%I #25 Sep 11 2020 11:08:47
%S 1,4,12,20
%N Minimal number of straight lines of a covering tree needed to cover n X n X n points arranged in a 3-D grid.
%C For any n > 2, is it possible to construct an "inside the box" covering tree for any n X n X n set of points consisting of n^2 + n lines if n is even and n^2 + n + 1 lines if n is odd.
%C In the special case of any 2 X 2 X ... X 2 points problem (k-times n), every optimal covering tree has (exactly) 2^(k-1) rectilinear segments, thus 2^(3-1) = 4 lines for the 2 x 2 x 2 case.
%C If n = 3, then the (outside the box) solution is a(3) = 12, since such a connected arrangement of line segments has already been shown to exist, and this explicit upper bound matches 3^3 + 3. - _Marco Ripà_, Aug 25 2020
%C Let n >= 5, we know that it is impossible to cover more than n^3 points with n^2 segments (trivial), and we need at least n segments to obtain a connected graph (otherwise, we cannot join more than n + h*(n - 1) points with h + 1 connected lines). Thus, assuming n > 2, the general lower bound is confirmed to be n^2 + n, therefore a(n even) = 4, 20, 42, 72, ...
%H A. Dumitrescu, C. D. Tóth, <a href="https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Covering-Grids-by-Trees-Dumitrescu-T%C3%B3th/62989bdc3351ef8a8146b4e26b6c20b920a98ab2">Covering Grids by Trees</a>, 26th Canadian Conference on Computational Geometry, 2014.
%H Marco Ripà, <a href="http://nntdm.net/volume-20-2014/number-1/59-71/">The rectangular spiral or the n1 X n2 X ... X nk Points Problem</a>, Notes on Number Theory and Discrete Mathematics, 2014, 20(1), 59-71.
%H Marco Ripà, <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343050221_Solving_the_106_years_old_3k_Points_Problem_with_the_Clockwise-algorithm">Solving the 106 years old 3^k Points Problem with the Clockwise-algorithm</a>, ResearchGate, 2020 (DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.34972.92802).
%F a(n) = n^2 + n for even n and for n = 3. - _Marco Ripà_, Aug 25 2020
%e For n = 3 the a(3) = 12 represents the minimum line segments to cover a 3 X 3 X 3 points (symmetrical) grid. - _Marco Ripà_, Aug 25 2020
%Y Cf. A058992, A225227, A261547, A318165.
%K nonn,hard,more,bref
%O 1,2
%A _Marco Ripà_, Sep 15 2018
%E a(3) corrected by _Marco Ripà_, Aug 25 2020