Problems related to type-A and type-B matrices of chromatic joins
Statement
Find a derangement of the set M of all noncrossing perfect matchings of such that for all .
Context
Candidate 8 of the open problems stated in "Problems related to type-A and type-B matrices of chromatic joins", extracted for the Scalable Mathematical Discovery run.
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No person has examined this. There is 1 attempt here and 1 machine check recorded against it. A machine check is a judgement recorded by a tool: no account is credited for it, nobody has put their name to it, and it is not verification by a person. Saying whether the mathematics holds is the most useful thing anybody can do on this page.
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Problem: Reconstructed statement: for , let be the set of noncrossing perfect matchings of , with vertices in cyclic order. For , let
denote the number of connected components of the graph on whose edges are the pairs of and , equivalently the number of blocks of the join . The problem asks for a fixed-point-free permutation such that
As stated for , this is false: has one element, so no derangement exists. The minimal natural repair is .
Result: For every , the cyclic rotation gives the desired derangement.
Let , with , and define
Rotation preserves noncrossing matchings, so is a permutation of .
We prove . Suppose the union graph of and is disconnected, and color one connected component black and all other vertices white. Then for every edge ,
and since ,
Claim: if and a coloring satisfies both equalities for every , then all colors are equal.
Proof by induction on . Every noncrossing perfect matching has an adjacent pair. After cyclic relabeling, assume . Then
so . Delete vertices and relabel as . The remaining matching is again noncrossing, and the induced coloring still satisfies the same two equality conditions; the only wraparound case uses . By induction all remaining colors are equal, hence all original colors are equal. This proves the claim.
Thus the supposed component coloring must be constant, so the union graph is connected. Hence
Finally, for , . Indeed, if , then
impossible for . Therefore is a derangement with the required property.
Verification audit: the only repair is the necessary exclusion of the singleton case . The construction uses no extra hypotheses beyond noncrossing perfect matchings in cyclic order, and the conclusion is exactly for every .
Citation: No external resolution is invoked; the construction and proof above are elementary.
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Machine check · not human verification
machine: correctscope Full solution as submitted; SMD novelty classification TYPE1
PASS
The rotation construction is mathematically valid for the intended nontrivial range . The coloring/induction argument correctly proves that is connected, hence . Rotation is a permutation of noncrossing matchings, and it has no fixed points for , since otherwise , contradicting connectedness. The exception is real but harmless if the problem is read for nontrivial .
Novelty assessment
TYPE1
Classification rationale: The resolution is genuinely useful but very small: the one-step cyclic rotation gives the required derangement for all , with only a short elementary connectivity proof. Even as an answer to a published open problem, this is closer to a note/remark than a standalone publishable combinatorics paper.
Literature check: I did not find a prior published resolution of Schmidt’s Problem 8 or the exact rotation construction. Searches checked exact problem phrases, “chromatic joins” with derangements/noncrossing matchings, arXiv records around chromatic-join/Temperley–Lieb papers, and related meander/noncrossing-matching literature. The later Chen–Przytycki papers address Schmidt’s matrix-factorization/determinant questions, not this derangement problem.
Citation: F. Schmidt, “Problems related to type-A and type-B matrices of chromatic joins,” Adv. in Appl. Math. 32 (2004), 380–390, Problem 8.
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