Combinatorics (math.CO)

Abstract: In 2011, Duncan and Steingr\'imsson conjectured that modified ascent sequences avoiding any of the patterns 212, 1212, 2132, 2213, 2231 and 2321 are counted by the Bell numbers. Furthermore, the distribution of the number of ascents is the reverse of the distribution of blocks on set partitions. We solve the conjecture for all the patterns except 2321. We describe the corresponding sets of Fishburn permutations by pattern avoidance, and leave some open questions for future work.

Abstract: We survey a few strengthenings and generalizations of the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz of Alon and the Schwartz-Zippel Lemma. These lemmas guarantee the existence of (a certain number of) nonzeros of a multivariate polynomial when the variables run independently through sufficiently large ranges.

Abstract: A graph $H$ is called strongly common if for every coloring $\phi$ of $K_n$ with two colors, the number of monochromatic copies of $H$ is at least the number of monochromatic copies of $H$ in a random coloring of $K_n$ with the same density of color classes as $\phi$. In this note we prove that if a graph has odd girth but is not a cycle, then it is not strongly common. This answers a question of Chen and Ma.

Abstract: The weak saturation number $\mathrm{wsat}(n,F)$ is the minimum number of edges in a graph on $n$ vertices such that all the missing edges can be activated sequentially so that each new edge creates a copy of $F$. A usual approach to prove a lower bound for the weak saturation number is algebraic: if it is possible to embed edges of $K_n$ in a vector space in a certain way (depending on $F$), then the dimension of the subspace spanned by the images of the edges of $K_n$ is a lower bound for the weak saturation number. In this paper, we present a new combinatorial approach to prove lower bounds for weak saturation numbers that allows to establish worst-case tight (up to constant additive terms) general lower bounds as well as to get exact values of the weak saturation numbers for certain graph families. It is known (Alon, 1985) that, for every $F$, there exists $c_F$ such that $\mathrm{wsat}(n,F)=c_Fn(1+o(1))$. Our lower bounds imply that all values in the interval $\left[\frac{\delta}{2}-\frac{1}{\delta+1},\delta-1\right]$ with step size $\frac{1}{\delta+1}$ are achievable by $c_F$ (while any value outside this interval is not achievable).

Abstract: For a finite multiset $A$ of an abelian group $G$, let $\text{FS}(A)$ denote the multiset of the $2^{|A|}$ subset sums of $A$. It is natural to ask to what extent $A$ can be reconstructed from $\text{FS}(A)$. We fully solve this problem for $2$-torsion-free groups $G$ by giving characterizations, both algebraic and combinatorial, of the fibers of $\text{FS}$. Equivalently, we characterize all pairs of multisets $A,B$ with $\text{FS}(A)=\text{FS}(B)$. Our results build on recent work of Ciprietti and the first author.

Abstract: Let $p$ be a prime, let $1 \le t < d < p$ be integers, and let $S$ be a non-empty subset of $\mathbb{F}_p$. We establish that if a polynomial $P:\mathbb{F}_p^n \to \mathbb{F}_p$ with degree $d$ is such that the image $P(S^n)$ does not contain the full image $A(\mathbb{F}_p)$ of any non-constant polynomial $A: \mathbb{F}_p \to \mathbb{F}_p$ with degree at most $t$, then $P$ coincides on $S^n$ with a polynomial that in particular has bounded degree-$\lfloor d/(t+1) \rfloor$-rank in the sense of Green and Tao. Similarly, we prove that if the assumption holds even for $t=d$, then $P$ coincides on $S^n$ with a polynomial determined by a bounded number of coordinates.