Counting contiguous superregular $4 \times 4$ matrices

Abstract

This short paper has two goals. First, explaining a simple procedure (which is essentially folklore) that, sometimes, makes it possible to obtain a formula for the number of solutions to a system of multivariate polynomial inequalities over a finite field. Second, applying that procedure to prove a formula for the number of contiguous superregular $4 \times 4$ matrices over a finite field. The formula was previously conjectured by Appuswamy, Bazzani, Connelly, Ekaireb, Congero, and Zeger [Probability of super-regular matrices and MDS codes over finite fields, arXiv:2603.20983]. In addition, the same procedure is used to provide formulas for the number of contiguous superregular $3 \times 4$, $3 \times 5$, and $3 \times 6$ matrices over a finite field.