Enumeration of $r$-regular Maps on the Torus. Part I: Enumeration of Rooted and Sensed Maps

TL;DR

This paper develops methods to enumerate $r$-regular maps on the torus, including rooted, sensed, and special cases, providing exact formulas for small $r$ and recurrence relations for larger $r$, with implications for understanding symmetries.

Contribution

It introduces new enumeration formulas and recurrence relations for $r$-regular maps on the torus, including sensed maps, advancing combinatorial map enumeration techniques.

Findings

Exact formulas for $r=3,4$ rooted maps on the torus.

Recurrence relations for larger $r$.

Closed-form expressions for sensed maps with $r=3,4$.

Abstract

The work that consists of two parts is devoted to the problem of enumerating unrooted $r$-regular maps on the torus up to all its symmetries. We begin with enumerating near-$r$-regular rooted maps on the torus, projective plane and the Klein bottle. We also present the results of enumerating some special kinds of maps on the sphere: near-$r$-regular maps, maps with multiple leaves and maps with multiple root semi-edges. For $r=3$ and $r=4$ we obtain exact analytical formulas. For larger $r$ we derive recurrence relations. Then using these results we enumerate $r$-regular maps on the torus up to homeomorphisms that preserve its orientation --- so-called sensed maps. Using the concept of a quotient map on an orbifold we reduce this problem to enumeration of certain classes of rooted maps. For $r=3$ and $r=4$ we obtain closed-form expressions for the numbers of $r$-regular sensed maps by edges. All these results will be used in the second part of the work to enumerate $r$-regular maps on the torus up to all homeomorphisms --- so-called unsensed maps.