Combinatorics (math.CO)

Abstract: One of the main properties of modulus on graphs is Fulkerson duality. In this paper, we study Fulkerson duality for spanning tree modulus. We introduce a new notion of Beurling partition, and we identify two important ones, which correspond to the notion of strength and maximum denseness of an arbitrary graph. These special partitions, also give rise to two deflation processes that reveal a hierarchical structure for general graphs. Finally, while Fulkerson duality for spanning tree families can be deduced from a well-known result in combinatorics due to Chopra, we give an alternative approach based on a result of Nash-Williams and Tutte.

Abstract: A graph $G$ is called edge-magic if there exists a bijective function $f:V\left(G\right) \cup E\left(G\right)\rightarrow \left\{1, 2, \ldots , \left\vert V\left( G\right) \right\vert +\left\vert E\left( G\right) \right\vert \right\}$ such that $f\left(u\right) + f\left(v\right) + f\left(uv\right)$ is a constant (called the valence of $f$) for each $uv\in E\left( G\right) $. If $f\left(V \left(G\right)\right) =\left\{1, 2, \ldots , \left\vert V\left( G\right) \right\vert \right\}$, then $G$ is called a super edge-magic graph. A stronger version of edge-magic and super edge-magic graphs appeared when the concepts of perfect edge-magic and perfect super edge-magic graphs were introduced. The super edge-magic deficiency $ \mu_{s}\left(G\right)$ of a graph $G$ is defined to be either the smallest nonnegative integer $n$ with the property that $G \cup nK_{1}$ is super edge-magic or $+ \infty$ if there exists no such integer $n$. On the other hand, the edge-magic deficiency $ \mu\left(G\right)$ of a graph $G$ is the smallest nonnegative integer $n$ for which $G\cup nK_{1}$ is edge-magic, being $ \mu\left(G\right)$ always finite. In this paper, the concepts of (super) edge-magic deficiency are generalized using the concepts of perfect (super) edge-magic graphs. This naturally leads to the study of the valences of edge-magic and super edge-magic labelings. We present some general results in this direction and study the perfect (super) edge-magic deficiency of the star $K_{1,n}$.

Abstract: For a $hypergraph$ $\mathcal{G}=(V, E)$ consisting of a nonempty vertex set $V=V(\mathcal{G})$ and an edge set $E=E(\mathcal{G})$, its $adjacency$ $matrix$ $\mathcal {A}_{\mathcal{G}}=[(\mathcal {A}_{\mathcal{G}})_{ij}]$ is defined as $(\mathcal {A}_{\mathcal{G}})_{ij}=\sum_{e\in E_{ij}}\frac{1}{|e| - 1}$, where $E_{ij} = \{e \in E \, |\, i, j \in e\}$.The $spectral$ $radius$ of a hypergraph $\mathcal{G}$, denoted by $\rho(\mathcal {G})$, is the maximum modulus among all eigenvalues of $\mathcal {A}_{\mathcal{G}}$. In this paper, among all $k$-uniform ($k\geq 3$) unicyclic hypergraphs with fixed number of vertices, the hypergraphs with the maximum and the second the maximum spectral radius are completely determined, respectively.

Abstract: For an odd prime power $q$ satisfying $q\equiv 1\pmod 3$ we construct totally $2(q-1) $ permutation polyomials, all giving involutory permutations with exactly $ 1+ \frac{q-1}3$ fixed points. Among them $(q-1)$ polynomials are trinomials, and the rest are 6-term polynomials.

Abstract: We consider a card guessing game with complete feedback. A ordered deck of n cards labeled 1 up to n is riffle-shuffled exactly one time. Then, the goal of the game is to maximize the number of correct guesses of the cards, where one after another a single card is drawn from the top, and shown to the guesser until no cards remain. Improving earlier results, we provide a limit law for the number of correct guesses. As a byproduct, we relate the number of correct guesses in this card guessing game to the number of correct guesses under a two-color card guessing game with complete feedback. Using this connection to two-color card guessing, we can also show a limiting distribution result for the first occurrence of a pure luck guess.

Abstract: Let $\mathfrak{g}$ be an untwisted affine Lie algebra with associated Weyl group $W_a$. To any level 0 weight $\gamma$ we associate a weighted graph $\Gamma_\gamma$ that encodes the orbit of $\gamma$ under the action $W_a$. We show that the graph $\Gamma_\gamma$ encodes the periodic orientation of certain subsets of alcoves in $W_a$ and therefore can be interpreted as an automaton determining the reduced expressions in these subsets. Then, by using some relevant quotients of the homology ring of affine Grassmannians, we show that $\Gamma_\gamma$ is positively multiplicative. This allows us in particular to compute the structure constants of the homology rings using elementary linear algebra on multiplicative graphs. In another direction, the positivity of $\Gamma_\gamma$ yields the key ingredients to study a large class of central random walks on alcoves.

Abstract: We present new min-max relations in digraphs between the number of paths satisfying certain conditions and the order of the corresponding cuts. We define these objects in order to capture, in the context of solving the half-integral linkage problem, the essential properties needed for reaching a large bramble of congestion two (or any other constant) from the terminal set. This strategy has been used ad-hoc in several articles, usually with lengthy technical proofs, and our objective is to abstract it to make it applicable in a simpler and unified way. We provide two proofs of the min-max relations, one consisting in applying Menger's Theorem on appropriately defined auxiliary digraphs, and an alternative simpler one using matroids, however with worse polynomial running time. As an application, we manage to simplify and improve several results of Edwards et al. [ESA 2017] and of Giannopoulou et al. [SODA 2022] about finding half-integral linkages in digraphs. Concerning the former, besides being simpler, our proof provides an almost optimal bound on the strong connectivity of a digraph for it to be half-integrally feasible under the presence of a large bramble of congestion two (or equivalently, if the directed tree-width is large, which is the hard case). Concerning the latter, our proof uses brambles as rerouting objects instead of cylindrical grids, hence yielding much better bounds and being somehow independent of a particular topology. We hope that our min-max relations will find further applications as, in our opinion, they are simple, robust, and versatile to be easily applicable to different types of routing problems in digraphs.

