cp's OEIS Frontend

This constant is Heuberger and Wagner's lambda. They consider the number of maximum matchings a tree of n vertices may have, and show that the largest number of maximum matchings (A333347) grows as O(lambda^(n/7)) (see A333346 for the 7th root). Lambda is the larger eigenvalue of matrix M = [8,3/5,3] which is raised to a power when counting matchings in a chain of "C" parts in the trees (their lemma 6.2).

Apart from the first digit the same as A176522. - R. J. Mathar, Apr 03 2020

Heuberger and Wagner consider how many different maximum matchings a tree of n vertices may have. They determine the unique tree (free tree) of n vertices with the largest number of maximum matchings, or at n=6 and n=34 the two trees with equal largest number. a(n) is the largest number of maximum matchings. They show that a(n) grows as O(1.391...^n), where the power is ((11 + sqrt(85))/2)^(1/7) = A333346.

They note an algebraic interpretation too, that a(n) is the largest possible absolute value of the product of the nonzero eigenvalues of the adjacency matrix of a tree of n vertices. This is simply that, in the usual way, a term +- m*x^j in the characteristic polynomial of that matrix means there are m matchings which have j vertices unmatched. The smallest j with a nonzero m is the maximum matchings, and that m is also the product of the nonzero roots.

In Heuberger and Wagner's Sage code, optimal_m(n) is a(n) for the general case tree forms. Their general case symbolic calculations are in terms of lambda = (11 + sqrt(85))/2 = A333345 and its quadratic conjugate lambdabar = (11 - sqrt(85))/2 (called alpha and alphabar in the code). The resulting coefficients give constants c_0 through c_6 in their paper for a(n) -> c_{n mod 7} * lambda^(n/7) (theorem 1.2).

The combinations of powers of lambda and lambdabar occurring are linear recurrences. Recurrence coefficients can be found from a symbolic calculation, or from explicit values and an upper bound on recurrence orders from the patterns of branch lengths and powers. Each case n mod 7 is a recurrence of order up to 44. The simplest is G_k = A190872(k) for n == 1 (mod 7) in the formulas below. Other cases are G variants, and possible additional terms growing slower than G.

The full recurrence for all n is order 574 applying at n=31 onwards (after the last initial exception at n=30). See the links for recurrence coefficients and generating function.