Coordinated ErLV majorants #
This file makes the proposed repair to ErLV's Figure 4 precise. Majorant witnesses carry actual strict-cover paths, and the two paths are selected jointly to minimize the moves made by their facing endpoints. The finite minimum exists. The remaining exchange statement is isolated exactly.
A two-left-move path really contains the two successive strict covers.
A two-right-move path really contains the two successive strict covers.
The jointly minimal pair has the same exhaustive inner-count partition as any pair, but now every branch refers to actual cover paths.
If a jointly minimal pair is exceptional, minimality rigidifies all possible substitutes in its Cartesian pool. This is the exact obstruction to a purely order-theoretic minimization proof.
The selected exceptional cases contain the forced two-move paths that a geometric exchange proof would have to replace.
The three exceptional pairs have exactly the endpoint geometry hidden by
ErLV Figure 4: the inner endpoints coincide in (1,2) and (2,1), while
they occur in the reverse order in (2,2). Thus terminal-majorant
nonavoidance is automatic in these branches and supplies no nesting.
Two successive right covers exhaust the three ranks exactly.
Two successive left covers exhaust the three ranks exactly.
The intermediate edge of a forced two-right-move chain is not a majorant: the second move is still a strict right cover. Thus this edge cannot be the cheaper terminal substitute suggested by an informal exchange argument.
The intermediate edge of a forced two-left-move chain is not a majorant: the second move is still a strict left cover.
A k=3 majorant witness has at most two moves in total, so its inner
endpoint cannot be the vertex three sides away. Consequently the two cross
edges forced by strict ED in case (2,2) are not terminal edges of either
original cover process.
Exact kernel boundary in the three exceptional coordinated cases. Each
forced two-move chain has the only possible rank ladder d₃ → d₂ → d₁,
while its named intermediate exchange edge is still covered and therefore
is not a majorant. In (2,2) both failures occur simultaneously.
This theorem does not claim that a full minimum-degree-seven configuration
realizing one of the cases exists. It records exactly why the local swap
proposed after the rigidification does not produce the cheaper pair required
by ErLVCoordinatedMajorantExchangeComplete.
Strict ED does produce a cross top-three edge from two equal avoiding sides. It does not say that this diagonal is an immediate endpoint cover, which is precisely why it does not by itself furnish the required exchange path.
In the maximal-gap setup the two starting edges tu and zx occur as
opposite sides of the strict convex quadrilateral t,u,z,x. This is the
exact cyclic order needed to instantiate strict ED in the rigid (2,2)
branch.
In the rigid (2,2) case, strict ED is fully exhausted: the two equal
d₃ starting sides force one of the nonlocal cross edges zt or xu into
the top-three graph. These cross edges move an inner endpoint by three
polygon sides; the theorem deliberately does not misidentify either one as
an immediate cover in a two-move majorant path.
Exact exchange claim missing from the printed proof: every exceptional joint minimum admits another actual pair with fewer facing-endpoint moves. Neither ErLV89 p.548 nor the 1986 preprint states a selection rule or proves this replacement.
Equations
- One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.
Instances For
A proof of the missing exchange would discharge the coordinated strict inner order and hence the already-kernelized arc-nesting geometry.