The discovery of the Jones polynomial made an important connection between quantum physics and knot theory. Kauffman and Lomonaco introduced the knot mosaic system to define the quantum knot system for the purpose of representing an actual physical quantum system. This paper is inspired by an open question about the knot mosaic enumeration suggested by them. A knot [Formula: see text]-mosaic is an [Formula: see text] array of 11 mosaic tiles representing a knot diagram by adjoining properly. The total number [Formula: see text] of knot [Formula: see text]-mosaics, which indicates the dimension of the Hilbert space of the quantum knot system, is known to grow in a quadratic exponential rate. Recently, Oh et al. developed the state matrix recursion method producing the exact enumeration of knot mosaics, which uses a recursion formula of state matrices. Furthermore, they showed the existence of the knot mosaic constant [Formula: see text] and found its upper and lower bounds in a series of papers. The latest upper bound was obtained through two new concepts: quasimosaics and cling mosaics. As a sequel to this research program, we adjust the state matrix recursion method to handle cling mosaics inside a quasimosaic, which is called the progressive state matrix recursion method. This method provides recursive matrix-relations producing a sharper bound of the knot mosaic constant: [Formula: see text]
Lomonaco and Kauffman developed a knot mosaic system to introduce a precise and workable definition of a quantum knot system. This definition is intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. A knot (m,n)-mosaic is an
m×n matrix of mosaic tiles (
T0 through
T10 depicted in the introduction) representing a knot or a link by adjoining properly that is called suitably connected.
D(m,n) is the total number of all knot (m,n)-mosaics. This value indicates the dimension of the Hilbert space of these quantum knot system.
D(m,n) is already found for
m,n≤6 by the authors. In this paper, we construct an algorithm producing the precise value of
D(m,n) for
m,n≥2 that uses recurrence relations of state matrices that turn out to be remarkably efficient to count knot mosaics.
D(m,n)=2∥(Xm−2+Om−2)n−2∥ where
2m−2×2m−2 matrices
Xm−2 and
Om−2 are defined by $$ X_{k+1} = \begin{bmatrix} X_k & O_k \\ O_k & X_k \end{bmatrix} \ \mbox{and } \ O_{k+1} = \begin{bmatrix} O_k & X_k \\ X_k & 4 \, O_k \end{bmatrix} $$ for
k=0,1,⋯,m−3, with
1×1 matrices
X0=[1] and
O0=[1]. Here
∥N∥ denotes the sum of all entries of a matrix
N. For
n=2,
(Xm−2+Om−2)0 means the identity matrix of size
2m−2×2m−2.