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Each entry of this list is an open problem, but it might have been solved by the time you see it!
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Links are to introductory literature, not necessarily primary sources.
PROBLEMS
Kobon triangles


  • How many disjoint triangular regions can result from drawing n distinct lines in the plane?
  • Kobon triangle problem [wiki]

  • Specific Question: How many disjoint triangular regions can result from drawing 10 lines in the plane?
  • Best known answer: for 13 lines: 47, for 14 lines <= 54. [ mathworld ]
  • Sequence:
    1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 15, 21, ... OPEN [ OEIS ?]
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    Ribbon-Slice conjecture


  • Is every slice knot a ribbon knot?
  • quanta
  • Specific Question: Is there a smoothly slice knot which cannot be represented with only ribbon singularities?
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    Snake in a Box


  • What is the longest length of a simple path with no chords in the n-dimensional hypercube??
  • xkcd
  • Specific Question: What is the longest length of a simple path with no chords in the 9-dimensional hypercube?
  • Sequence:
    1, 2, 4, 7, 13, 26, 50, 98, ... OPEN [ OEIS ]
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    Moore bounds


  • Does a Moore graph with girth 5 and degree 57 exist?
  • Table
  • Specific Question: Is there a degree 4 and diameter 3 graph with more than the best known example of 41 nodes (and less than the the Moore bound of 53 nodes)?
  • Sequence:
    1, 1, 4, 3, 13, 21, ... OPEN [ OEIS ]
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    Affine line arrangments


  • How many distinct line arrangements are there, on the plane, using n distinct lines, up to parametric equivalence?
  • Affine line arrangements [wiki], [ Notices ] (Forcey, page 2)
  • Oriented matroids. See Table 8.1 on page 165: [ Finschi]
  • Specific Question: How many parametrically distinct line arrangements are there, on the plane, using 8 distinct lines?
  • Best known answer: for 7 lines: 37830 [ youtube ] (N.J.A. Sloane)
  • Sequence:
    1, 1, 2, 4, 9, 47, 791, 37830, ... OPEN [ OEIS ]
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    Number of posets


  • How many posets are there, up to isomorphism, with n elements?
  • Finite partially ordered sets [wiki]

  • Specific Question: How many posets are there with 17 unlabeled elements?
  • Best known answer: for 16 elements: 4483130665195087
  • Sequence:
    1, 1, 2, 5, 16, 63, 318, 2045, ... OPEN [ OEIS ]
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    Number of affine plane arrangements in 3D


  • How many plane arrangements are there in R^3 using n planes?
  • Affine hyperplane arrangements [wiki]

  • Specific Question: How many plane arrangements are there in R^3 using 8 planes? [stack exchange]
  • 14 for four planes [illustration]
  • Best known answer: 1472049 for 7 planes
  • Sequence:
    1, 1, 2, 5, 14, 74, 1854, 1472049 ... OPEN
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    Ramsey numbers.


  • What is the smallest number of people such that either k of them are mutual friends
    or k of them are mutual strangers?
  • Ramsey theory [wiki]
  • What is the smallest complete graph K_n with edges colored (red or blue)
    such that there is either a red or a blue complete subgraph of size k?
  • We know that n = R(k,k) exists for any k.
  • Specific Question: What is R(5,5)? [wiki]
  • Best known answers: R(4,4) = 18, and 43 <= R(5,5) <= 48.
  • Conjectured Sequence:
    0, 1, 2, 6, 18, 45, 102, 213, 426, 821, ... [ OEIS ]
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    Snaky: winner or loser

  • Is the 6-polyomino Snaky achievable (by player 1) on an infinite grid,
    or can it be blocked by player 2?
  • Combinatorial games [ wiki ]
  • What is the smallest grid on which Snaky can be achieved by player 1? [ jstor ] (Gardner)

  • Specific Question: Can Snaky win on a 9 x 9 board?
  • Best known answer: Snaky is a loser on an 8 x 8 board. [ Research Gate ]
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    Singmaster's conjecture


  • What is the largest number of times any number > 1 can appear in Pascal's triangle?
  • Singmaster's conjecture [ wiki ]
  • What number n > 1 shows up as a combination more times than any other number?

