Consider an
(0, 1)-matrix such as
(1)
|
for .
Call two elements
adjacent if they lie in positions
and
,
and
, or
and
for some
. Call
the number of such arrays with no pairs of adjacent 1s.
Equivalently,
is the number of configurations of nonattacking kings
on an
chessboard with regular hexagonal cells.
The first few values of for
, 2, ... are 2, 6, 43, 557, 14432, ... (OEIS A066863).
The hard square hexagon constant is then given by
(2)
| |||
(3)
|
(OEIS A085851).
Amazingly,
is algebraic and is given by
(4)
|
where
(5)
| |||
(6)
| |||
(7)
| |||
(8)
| |||
(9)
| |||
(10)
| |||
(11)
|
(Baxter 1980, Joyce 1988ab).
The variable can be expressed in terms of the tribonacci
constant
(12)
|
where
is a polynomial root, as
(13)
| |||
(14)
| |||
(15)
|
(T. Piezas III, pers. comm., Feb. 11, 2006).
Explicitly, is the unique positive root
(16)
|
where
denotes the
th root of the polynomial
in the ordering of the Wolfram
Language.