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    Efficient computation of middle levels Gray codes

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    For any integer n≥1n\geq 1 a middle levels Gray code is a cyclic listing of all bitstrings of length 2n+12n+1 that have either nn or n+1n+1 entries equal to 1 such that any two consecutive bitstrings in the list differ in exactly one bit. The question whether such a Gray code exists for every n≥1n\geq 1 has been the subject of intensive research during the last 30 years, and has been answered affirmatively only recently [T. M\"utze. Proof of the middle levels conjecture. Proc. London Math. Soc., 112(4):677--713, 2016]. In this work we provide the first efficient algorithm to compute a middle levels Gray code. For a given bitstring, our algorithm computes the next ℓ\ell bitstrings in the Gray code in time O(nℓ(1+nℓ))\mathcal{O}(n\ell(1+\frac{n}{\ell})), which is O(n)\mathcal{O}(n) on average per bitstring provided that ℓ=Ω(n)\ell=\Omega(n)
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