The conjecture on the possible numbers of one-element commutation classes

From papers

Let n1n\geq 1 and let σSn+1\sigma\in\mathfrak{S}_{n+1}. Let R(σ)R_{\bullet}(\sigma) denote the set of one-element commutation classes of reduced words of σ\sigma. The possible-cardinalities conjecture. For all σSn+1\sigma\in\mathfrak{S}_{n+1},

R(σ){0,1,2,4}.|R_{\bullet}(\sigma)|\in\{0,1,2,4\}.

Theorem 7.1 gives the upper bound R(σ)4|R_{\bullet}(\sigma)|\leq 4, while computation through n=8n=8 found no example with exactly three one-element commutation classes. The conjecture asserts that three never occurs; the source does not report a proof or disproof.

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Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Ricardo Mamede, José Luis Santos and Diogo Soares, “Maximum number of one-element commutation classes of a permutation”, arXiv:2601.09395 (2026).

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