Young tableaux and Solitaire bulgare (Q1180552)
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English | Young tableaux and Solitaire bulgare |
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Young tableaux and Solitaire bulgare (English)
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27 June 1992
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In the game Soltaire Bulgare, one is initially given \(n\) stones disposed in several heaps. A move consists of taking exactly one stone from each heap and forming with these a new heap. By repeating this operation a sufficiently large number of times one obtains eventually a periodic sequence of positions. In particular, if \(n\) is triangular, i.e. \(n=k(k+1)/2\), then the final period is one. Here, a conjecture of Knuth claiming that for triangular \(n\) the length of the game is at most \(k(k- 1)\), is proved and generalized for any integer \(n\). The techniques involved rely on Young tableaux.
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Soltaire Bulgare
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conjecture of Knuth
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Young tableaux
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