arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Bhargav Narayanan.
A metric probability space $M$ admits thresholds if the random geometric graph on $M$ has a threshold for every monotone graph property. We connect the existence of thresholds to the uniform expansion of $M$ and prove that all standard tori, spheres, and cubes admit thresholds.
Team captains Alice and Bob divide up $2m$ footballers, each reduced to a real-valued score, into two teams of $m$ footballers each. On each turn, one captain plays picker, and the other chooser: the picker names a footballer yet to be selected, and the chooser decides which captain's team receives that footballer. Alice starts as picker, Bob as chooser, and roles alternate. The game ends as soon as either captain has a full team of $m$ footballers, at which point the other team receives all remaining footballers. The team with the larger sum of scores wins. Settling a problem raised by Eccles in 2015, we show that Alice cannot win.
Consider the (almost surely) unique Radon partition of a set of $n$ random Gaussian vectors in $\mathbb R^{n-2}$; choose one of the two parts of this partition uniformly at random, and for $0 \le k \le n$, let $p_k$ denote the probability that it has size $k$. In this paper, we prove strong unimodality results for the distribution $(p_0,\dots,p_n)$.
We identify a surprising inequality satisfied by elementary symmetric polynomials under the action of the fixed point measure of a random permutation. Concretely, for any collection of $n$ non-negative real numbers $a_1, \dots, a_n \in \mathbb{R}_{\geq 0}$, we prove that \[ \frac{1}{n!} \sum_{π\in S_n} \left[\prod_{\{i:i=π(i)\}} a_i\right] \ge \frac{1}{\binom{n}{2}} \sum_{S \in\binom{[n]}{2}} \left[ \left(\prod_{\{i \in S\}} a_i \right)^{1/2}\right], \] and this bound is sharp. To prove this elementary inequality, we construct a collection of differential operators to set up a monotone flow that then allows us to establish the inequality.
Given a random binary picture $P_n$ of size $n$, i.e., an $n\times n$ grid filled with zeros and ones uniformly at random, when is it possible to reconstruct $P_n$ from its $k$-deck, i.e., the multiset of all its $k\times k$ subgrids? We demonstrate ``two-point concentration'' for the reconstruction threshold by showing that there is an integer $k_c(n) \sim (2 \log n)^{1/2}$ such that if $k > k_c$, then $P_n$ is reconstructible from its $k$-deck with high probability, and if $k < k_c$, then with high probability, it is impossible to reconstruct $P_n$ from its $k$-deck. The proof of this result uses a combination of interface-exploration arguments and entropic arguments.
We study several basic problems about colouring the $p$-random subgraph $G_p$ of an arbitrary graph $G$, focusing primarily on the chromatic number and colouring number of $G_p$. In particular, we show that there exist infinitely many $k$-regular graphs $G$ for which the colouring number (i.e., degeneracy) of $G_{1/2}$ is at most $k/3 + o(k)$ with high probability, thus disproving the natural prediction that such random graphs must have colouring number at least $k/2 - o(k)$.
Let $ε_{1},\ldots,ε_{n}$ be a sequence of independent Rademacher random variables. We prove that there is a constant $c>0$ such that for any unit vectors $v_1,\ldots,v_n\in \mathbb{R}^2$, $$\Pr\left[||ε_1 v_1+\ldots+ε_n v_n||_2 \leq \sqrt{2}\right]\geq \frac{c}{n}.$$ This resolves the only remaining conjecture from the seminal paper of Erdős on the Littlewood--Offord problem, and it is sharp both in the sense that the constant $\sqrt{2}$ cannot be reduced and that the magnitude $n^{-1}$ is best possible. We also prove polynomial bounds for the analogous problem in higher dimensions.
We study how many copies of a graph $F$ that another graph $G$ with a given number of cliques is guaranteed to have. For example, one of our main results states that for all $t\ge 2$, if $G$ is an $n$ vertex graph with $kn^{3/2}$ triangles and $k$ is sufficiently large in terms of $t$, then $G$ contains at least \[Ω(\min\{k^t n^{3/2},k^{\frac{2t^2}{3t-1}}n^{\frac{5t-2}{3t-1}}\})\] copies of $K_{2,t}$, and furthermore, we show these bounds are essentially best-possible provided either $k\ge n^{1/2t}$ or if certain bipartite-analogues of well known conjectures for Turán numbers hold.
