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PROJECT EULER · #0922

Young's Game A

Statement only · UnsolvedOriginal problem ↗

A Young diagram is a finite collection of (equally-sized) squares in a grid-like arrangement of rows and columns, such that

  • the left-most squares of all rows are aligned vertically;
  • the top squares of all columns are aligned horizontally;
  • the rows are non-increasing in size as we move top to bottom;
  • the columns are non-increasing in size as we move left to right.

Two examples of Young diagrams are shown below.

0922_youngs_game_diagrams.png

Two players Right and Down play a game on several Young diagrams, all disconnected from each other. Initially, a token is placed in the top-left square of each diagram. Then they take alternating turns, starting with Right. On Right's turn, Right selects a token on one diagram and moves it any number of squares to the right. On Down's turn, Down selects a token on one diagram and moves it any number of squares downwards. A player unable to make a legal move on their turn loses the game.

For a,b,k1 we define an (a,b,k)-staircase to be the Young diagram where the bottom-right frontier consists of k steps of vertical height a and horizontal length b. Shown below are four examples of staircases with (a,b,k) respectively (1,1,4), (5,1,1), (3,3,2), (2,4,3).

0922_youngs_game_staircases.png

Additionally, define the weight of an (a,b,k)-staircase to be a+b+k.

Let R(m,w) be the number ways of choosing m staircases, each having weight not exceeding w, upon which Right (moving first in the game) will win the game assuming optimal play. Different orderings of the same set of staircases are to be counted separately.

For example, R(2,4)=7 is illustrated below, with tokens as grey circles drawn in their initial positions.

0922_youngs_game_example.png

You are also given R(3,9)=314104.

Find R(8,64) giving your answer modulo 109+7.

Write-up coming later

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