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arXiv · 2510.22361

The Parity-Constrained Four-Peg Tower of Hanoi Problem and Its State Graph

El-Mehdi Mehiri
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Abstract

We introduce and study a parity-constrained variant of the four-peg Tower of Hanoi problem. In this model, two pegs are neutral, while the two remaining pegs are reserved respectively for even-labelled and odd-labelled discs. Starting from the classical initial tower, we consider four natural transfer objectives corresponding to different target configurations of the full tower and of the even and odd subtowers. For these four objectives, we propose a system of recursive algorithms based on parity separation and classical three-peg transfers. These algorithms lead to a coupled system of recurrence relations for their move counts. The resulting candidate sequences are then transformed into simplified and higher-order recurrences, from which explicit closed formulas are obtained. The formulas exhibit a periodic structure and have the same exponential order of growth, strictly slower than that of the classical three-peg Tower of Hanoi. The main open point is the optimality of the proposed recursive algorithms. Equivalently, one has to prove that certain canonical configurations, including the one-move behaviour of the largest disc, are unavoidable in every shortest solution. This difficulty is closely analogous to the structural difficulties encountered in the Reve's puzzle and the Frame--Stewart conjecture. We therefore formulate the optimality of the proposed algorithms as a conjecture. We also discuss computational evidence, the number of shortest solutions, a linear variant in which only adjacent peg moves are allowed, and the associated state graph of the parity-constrained problem.

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El-Mehdi Mehiri. 2025-10-25. The Parity-Constrained Four-Peg Tower of Hanoi Problem and Its State Graph. https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.22361

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