The Number of Domino Matchings in the Game of Memory
Donovan Young
St Albans, Hertfordshire
AL1 4SZ
United Kingdom
Abstract:
When all the elements of the multiset {1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, ... ,
n, n} are placed randomly in the
cells of an m × k
rectangular array (where mk = 2n), what is the probability
Pm,k(p)
that exactly p ∈ [0, n]
of the pairs are found with their matching partner directly beside them
in a row or column — thus forming a 1×2 domino? For the case p
= n, this reduces to the domino tiling enumeration problem solved
by Kastelyn and which produces the Fibonacci sequence for the well-known
case m = 2. In this paper we obtain a formula for the first
moment of the probability distribution for a completely general array,
and also give an inclusion-exclusion formula for the number of 0-domino
configurations. In the case of a 2 × k rectangular array, we
give a bijection between the (k−1)-domino configurations and
the nodes of the Fibonacci tree of order k, thus finding that
the number of such configurations is equal to the path length of the
tree; secondly we give generating functions for the number of
(k−l)-domino configurations for l ≤ 2
and conjecture results for
l ≤ 5. These generating functions are related to convolutions of
Fibonacci numbers.
Full version: pdf,
dvi,
ps,
latex
(Concerned with sequences
A000045
A001883
A046741
A079267
A178523
A265167
A318243
A318244
A318267
A318268
A318269
A318270.)
Received August 2 2018; revised version received August 24 2018.
Published in Journal of Integer Sequences, September 30 2018.
Return to
Journal of Integer Sequences home page