A $q$-Queens Problem. IV. Attacking Configurations and Their Denominators

Seth Chaiken, Christopher R. H. Hanusa, Thomas Zaslavsky

Published 2018-07-10Version 1

In Parts I-III we showed that the number of ways to place $q$ nonattacking queens or similar chess pieces on an $n\times n$ chessboard is a quasipolynomial function of $n$ whose coefficients are essentially polynomials in $q$. In this part we focus on the periods of those quasipolynomials. We calculate denominators of vertices of the inside-out polytope, since the period is bounded by, and conjecturally equal to, their least common denominator. We find an exact formula for that denominator of every piece with one move and of two-move pieces having a horizontal move. For pieces with three or more moves, we produce geometrical constructions related to the Fibonacci numbers that show the denominator grows at least exponentially with $q$.