Generalized Fibonacci gates are Frobenius algebras: a proof of Liu's conjecture

Abstract

Liu introduced generalized Fibonacci gates on domains of size 3 and 4, proved that Holant problems built from them are tractable by a cut-and-merge algorithm, and conjectured that Fibonacci gates with matching polynomial-time algorithms exist on all higher domains. We extend the definition uniformly to every domain size $k$ and show that a family of domain-$k$ generalized Fibonacci gates is the same thing as a $k$-dimensional commutative Frobenius (equivalently, Artinian Gorenstein) algebra $A$ equipped with an orthonormal basis containing $1$. Under this dictionary Liu's parameter constraints are exactly associativity of $A$, a gate is an element $w\in A$, merging two gates is multiplication in $A$, and the Holant value of a connected graph $G$ is $τ\bigl(h^{\,|E|-|V|+1}\prod_v w_v\bigr)$ for a fixed ``handle'' element $h\in A$. This proves Liu's conjecture for every $k$, with an algorithm whose cost is polynomial in $k$ as well as in the graph. We also give a closure criterion for linear recurrences of any depth (a balance condition implies closure, and is necessary when the unit is a combination of the colours), and we map the landscape: semisimple algebras are exactly Liu's orthogonal frames, smoothable algebras with nilpotents are collided frames, and families whose algebra is not smoothable (``frameless'' families) exist exactly when $k\ge 14$. Finally we show that every non-semisimple part of a family is invisible to the Holant on connected graphs with two or more independent cycles. This note states the results and sketches the proofs; the proofs of the main theorems are short and are given essentially in full.