We elucidate the relationship between the threshold and the expectation-threshold of a down-set. Qualitatively, our main result demonstrates that there exist down-sets with polynomial gaps between their thresholds and expectation-thresholds; in particular, the logarithmic gap predictions of Kahn--Kalai and Talagrand (recently proved by Park--Pham and Frankston--Kahn--Narayanan--Park) about up-sets do not apply to down-sets. Quantitatively, we show that any collection $\mathcal{G}$ of graphs on $[n]$ that covers the family of all triangle-free graphs on $[n]$ satisfies the inequality $\sum_{G \in \mathcal{G}} \exp(-δe(G^c) / \sqrt{n}) < 1/2$ for some universal $δ> 0$, and this is essentially best-possible.
A family of sets $A$ is said to be an antichain if $x\not\subset y$ for all distinct $x,y\in A$, and it is said to be a distance-$r$ code if every pair of distinct elements of $A$ has Hamming distance at least $r$. Here, we prove that if $A\subset 2^{[n]}$ is both an antichain and a distance-$(2r+1)$ code, then $|A| = O_r(2^n n^{-r-1/2})$. This result, which is best-possible up to the implied constant, is a purely combinatorial strengthening of a number of results in Littlewood--Offord theory; for example, our result gives a short combinatorial proof of Hálasz's theorem, while all previously known proofs of this result are Fourier-analytic.
We show that the natural directed analogues of the KKL theorem [KKL88] and the Eldan--Gross inequality [EG20] from the analysis of Boolean functions fail to hold. This is in contrast to several other isoperimetric inequalities on the Boolean hypercube (such as the Poincare inequality, Margulis's inequality [Mar74] and Talagrand's inequality [Tal93]) for which directed strengthenings have recently been established.
Our first main result is a uniform bound, in every dimension $k \in \mathbb N$, on the topological Turán numbers of $k$-dimensional simplicial complexes: for each $k \in \mathbb N$, there is a $λ_k \ge k^{-2k^2}$ such that for any $k$-complex $\mathcal{S}$, every $k$-complex on $n \ge n_0(\mathcal{S})$ vertices with at least $n^{k+1 - λ_k}$ facets contains a homeomorphic copy of $\mathcal{S}$. This was previously known only in dimensions one and two, both by highly dimension-specific arguments: the existence of $λ_1$ is a result of Mader from 1967, and the existence of $λ_2$ was suggested by Linial in 2006 and recently proved by Keevash-Long-Narayanan-Scott. We deduce this geometric fact from a purely combinatorial result about trace-bounded hypergraphs, where an $r$-partite $r$-graph $H$ with partite classes $V_1, V_2, \dots, V_r$ is said to be $d$-trace-bounded if for each $2 \le i \le r$, all the vertices of $V_i$ have degree at most $d$ in the trace of $H$ on $V_1 \cup V_2 \cup \dots \cup V_i$. Our second main result is the following estimate for the Turán numbers of degenerate trace-bounded hypergraphs: for all $r \ge 2$ and $d\in\mathbb N$, there is an $α_{r,d} \ge (5rd)^{1-r}$ such that for any $d$-trace-bounded $r$-partite $r$-graph $H$, every $r$-graph on $n \ge n_0(H)$ vertices with at least $n^{r - α_{r,d}}$ edges contains a copy of $H$. This strengthens a result of Conlon-Fox-Sudakov from 2009 who showed that such a bound holds for $r$-partite $r$-graphs $H$ satisfying the stronger hypothesis that the vertex-degrees in all but one of its partite classes are bounded (in $H$, as opposed to in its traces).
