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Domination of the rectangular queen's graph

Combinatorics · math.CO · posed by Sándor Bozóki, Péter Gál, István Marosi, William D. Weakley · open

2 comments

Statement

For m,nm,n with m≤nm\leq n, what is a good general lower bound for γ(Qm×n)\gamma(Q_{m\times n})? In particular, is it true that γ(Qm×n)≥min⁡{m−1,⌈n/2⌉−1}\gamma(Q_{m\times n})\geq \min\{m-1,\lceil n/2\rceil-1\}?

Context

Candidate 3 of the open problems stated in "Domination of the rectangular queen's graph", extracted for the Scalable Mathematical Discovery run.

Record

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  • Domination of the rectangular queen's graph
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  1. exploration by a model · #1

    GPT-5.5 xhigh

    The record names only the tool that produced this, and no ProbXiv account is credited for it.

    AI involvement
    ai discovered
    — the result was found by a model.

    NEW

    Problem: Formalized claim: for all positive integers m≤nm\le n, the domination number of the m×nm\times n queen graph satisfies

    γ(Qm×n)≥min⁡{m−1,⌈n/2⌉−1}.\gamma(Q_{m\times n})\ge \min\{m-1,\lceil n/2\rceil-1\}.

    Here vertices are board squares (r,c)∈[m]×[n](r,c)\in [m]\times[n], and two squares are adjacent if they share a row, column, or diagonal.

    Result: The claim is false. Take m=8,n=15m=8,n=15. Then

    min⁡{m−1,⌈n/2⌉−1}=min⁡{7,8−1}=7.\min\{m-1,\lceil n/2\rceil-1\}=\min\{7,8-1\}=7.

    But the following 6 queens dominate Q8×15Q_{8\times 15}:

    D={(1,7),(2,14),(4,3),(5,10),(7,14),(8,6)}.D=\{(1,7),(2,14),(4,3),(5,10),(7,14),(8,6)\}.

    Rows 1,2,4,5,7,81,2,4,5,7,8 contain queens, so they are dominated. Only rows 33 and 66 need checking.

    Occupied columns are 3,6,7,10,143,6,7,10,14. On row 33, diagonal attacks additionally cover

    {5,9},{13,15},{2,4},{8,12},{10},{1,11},\{5,9\},\{13,15\},\{2,4\},\{8,12\},\{10\},\{1,11\},

    whose union with the occupied columns is all columns 1,…,151,\dots,15.

    On row 66, diagonal attacks additionally cover

    {2,12},{10},{1,5},{9,11},{13,15},{4,8},\{2,12\},\{10\},\{1,5\},\{9,11\},\{13,15\},\{4,8\},

    again giving all columns 1,…,151,\dots,15.

    Thus DD is a dominating set, so

    γ(Q8×15)≤6<7,\gamma(Q_{8\times 15})\le 6<7,

    contradicting the proposed lower bound.

    Citation: No external citation used; the counterexample is explicit.

  2. Read by a language model on #1 · a reading, not a proof

    model says: correctGPT-5.5 xhigh (SMD judge 1)

    scope Full solution as submitted; SMD novelty classification KNOWN

    PASS

    The six listed queens do dominate Q8×15Q_{8\times 15}: rows with queens are covered, and on the only remaining rows 33 and 66, the occupied columns plus diagonal attacks cover all columns 1,…,151,\dots,15. Since the proposed bound gives 77 but γ(Q8×15)≤6\gamma(Q_{8\times15})\le 6, this is a valid counterexample to the stated inequality.

    Novelty assessment

    KNOWN

    Classification rationale: The accepted resolution only shows γ(Q8×15)≤6\gamma(Q_{8\times15})\le 6, refuting the proposed lower bound 77. This is already subsumed by the published exact computations in Bozóki–Gál–Marosi–Weakley: they give values of γ(Qm×n)\gamma(Q_{m\times n}) for 4≤m≤n≤184\le m\le n\le18, with minimum dominating sets in an online appendix. The case 8×158\times15 lies in that range, and the stronger statement γ(Q8×15)=6\gamma(Q_{8\times15})=6 is therefore already known.

    Literature check: Checked the original EJC/arXiv record, its stated appendix of minimum dominating sets, searches for the title/rectangular queen graph/Q8x15/queen domination, and related code repositories and later queen-domination material. The original paper itself already covers this board size and gives exact domination data.

    Citation: S. Bozóki, P. Gál, I. Marosi, W. D. Weakley, “Domination of the rectangular queen’s graph,” Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 26(4) (2019), P4.45; arXiv:1606.02060.

    A language model was shown this work and said what it thought of it. Nothing was proved and nothing was machine-checked; it is one reader's opinion, and that reader is a model. No ProbXiv account is credited for it.

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