# Direction B: Gerver Sofa as Sidon — Results

**Experiment:** direction_b_gerver_sidon
**Date:** 2026-07-04T16:02:16Z
**Seed:** 0
**SHA-256:** `bb46c7e33b824ceecc90c6f00838ea21efe04af8dc9ddca6c3fcfa45fffab841`

**Motion samples:** 100 (4× Direction A's 24)
**Motion type:** Gerver optimal cycloidal (cubic timing)
**Gerver sofa arcs:** 18 (exact from Gerver 1992)
**Shapes tested:** gerver_sofa, half_disc, hammersley, rectangle
**Chromatic method:** DSATUR + exact for ≤16 + 50 greedy restarts
**Tolerance band:** |d − 1| < 1e−5

## Key Question

Does the actual 18-arc Gerver sofa with CRT Sidon boundary points and
T=100 motion samples generate a denser conflict graph than Direction A's
simplified shapes?  A conflict graph with χ ≥ 4 would confirm the
sofa coloring approach has real structure.

## Conflict Graph Statistics (T=100)

| Shape         |  n |     q |   Area | Edges | Max Deg | χ | S2D? |
|---------------|----|-------|--------|-------|---------|---|------|
| gerver_sofa   | 13 | 0.500 | 2.5162 |     5 |       1 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 13 | 0.750 | 2.5162 |     5 |       1 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 13 | 1.000 | 2.5162 |     5 |       1 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 13 | 1.333 | 2.5162 |     5 |       1 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 13 | 2.000 | 2.5162 |     5 |       1 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 | 0.500 | 2.7460 |    15 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 | 0.750 | 2.7460 |    15 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 | 1.000 | 2.7460 |    15 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 | 1.333 | 2.7460 |    15 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 | 2.000 | 2.7460 |    15 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 13 | 0.500 | 0.2184 |     6 |       2 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 13 | 0.750 | 0.2972 |     6 |       2 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 13 | 1.000 | 0.3882 |     7 |       1 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 13 | 1.333 | 0.5284 |     8 |       2 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 13 | 2.000 | 0.8735 |     9 |       2 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 21 | 0.500 | 0.2200 |    18 |       2 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 21 | 0.750 | 0.2994 |    19 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 21 | 1.000 | 0.3911 |    21 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 21 | 1.333 | 0.5323 |    17 |       3 | 2 | Y    |
| half_disc     | 21 | 2.000 | 0.8799 |    22 |       2 | 2 | Y    |
| hammersley    | 13 | 0.500 | 0.4493 |     4 |       1 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 13 | 0.750 | 0.4639 |     5 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 13 | 1.000 | 0.4888 |     9 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 13 | 1.333 | 0.5380 |     5 |       1 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 13 | 2.000 | 0.6913 |    11 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 21 | 0.500 | 0.4750 |    20 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 21 | 0.750 | 0.4818 |    14 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 21 | 1.000 | 0.5008 |     8 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| hammersley    | 21 | 1.333 | 0.5452 |    15 |       2 | **3** | N |
| hammersley    | 21 | 2.000 | 0.6992 |    20 |       3 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 13 | 0.500 | 0.7594 |    11 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 13 | 0.750 | 0.7973 |    15 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 13 | 1.000 | 0.8100 |    12 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 13 | 1.333 | 0.7875 |     8 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 13 | 2.000 | 0.6075 |     5 |       1 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 21 | 0.500 | 0.7594 |    21 |       3 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 21 | 0.750 | 0.7973 |    31 |       3 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 21 | 1.000 | 0.8100 |    20 |       3 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 21 | 1.333 | 0.7875 |    29 |       2 | 2 | N    |
| rectangle     | 21 | 2.000 | 0.6075 |    16 |       3 | 2 | N    |

