Polyominoes with maximal number of deep holes

Abstract

In this paper, we study the extremal behaviour of deep holes in polyominoes. We determine the maximum number, $h_n$ of deep holes that an $n$-omino can enclose, ensuring that the boundary of each hole is disjoint from the boundaries of any other hole and from the outer boundary of the $n$-tile. Using the versatile application of Pick's theorem, we establish the lower and the upper bound for $h_n$, and show that $h_n=\frac{n}{3}+o(n)$ asymptotically. To further develop these results, we compute $h_n$ as a function of $n$ for an infinite subset of positive integers.