Computing Tighter Bounds on the $n$-Queens Constant via Newton's Method

Abstract

In recent work Simkin shows that bounds on an exponent occurring in the famous $n$-queens problem can be evaluated by solving convex optimization problems, allowing him to find bounds far tighter than previously known. In this note we use Simkin's formulation, a sharper bound developed by Knuth, and a Newton method that scales to large problem instances, to find even sharper bounds.