The deficient path forest conjecture on impossibly burnable forests

For mNm\in\mathbb{N} and 1lm21\leq l\leq m^2, let Bm(l)B_m(l) be the least positive integer tt having the same parity as ll such that

li=1t[2m(2i1)]=2mtt2.l\leq\sum_{i=1}^t[2m-(2i-1)]=2mt-t^2.

Let T=(l1,l2,,ln)T=(l_1,l_2,\ldots,l_n) be an nn-path forest of order m2m^2. Call TT deficient when it cannot be burned in mm rounds, and call it impossibly burnable when

i=1nBm(li)>m.\sum_{i=1}^n B_m(l_i)>m.

Deficient path forest conjecture. Let n4n\geq4. If TT is a deficient nn-path forest with l1Ln1l_1\geq L_{n-1}, then TT is impossibly burnable. The conjecture is motivated by computational verification for small values of nn, but its general validity remains open.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Ta Sheng Tan and Wen Chean Teh, “A Note on Graph Burning of Path Forests”, arXiv:2312.10914 (2024).

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