Paper:
- Lemmas 3.4 (exactly one match) and 3.5 (all-distinct exists for 4-colourable
G) replace the earlier conjecture; both have proofs.
- Add Conjecture 3.6: every proper 3-edge-colouring of a counterexample's
reduced dual has a face with two same-colour edges that share a Kempe
cycle with the merged edge, neither of them being the merged edge.
Experiments (all under experiments/):
- search_conj_3_6_counterexample.py: finds n=14 tri#1 i_red=0 where the
algorithm's phi_t* sits in a Kempe class with no all-distinct colouring
(disproves an earlier formulation).
- check_kempe_class.py / check_kempe_class_invariance.py /
check_kempe_class_monotone.py: Kempe-class counts on H_1 and H_t* for
small triangulations; neither monotonicity direction holds.
- check_all_distinct_exists.py: even in the conj-3.6 disproof case, H_t*
itself admits all-distinct colourings in the *other* Kempe class.
- check_constrained_feasibility.py: literal H_t*-interpretation of
C1 + K0 + K1 is empirically unsatisfiable (gap in proof strategy noted).
- check_conj_face_kempe.py / check_conj_face_kempe_n15.py: test Conj 3.6
on chord-apex+Kempe colourings of reduced duals at n=12, 14, 15;
216/216 colourings on n=14 satisfy the conjecture, others vacuous.
- draw_step1_conj36.py: figure showing a Conj 3.6 witness on H_1 with two
new vertices on the witness edges and a new red bridge between them.
- draw_step1_conj36_recolored.py: same but with the Kempe cycle recoloured
alternately from merged so propriety holds.
- draw_lift_to_Gprime.py: lifts the modified+recoloured H_1 back to a
proper 3-edge-colouring of the modified G' (24+2 vertices, 39 edges,
same Tutte layout as figure 3's first graphic so positions line up).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Name the edges of the reduced-dual construction (merged, spike, sides)
via a new definition; use these names in lem:chord-apex.
- Add lem:pentagonal-externals with full exhaustive proof: any proper
3-edge-colouring near a pentagonal face of a cubic plane graph has its
five external edges forming, up to cyclic rotation, the pattern
(a, b, c, c, c) with {a, b, c} = {1, 2, 3} (iff).
- Cite the new lemma in the chord-apex proof scaffold as the lifting step.
- Remove the icosahedron experimental remark.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add Definition 2.1 (reduced dual) and a remark on cubicity/planarity, plus an
experiment verifying it on the icosahedron/dodecahedron and four figures, one
per construction step.
reduced_dual.py builds G' = dodecahedron (dual of the icosahedron), applies the
construction, and confirms the result is a cubic, planar, simple graph whose
dual is a simple triangulation. Finding: the construction is an n -> n-2
reduction (12 -> 10 here), not n-1, since the single apex v_n collapses one more
vertex than a standard pentagon re-triangulation; the result also re-introduces
degree-3 and degree-4 vertices (degree seq [7,5,5,5,5,5,5,4,4,3]).
draw_reduced_dual_steps.py renders fig_reduced_dual_step1..4.png, embedded as a
2x2 grid after the definition.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Remove the Introduction and Strategy sections and everything after the
separating-cycle definition (no-separating-triangle lemma, 5-connectivity
proposition, and the Step 2-6 stubs). Rename the section heading from
"Step 1: The minimal counterexample" to "The minimal counterexample", drop
the now-unused separating-cycle definition, and adjust the lead-in to mention
only the degree reduction. Remaining: reduction-to-triangulations lemma,
minimal-counterexample definition, |V|>=12 remark, and minimum-degree-5 lemma.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New paper "Dual Decomposition of Minimal Counterexamples" outlining a six-step
cut-and-recombine attack on the 4CT via the dual cubic graph: minimal
counterexample -> dualise -> minimum (cyclic) edge cut -> cap to cubic ->
3-edge-colour the pieces -> reconnect. Strategy section flags steps 1-5 as
standard machinery and step 6 (recombination) as the crux.
Step 1 written in full: reduction to triangulations, definition of the minimal
counterexample, minimum-degree >= 5 (degree <=3 and degree-4 Kempe cases), and
no separating triangle => 4-connected. 5-connectivity stated as Birkhoff's
separating-4-cycle reduction (attributed, not re-derived).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
didericis