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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01531 |
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Table of Contents:
- Dittert's conjecture gives a sharp upper bound for the Dittert functional on nonnegative matrices whose entries sum to \(n\). It extends the van der Waerden permanent problem from the doubly stochastic polytope to a larger simplex in which row and column sums are allowed to vary. We prove the conjecture for every dimension \(n\ge 17\). The proof combines the Knopp--Sinkhorn lower bound for boundary points of the doubly stochastic polytope with a refined scaling step in the Cheon--Wanless method. The main improvement is a sharper subset-sum estimate for the row and column sums of a near maximizer, which reduces the scalar dilation needed to obtain a doubly superstochastic matrix. This strengthened comparison is sufficient to exclude boundary maximizers in all dimensions \(n\ge 17\), and the known positive-support characterization then identifies the unique maximizer as \(n^{-1}J_n\).