Counting strong 2-cluster bargraphs (Q7033749)

In this paper, the authors investigate the generating function for the number of distinct colorings of bargraphs \(\pi\) with \(n\) cells, where each cell is colored either white or black. The colorings satisfy the following connectivity constraints:\N\N(1) all white/black cells within each column of \(\pi\) are edge-connected, and\N\N(2) all white/black cells in \(\pi\) are edge-connected.\N\NAdditionally, the authors derive an explicit formula for the number of such bargraphs with \( n \) columns, where each column contains exactly \( m \) cells. In particular, they establish that the total number of connected cells across all bargraphs with \( n \) cells is given by \((5n + 18) 2^{n-5}\), for all \(n\geq 4\).