- De Bruijn torus
-
In combinatorial mathematics, a De Bruijn torus, named after Nicolaas Govert de Bruijn, is an array of symbols from an alphabet (often just 0 and 1) that contains every m-by-n matrix exactly once. It is a torus because the edges are considered wraparound for the purpose of finding matrices. Its name comes from the De Bruijn sequence, which can be considered a special case where n is 1 (one dimension).
One of the main open questions regarding De Bruijn tori is whether a De Bruijn torus for a particular alphabet size can be constructed for a given m and n. It is known that these always exist when n = 1, since then we simply get the De Bruijn sequences, which always exist. It is also known that "square" tori exist whenever m = n.[1]
References
- ^ Jackson, Brad; Stevens, Brett; Hurlbert, Glenn (Sept. 2009). "Research problems on Gray codes and universal cycles". Discrete Mathematics 309 (17): 5341–5348. doi:10.1016/j.disc.2009.04.002.
Categories:
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.