Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/iii/paper-124/4/ii/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 iii Paper 124 4 ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-09-28
View as a directed graph with nonnegative integer edge weights. For an edge of weightbuild a binary path-counting gadget with one entrance and one exit and exactly entrance-to-exit routes. Starting with one route, a constant-size diamond doubles the number of routes; processing the bits from most significant to least significant repeatedly doubles and, when , adds one bypass route. The gadget has vertices and only zero-one edges.
Add forced internal edges and self-loops so that a cycle cover not using the simulated edge extends uniquely across the gadget, whereas a cycle cover using it has exactly one extension for each entrance-to-exit route. Replacing every weighted edge therefore multiplies each original cycle cover by precisely the product of its selected edge weights. Summing over covers givesThere are entries and each gadget has size, so is constructed in polynomial time.
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