## χ Stability Across q

| Shape         |  n | χ range | Stable? |
|---------------|----|---------|---------|
| gerver_sofa   | 13 | 2–2     |   Y     |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 | 2–2     |   Y     |
| half_disc     | 13 | 2–2     |   Y     |
| half_disc     | 21 | 2–2     |   Y     |
| hammersley    | 13 | 2–2     |   Y     |
| hammersley    | 21 | 2–3     |  Δ=1    |
| rectangle     | 13 | 2–2     |   Y     |
| rectangle     | 21 | 2–2     |   Y     |

## Comparison: T=24 vs T=100 (Max Edges)

| Shape         |  n | T=24 edges | T=100 edges | Ratio |
|---------------|----|-----------|------------|-------|
| gerver_sofa   | 13 |          1 |           5 |   5.0 |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 |          1 |          15 |  15.0 |
| half_disc     | 13 |          2 |           9 |   4.5 |
| half_disc     | 21 |          2 |          22 |  11.0 |
| hammersley    | 13 |          3 |          11 |   3.7 |
| hammersley    | 21 |          3 |          20 |   6.7 |
| rectangle     | 13 |          1 |          15 |  15.0 |
| rectangle     | 21 |          2 |          31 |  15.5 |

At T=24 (Direction A), the Gerver-like shape produced 0–2 edges.  At T=100, the
actual Gerver sofa produces 5–15 edges — a 5–15× increase.  The time resolution
is critical.

## Sidon Property Verification

| Shape         |  n | 1D Sidon | 2D Sidon |
|---------------|----|----------|----------|
| gerver_sofa   | 13 | Y        | Y        |
| gerver_sofa   | 21 | Y        | Y        |
| half_disc     | 13 | Y        | Y        |
| half_disc     | 21 | Y        | Y        |
| hammersley    | 13 | Y        | N        |
| hammersley    | 21 | Y        | N        |
| rectangle     | 13 | Y        | N        |
| rectangle     | 21 | Y        | N        |

Only the Gerver sofa and half-disc preserve the 2D Sidon property.  hammersley
and rectangle do not, due to non-uniform boundary spacing that creates vector
sum collisions.

## Key Quantitative Results

1. **Edge count increases 4–15× at T=100** across all shapes compared to T=24.
2. **χ = 2 for 39/40 configurations**, χ = 3 for Hammersley (n=21, q=1.333).
3. **Gerver sofa χ is exactly 2** at all q-values and both n — perfectly stable.
4. **2D Sidon property preserved** by the Gerver sofa and half-disc.
5. **χ ≥ 4 not achieved** — the success threshold from the design doc.

## Verdict

Direction B partially succeeds: the Gerver sofa generates more conflict edges
than simpler shapes at T=100 (up to 15 edges vs ~1 for T=24).  However, the
chromatic number remains χ ≤ 2 for the Gerver sofa (χ=2 everywhere).  The one
χ=3 observation (Hammersley, n=21) is an outlier, not evidence of systematic
structure.

**The design doc's honest assessment was correct:** unit-distance events are
measure-zero in continuous space.  Even with the Gerver sofa's wall-hugging
geometry and 4× higher time resolution, the conflict graph is essentially
bipartite.  The failure mode matches Direction A: geometry does not produce
enough exact unit-distance coincidences.

**What the Gerver sofa does confirm:**
- The 18-arc construction with CRT Sidon boundary preserves the 2D Sidon property
  (all pairwise vector sums distinct) — this is non-trivial.
- The Gerver optimal motion generates more transient conflicts than the simple
  translate–rotate–translate motion (5–15 edges vs 0–2).
- χ is stable across q for the Gerver sofa (χ=2 everywhere) — this is a property
  of the shape, not vertex ordering.

**What it does not confirm:**
- The octagon principle does NOT apply to sofa conflict graphs.
- The q-profile (toroidal/poloidal ratio) has minimal effect on χ.
- Upper bounds on χ (Hoffman, Welch-Wynn) are not useful when χ ≤ 2.

## Recommendation

The HN spectral database approach (already working) is the more promising path.
The gap=1 for Moser spindle and Golomb graph is a real, measured result.
Extend to more unit-distance graphs and look for the gap=1 pattern, rather than
pursuing sofa-based conflict graphs.
