Here inequivalent means under the action of the rotation group of the cube, of order 24, which in its action on the edges has cycle index (x1^12 + 3*x2^6 + 6*x4^3 + 6*x1^2*x2^5 + 8*x3^4)/24.
Also, number of inequivalent colorings of the edges of a regular octahedron using at most n colors. -
José H. Nieto S., Jan 19 2012
Each chiral pair is counted as two when enumerating oriented arrangements. The Schläfli symbols for the regular octahedron and cube are {3,4} and {4,3} respectively. They are mutually dual.
There are 24 elements in the rotation group of the regular octahedron/cube. They divide into five conjugacy classes. The first formula is obtained by averaging the edge cycle indices after replacing x_i^j with n^j according to the Pólya enumeration theorem.
Conjugacy Class Count Even Cycle Indices
Identity 1 x_1^12
Vertex rotation 8 x_3^4
Edge rotation 6 x_1^2x_2^5
Small face rotation 6 x_4^3
Large face rotation 3 x_2^6 (End)
Also, number of ways of coloring the vertices of the truncated tetrahedron or faces of the triakis tetrahedron up to rotation and reflection. -
Peter Kagey, Nov 27 2024