  • Specific Question: Are there any entries of Pascal's triangle that appear more than 8 times?
  • Best known answer: 3003 appears 8 times. (Unknown if any others appear 8 times.)
  • Sequence:
    2, 3, 6, 10, 120, 120, 3003, 3003, ... OPEN [ OEIS ]
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    Invertible (0,1)-Matrices


  • How many n x n matrices are there with all entries 0 or 1, and with nonzero determinant?
  • How many n x n invertible (nonsingular) matrices are there with all entries 0 or 1? [ Mathworld ]


  • Specific Question: How many 9 x 9 invertible matrices are there with all entries 0 or 1?
  • Best known answer: There are 10160459763342013440 invertible 8 x 8 matrices with all entries 0 or 1.
  • Sequence:
    1, 1, 6, 174, 22560, 12514320, ... OPEN [ OEIS ]
  • Bonus: what is the convex hull of these n x n matrices?
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    Hadamard's maximal determinant problem


  • What is the largest determinant of an n x n matrix with all entries 0 or 1? [ wiki ]

  • Specific Question: What is the largest determinant of an 22 x 22 matrix with all entries 0 or 1?
  • Best known answer: The largest determinant of a 21 x 21 size (0,1)-matrix is 195312500.
  • Sequence:
    1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 9, 32, 56, 144, 320, ... OPEN [ OEIS ]
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    • Does every finite connected vertex-transitive graph contain a Hamiltonian cycle except the five known counterexamples?
    • Is Catalan's constant irrational?
    • How many finite topologies are there, with n elements?
    • How many graphs are there up to isomorphism on n nodes?
    • How many transitive relations are there on a set with n elements?
    • How many distinct combinatorial polytopes are there, in 3D, with n vertices?
    • Is every even number >0 the sum of two primes?
    • Do two knots with n, m respective minimum crossings connect-sum to a knot with n+m crossing number? (Compare: knot checkerboard coloring and strand diagrams!)
    • Can the triple connected sum of some knot (3 copies) be cobordant to the unknot? slice? ribbon?
    • Is every self-inverse-concordant knot (having 2-torsion) amphichiral?
    • Are the nontrivial zeroes of the Riemann zeta function all on the line Re(z) =1/2?
    • Is the diameter of a polytope always found by a polynomial using its number of facets and dimension? (Polynomial Hersch)
    • What are the homotopy groups of spheres? Stable homotopy groups of spheres? The ways to map a 70-dimensional sphere onto a 2-sphere?
    • What is the value of the busy beaver function for n=6? That is, what is the maximal number of steps that an n-state, 2-symbol, d+ in {LEFT, RIGHT}, 5-tuple (q, s, q+, s+, d+) Turing machine can make on an initially blank tape and then halt?
    • Can a thrackle have more edges than vertices?
    • Does every convex polyhedron have a net?
    • How many nets does the n-dimensional hypercube have?
    • Is the Mandlebrot set path-connected?
    • Are multiassociahedra polytopes? (Does Loday's realization generalize?)
    • Are pseudograph-multiplihedra polytopes? Poset multiplihedra?
    • Does the Collatz sequence always end in 1?
    • Does P = NP? Is there a polynomial time method to decide if a logical expression is a contradiction or not?
    • Are there more than 5 Fermat primes? (more than 31 constructible odd-sided regular polygons?)
    • Is pi + e irrational?
    • Does every finite sequence of numbers appear in pi?
    • Is pi normal? e?
    • Is the (computable) omega constant normal? (This omega is the solution to xe^x=1.)
    • What is the sixth bit of the incomputable (normal) Omega corresponding to the Busy Beaver problem? (This omega is Chaitin's constant.)
    • What is the input n for the busy beaver value that would determine Goldbach?
    • Is there a finite projective plane of order 12?
    • How many unique (up to constant factor) non-negative solutions to n-1 homogeneous linearly independent linear equations in n variables using 1, 0 ,-1 as coefficients are there?
    • How many oriented matroids are there on a base set of size n? Up to isomorphism?
    • How many incidence geometries are there for n points? n lines? Up to isomorphism?


    INDEX
    # | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | X | Y | Z |


    Determinants of Invertible (0,1)-Matrices
    Hadamard's maximal determinant problem
    Kobon triangles
    Line arrangments (affine)
    Moore graphs
    Plane arrangements in 3D, affine
    Poset counting
    Ramsey problem
    Ribbon-Slice conjecture
    Singmaster's conjecture
    Snaky achievement
    Snake in a Box

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