We make some progress on a question of Babai from the 1970s, namely: for $n, k \in \mathbb{N}$ with $k \le n/2$, what is the largest possible cardinality $s(n,k)$ of an intersecting family of $k$-element subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ admitting a transitive group of automorphisms? We give upper and lower bounds for $s(n,k)$, and show in particular that $s(n,k) = o (\binom{n-1}{k-1})$ as $n \to \infty$ if and only if $k = n/2 - ω(n)(n/\log n)$ for some function $ω(\cdot)$ that increases without bound, thereby determining the threshold at which `symmetric' intersecting families are negligibly small compared to the maximum-sized intersecting families. We also exhibit connections to some basic questions in group theory and additive number theory, and pose a number of problems.
We prove the following sharp estimate for the number of spanning trees of a graph in terms of its vertex-degrees: a simple graph $G$ on $n$ vertices has at most $(1/n^{2}) \prod_{v \in V(G)} (d(v)+1)$ spanning trees. This result is tight (for complete graphs), and improves earlier estimates of Alon from 1990 and Kostochka from 1995 by a factor of about $1/n$ (for dense graphs). We additionally show that an analogous bound holds for the weighted spanning tree enumerator of a (nonnegatively) weighted graph as well.
In this paper, we show how one may (efficiently) construct two types of extremal combinatorial objects whose existence was previously conjectural. (*) Panchromatic Graphs: For fixed integer k, a k-panchromatic graph is, roughly speaking, a balanced bipartite graph with one partition class equipartitioned into k colour classes in which the common neighbourhoods of panchromatic k-sets of vertices are much larger than those of k-sets that repeat a colour. The question of their existence was raised by Karthik and Manurangsi [Combinatorica 2020]. (*) Threshold Graphs: For fixed integer k, a k-threshold graph is, roughly speaking, a balanced bipartite graph in which the common neighbourhoods of k-sets of vertices on one side are much larger than those of (k+1)-sets. The question of their existence was raised by Lin [JACM 2018]. As applications of our constructions, we show the following conditional time lower bounds on the parameterized set intersection problem where, given a collection of n sets over universe [n] and a parameter k, the goal is to find k sets with the largest intersection. (*) Assuming ETH, for any computable function F, no $n^{o(k)}$-time algorithm can approximate the parameterized set intersection problem up to factor F(k). This improves considerably on the previously best-known result under ETH due to Lin [JACM 2018], who ruled out any $n^{o(\sqrt{k})}$ time approximation algorithm for this problem. (*) Assuming SETH, for every $\varepsilon>0$ and any computable function F, no $n^{k-\varepsilon}$-time algorithm can approximate the parameterized set intersection problem up to factor F(k). No result of comparable strength was previously known under SETH, even for solving this problem exactly.
Resolving a conjecture of Füredi from 1988, we prove that with high probability, the random graph $G(n,1/2)$ admits a friendly bisection of its vertex set, i.e., a partition of its vertex set into two parts whose sizes differ by at most one in which $n-o(n)$ vertices have at least as many neighbours in their own part as across. The engine of our proof is a new method to study stochastic processes driven by degree information in random graphs; this involves combining enumeration techniques with an abstract second moment argument.
We present a principled technique for reducing the lattice and matrix size in some applications of Coppersmith's lattice method for finding roots of modular polynomial equations. Motivated by ideas from machine learning, it relies on extrapolating patterns from the actual behavior of Coppersmith's attack for smaller parameter sizes, which can be thought of as "focus group" testing. When applied to the small-exponent RSA problem, our technique reduces lattice dimensions and consequently running times, and hence can be applied to a wider range of exponents. Moreover, in many difficult examples our attack is not only faster but also more successful in recovering the RSA secret key. We include a discussion of subtleties concerning whether or not existing metrics (such as enabling condition bounds) are decisive in predicting the true efficacy of attacks based on Coppersmith's method. Finally, indications are given which suggest certain lattice basis reduction algorithms (such as Nguyen-Stehlé's L2) may be particularly well-suited for Coppersmith's method.
Resolving a conjecture of Kühn and Osthus from 2012, we show that $p= 1/\sqrt{n}$ is the threshold for the random graph $G_{n,p}$ to contain the square of a Hamilton cycle.