Tomographic equivalence and switching operations (Q4524009)

It is shown that on any grid \(G\) with more than two fundamental direction vectors there is no integer \(L\) for which every tomographic equivalence class of binary pictures is \(\ell_r(\leq L)\)-connected. In other words, it is shown that there does not exist any integers \(L\) such that an arbitrary binary picture on \(G\) can be transformed to any other tomographically equivalent binary picture on \(G\) by a sequence of steps each of which preserves tomographic equivalence and changes the picture at no more than \(L\) points. This is in sharp contrast to Ryser's theorem for the 2-dimensional square grid, which says that every tomographic equivalence class of binary pictures on the square grid is \(\ell_1(\leq 4)\)-connected. It follows from the main result of this paper that on grids with grid lines in three or more directions there is no analogous way to determine whether a binary picture is tomographically nonunique. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0946.00014].