A new way to prove configuration reducibility using gauge theory

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Baldridge, Scott, McCarty, Ben
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Baldridge, Scott
McCarty, Ben
author_facet Baldridge, Scott
McCarty, Ben
contents We show how ideas coming out of gauge theory can be used to prove configurations in the list of ``633 unavoidable configurations" are reducible. In this paper, we prove the smallest nontrivial example, the Birkhoff diamond, is reducible using our filtered $3$- and $4$-color homology. This is a new proof of a 111-year-old result that is a direct consequence of a special (2+1)-dimensional topological quantum field theory. As part of the proof, we introduce the idea of a state-reducible configuration. Because state-reducibility does not involve Kempe switches, this leads to an independent way to verify the proof of the four color theorem. We conjecture that these gauge theoretic ideas could also lead to a non-computer-based proof of it.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_18558
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A new way to prove configuration reducibility using gauge theory
Baldridge, Scott
McCarty, Ben
Combinatorics
Geometric Topology
05C10, 05C15, 05C31, 05C70, 57R56, 57M15, 57K16
We show how ideas coming out of gauge theory can be used to prove configurations in the list of ``633 unavoidable configurations" are reducible. In this paper, we prove the smallest nontrivial example, the Birkhoff diamond, is reducible using our filtered $3$- and $4$-color homology. This is a new proof of a 111-year-old result that is a direct consequence of a special (2+1)-dimensional topological quantum field theory. As part of the proof, we introduce the idea of a state-reducible configuration. Because state-reducibility does not involve Kempe switches, this leads to an independent way to verify the proof of the four color theorem. We conjecture that these gauge theoretic ideas could also lead to a non-computer-based proof of it.
title A new way to prove configuration reducibility using gauge theory
topic Combinatorics
Geometric Topology
05C10, 05C15, 05C31, 05C70, 57R56, 57M15, 57K16
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.18558