Necklace

(combinatorics)
Possible patterns of bracelets of length n
corresponding to the k-th integer partition
(set partitions up to rotation and reflection)
The 3 bracelets with 3 red and 3 green beads. The one
in the middle is chiral, so there are 4 necklaces.
Compare box(6,9) in the triangle.

The 11 bracelets with 2 red, 2 yellow and 2 green

beads. The leftmost one and the four rightmost ones
are chiral, so there are 16 necklaces.
Compare box(6,7) in the triangle.

16 Tantrix tiles, corresponding to the 16 necklaces

i h 2 d 2 ll d2 b d
with 2 red, 2 yellow and 2 green beads.

In combinatorics, a k-ary necklace of

length n is an equivalence class of n-
character strings over an alphabet of size
k, taking all rotations as equivalent. It
represents a structure with n circularly
connected beads which have k available
colors.

A k-ary bracelet, also referred to as a

turnover (or free) necklace, is a necklace
such that strings may also be equivalent
under reflection. That is, given two strings,
if each is the reverse of the other then they
belong to the same equivalence class. For
this reason, a necklace might also be
called a fixed necklace to distinguish it
from a turnover necklace.

Formally, one may represent a necklace as

an orbit of the cyclic group acting on n-
character strings, and a bracelet as an
orbit of the dihedral group. One can count
these orbits, and thus necklaces and
bracelets, using Pólya's enumeration
theorem.

Equivalence classes
Number of necklaces

There are
different k-ary necklaces of length n, where
is Euler's totient function.[1] This follows
directly from Pólya's enumeration theorem
applied to the action of the cyclic group
acting on the set of all functions
.

Number of bracelets

There are
different k-ary bracelets of length n, where
Nk(n) is the number of k-ary necklaces of
length n. This follows from Pólya's method
applied to the action of the dihedral group
.

Case of distinct beads

For a given set of n beads, all distinct, the
number of distinct necklaces made from
these beads, counting rotated necklaces
as the same, is n!
n
= (n − 1)!. This is
because the beads can be linearly ordered
in n! ways, and the n circular shifts of such
an ordering all give the same necklace.
Similarly, the number of distinct bracelets,
counting rotated and reflected bracelets
n!
as the same, is 2n , for n ≥ 3.

If the beads are not all distinct, having

repeated colors, then there are fewer
necklaces (and bracelets). The above
necklace-counting polynomials give the
number necklaces made from all possible
multisets of beads. Polya's pattern
inventory polynomial refines the counting
polynomial, using variable for each bead
color, so that the coefficient of each
monomial counts the number of necklaces
on a given multiset of beads.

Aperiodic necklaces
An aperiodic necklace of length n is a
rotation equivalence class having size n,
i.e., no two distinct rotations of a necklace
from such class are equal.

According to Moreau's necklace-counting

function, there are

different k-ary aperiodic necklaces of

length n, where μ is the Möbius function.
The two necklace-counting functions are
related by:

where the sum is over all divisors of n,

which is equivlent by Möbius inversion to

Each aperiodic necklace contains a single

Lyndon word so that Lyndon words form
representatives of aperiodic necklaces.

See also
Lyndon word
Inversion (discrete mathematics)
 Necklace problem
Necklace splitting problem
Permutation
Proofs of Fermat's little theorem#Proof
by counting necklaces
Forte number, a representation of binary
bracelets of length 12 used in atonal
music.

References
1. Weisstein, Eric W. "Necklace" .
MathWorld.

External links
Weisstein, Eric W. "Necklace" .
MathWorld.
 Info on necklaces, Lyndon words, De
Bruijn sequences

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Last edited 29 days ago by BD2412

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