Abstract: For a given permutation or set partition there is a natural way to associate a genus. Counting all permutations or partitions of a fixed genus according to cycle lengths or block sizes, respectively, is the main content of this article. After a variable transformation, the generating series are rational functions with poles located at the ramification points in the new variable. The generating series for any genus is given explicitly for permutations and up to genus 2 for set partitions. Extending the topological structure not just by the genus but also by adding more boundaries, we derive the generating series of non-crossing partitions on the cylinder from known results of non-crossing permutations on the cylinder. Most, but not all, outcomes of this article are special cases of already known results, however they are not represented in this way in the literature, which however seems to be the canonical way. To make the article as accessible as possible, we avoid going into details into the explicit connections to Topological Recursion and Free Probability Theory, where the original motivation came from.

Abstract: A hypertree is a connected hypergraph without cycles. Further a hypertree is called an $r$-tree if, additionally, it is $r$-uniform. Note that 2-trees are just ordinary trees. A classical result states that for any 2-tree $T$ with characteristic polynomial $\phi_T(\lambda)$ and matching polynomial $\varphi_T(\lambda)$, then $\phi_T(\lambda)=\varphi_T(\lambda).$ More generally, suppose $\mathcal{T}$ is an $r$-tree of size $m$ with $r\geq2$. In this paper, we extend the above classical relationship to $r$-trees and establish that \[ \phi_{\mathcal{T}}(\lambda)=\prod_{H \sqsubseteq \mathcal{T}}\varphi_{H}(\lambda)^{a_{H}}, \] where the product is over all connected subgraphs $H$ of $\mathcal{T}$, and the exponent $a_{H}$ of the factor $\varphi_{H}(\lambda)$ can be written as \[ a_H=b^{m-e(H)-|\partial(H)|}c^{e(H)}(b-c)^{|\partial(H)|}, \] where $e(H)$ is the size of $H$, $\partial(H)$ is the boundary of $H$, and $b=(r-1)^{r-1}, c=r^{r-2}$. In particular, for $r=2$, the above correspondence reduces to the classical result for ordinary trees. In addition, we resolve a conjecture by Clark-Cooper [{\em Electron. J. Combin.}, 2018] and show that for any subgraph $H$ of an $r$-tree $\mathcal{T}$ with $r\geq3$, $\varphi_H(\lambda)$ divides $\phi_{\mathcal{T}}(\lambda)$, and additionally $\phi_H(\lambda)$ divides $\phi_{\mathcal{T}}(\lambda)$, if either $r\geq 4$ or $H$ is connected when $r=3$. Moreover, a counterexample is given for the case when $H$ is a disconnected subgraph of a 3-tree.

Abstract: We find bivariate generating functions for the $k=1$ cases of recently conjectured colored partition identities of Capparelli, Meurman, A. Primc, and M. Primc that are slight variants of the generating functions for the sum sides of the Andrews-Gordon and Andrews-Bressoud identities. As a consequence, we prove sum-to-product identities for these cases, thus proving the conjectures.

Abstract: The extremal theory of forbidden 0--1 matrices studies the asymptotic growth of the function $\mathrm{Ex}(P,n)$, which is the maximum weight of a matrix $A\in\{0,1\}^{n\times n}$ whose submatrices avoid a fixed pattern $P\in\{0,1\}^{k\times l}$. This theory has been wildly successful at resolving problems in combinatorics, discrete and computational geometry, structural graph theory, and the analysis of data structures, particularly corollaries of the dynamic optimality conjecture. All these applications use acyclic patterns, meaning that when $P$ is regarded as the adjacency matrix of a bipartite graph, the graph is acyclic. The biggest open problem in this area is to bound $\mathrm{Ex}(P,n)$ for acyclic $P$. Prior results have only ruled out the strict $O(n\log n)$ bound conjectured by Furedi and Hajnal. It is consistent with prior results that $\forall P. \mathrm{Ex}(P,n)\leq n\log^{1+o(1)} n$, and also consistent that $\forall \epsilon>0.\exists P. \mathrm{Ex}(P,n) \geq n^{2-\epsilon}$. In this paper we establish a stronger lower bound on the extremal functions of acyclic $P$. Specifically, we give a new construction of relatively dense 0--1 matrices with $\Theta(n(\log n/\log\log n)^t)$ 1s that avoid an acyclic $X_t$. Pach and Tardos have conjectured that this type of result is the best possible, i.e., no acyclic $P$ exists for which $\mathrm{Ex}(P,n)\geq n(\log n)^{\omega(1)}$.

Abstract: Ferrers diagram rank-metric codes were introduced by Etzion and Silberstein in 2009. In their work, they proposed a conjecture on the largest dimension of a space of matrices over a finite field whose nonzero elements are supported on a given Ferrers diagram and all have rank lower bounded by a fixed positive integer $d$. Since stated, the Etzion-Silberstein conjecture has been verified in a number of cases, often requiring additional constraints on the field size or on the minimum rank $d$ in dependence of the corresponding Ferrers diagram. As of today, this conjecture still remains widely open. Using modular methods, we give a constructive proof of the Etzion-Silberstein conjecture for the class of strictly monotone Ferrers diagrams, which does not depend on the minimum rank $d$ and holds over every finite field. In addition, we leverage on the last result to also prove the conjecture for the class of MDS-constructible Ferrers diagrams, without requiring any restriction on the field size.