A326954 Numerator of the expected number of distinct squares visited by a knight's random walk on an infinite chessboard after n steps.

1, 2, 23, 15, 2355, 1395, 102971, 58331, 16664147, 9197779, 160882675, 87300443, 48181451689, 25832538281, 881993826001, 468673213505, 508090131646771, 268129446332211, 4514206380211785, 2369170809554097, 317528931045821675

Offset

0,2

Comments

The starting square is always considered part of the walk.

Links

Table of n, a(n) for n=0..20.

Math StackExchange, Relatively efficient program to compute a(n) for larger n.

Example

a(0) = 1 (from 1/1), we count the starting square.
a(1) = 2 (from 2/1), each possible first step is unique.
a(2) = 23 (from 23/8), as for each possible first step 1/8th of the second steps go back to a previous square, thus the expected distinct squares visited is 2 + 7/8 = 23/8.

Prog

(Python3)
from itertools import product
from fractions import Fraction
def walk(steps):
    s = [(0, 0)]
    for dx, dy in steps:
        s.append((s[-1][0] + dx, s[-1][1] + dy))
    return s
moves = [(1, 2), (1, -2), (-1, 2), (-1, -2),
         (2, 1), (2, -1), (-2, 1), (-2, -1)]
A326954 = lambda n: Fraction(
        sum(len(set(walk(steps)))
            for steps in product(moves, repeat=n)),
        8**n
    ).numerator

Crossrefs

See A326955 for denominators. Cf. A309221.

Sequence in context: A104644 A158992 A128365 * A153654 A153656 A242037

Adjacent sequences: A326951 A326952 A326953 * A326955 A326956 A326957

Keyword

nonn,frac,walk

Author

Orson R. L. Peters, Aug 08 2019

Status

approved