2n]], {y, 0, 2n}], {z, 0, j}], {j, 0, n}];
Array[a, 16] (* Jean-François Alcover, Dec 03 2018, from 1st PARI program *)

PARI

{ a(n) = if(n<2, 0, n! * sum(j=0,n, (-1)^j * (n-j)! *polcoeff( polcoeff( trace([0, 1, 0, y^2, 0, 0; z*y^2, 0, 1, 0, y^2, 0; z*y^2, 0, 0, 0, y^2, 0; 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, z; 0, 1, 0, y^2, 0, z; 0, 0, 1, 0, y^2, 0]^(2*n)), 2*n,y) ,j,z)) ); }

PARI

{ a(n) = if(n<2, 0, n! *  polcoeff( serlaplace( polcoeff( trace([-y, z*y, z, 0, z*y, -y; -y, (z - 1)*y, 0, (z - 1)*y^2, z*y, -y; 0, (z - 1)*y, 0, (z - 1)*y^2, 0, -y; -y, 0, z - 1, 0, (z - 1)*y, 0; -y, z*y, z - 1, 0, (z - 1)*y, -y; -y, z*y, 0, z*y^2, z*y, -y]^n), n, y) )/(1-z) + O(z^(n+1)), n, z) ) }

Formula

a(n) = A114939(n) * 4 * n.