- Conjecture now reads "bridge-derived level graph ... an intertwining tree,
or both" -- the stronger form the evidence actually supports (a bridge-
derived level graph is automatically a valid derived level graph).
- Empirical table recomputed for bridge-derivability, exhaustively for n<=9
(every backward bridge-orbit fully enumerable there):
n=7: 1 inter-only; n=8: 2 inter-only; n=9: 14 inter-only; missing=0.
Added prose: below n=21 every class is intertwining, so the table shows
how far the bridge-derived disjunct reaches on its own (36/50 at n=9) and
that the two disjuncts complement each other; "bridge only" is 0 in range.
- n=21 subsection notes the four witnesses are explicit, short (path lengths
3,1,2,4), archived, and step-verified.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Backward bridge-switch search (sharded over valid parity partitions) found
an Even Level Graph witness for each of the four previously-open duals:
dual 0: partition 12, witness orbit 9458
dual 3: partition 9, witness orbit 388
dual 4: partition 23, witness orbit 3842
dual 5: partition 12, witness orbit 165668
So all four are bridge-derived level graphs, hence valid derived level
graphs. Combined with the two duals that are Even Level Graphs outright,
the disjunction is now confirmed for ALL SIX critical iso classes at n=21
-- the first nontrivial test of the conjecture passes.
Why it worked where exhaustion failed: a witness, when it exists, tends to
sit in a SMALL orbit (here a few hundred to ~1.7e5 states) reachable
quickly, while other parity partitions of the same triangulation have
orbits >1e6. We only need one good partition. The bridge restriction both
shrinks orbits ~100x and guarantees validity, so any ELG found in a
backward orbit is an immediate witness.
- Update paper n=21 subsection to report the resolution.
- Add shard_hunt.py (partition-sharded parallel witness hunt).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Define bridge switch (E/O switch whose new same-parity edge is a bridge
in its parity subgraph) and bridge-derived level graph in the paper.
Note that bridge switches preserve bipartite parity subgraphs, so every
bridge-derived level graph is automatically valid.
- Discover the E/O-switch relation is directed (irreversible when a switch
produces a cross-parity edge); T*_9 reaches an ELG forward but no ELG
reaches it, explaining why it is not derived. This rules out a simple
switch-invariant characterization.
- Bridge orbits are far smaller than full E/O orbits (~10^4 vs ~10^8 for
some labellings), making exhaustive search feasible. Each of the 4 open
duals has ~150 valid parity partitions; exhaustive bridge-orbit search
per partition can decide bridge-derivability conclusively.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Add Theorem: maximal planar G is an intertwining tree iff its dual
G* is Hamiltonian (Tait-style Jordan-curve argument). Consequence:
smallest non-intertwining-tree triangulations are the 6 duals of the
38-vertex Holton-McKay graphs, at n=21.
- Load the 6 graphs from McKay's authoritative planar_code file
(nonham38m4.pc), verified: 38 vertices, cubic, planar, non-Hamiltonian.
- All 6 duals confirmed not intertwining trees (exhaustive 2^20 check).
- 2 of 6 duals are themselves Even Level Graphs (sources 9, 10), hence
derived level graphs -- first cases where the derived disjunct does
work the intertwining-tree disjunct cannot.
- Remaining 4: bounded E/O-orbit search inconclusive; status open. This
is the first genuinely undetermined instance of the conjecture.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Disjunction (every maximal planar graph is a derived level graph or
intertwining tree) holds through n=12. New intertwining-only iso class
at n=12 (analog of T*_9 at n=9) brings the count of derived-resistant
iso classes to 2 in this range. Per the intertwining-tree ⟺
Hamiltonian-dual equivalence, intertwining-tree failures cannot occur
until n=21 (dual of the 38-vertex Holton-McKay minimum Tait
counterexample).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- New paper papers/even_level_graph_generators/: defines Even Level
Graph (every level cycle even), derived level graphs, intertwining
trees, and the disjunction conjecture (every maximal planar graph is
a derived level graph or intertwining tree). Empirically tested
through n=11: every iso class is at least an intertwining tree, so
the disjunction holds trivially in this range. The intertwining tree
disjunct fails at the Tutte graph dual (n=25), so the disjunction
becomes non-trivial past some unknown threshold.
- Level Switching paper: adds Section 4 (Reachability via edge
switches) with the two-step argument (Sleator-Tarjan-Thurston for
Case 1; face-merges for Case 2) and Theorem 4.1 (O(n) edge switches
suffice to reach all-depth-0).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 <noreply@anthropic.com>
didericis