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arXiv · 2403.07009

Solving Functional Equations Dear to W.T. Tutte using the Naive (yet fullly rigorous!) Guess And Check Method

Shalosh B. Ekhad·Doron Zeilberger
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Abstract

In his seminal paper ``A census of planar triangulations", published in 1962, the iconic graph theorist (and code-breaker), W.T. Tutte, spent a few pages to prove that a certain bi-variate generating function that enumerates triangulations, satisfies a certain functional equation. He then used his genius to actually solve it, giving closed-form solutions to the enumerating sequences. While the first part, of deriving the functional equation, still needs human ingenuity, the second part, of solving it, can nowadays be fully automated. Our Maple program, accompanying this paper, Tutte.txt, can not only solve Tutte's original equation in a few seconds, it can also solve many, far more complicated ones, way beyond the scope of even such a giant as W.T. Tutte. We use our favorite method of ``guess and check" and show how it can always be made fully rigorous (if desired).

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Shalosh B. Ekhad, Doron Zeilberger. 2024-03-09. Solving Functional Equations Dear to W.T. Tutte using the Naive (yet fullly rigorous!) Guess And Check Method. https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.07009

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