arXiv subjects

James Propp

Publications and source records attributed to James Propp.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Rotor Walks and Markov Chains

The rotor walk is a derandomized version of the random walk on a graph. On successive visits to any given vertex, the walker is routed to each of the neighboring vertices in some fixed cyclic order, rather than to a random sequence of neighbors. The concept generalizes naturally to Markov chains on a countable state space. Subject to general conditions, we prove that many natural quantities associated with the rotor walk (including normalized hitting frequencies, hitting times and occupation frequencies) concentrate around their expected values for the random walk. Furthermore, the concentration is stronger than that associated with repeated runs of the random walk, with discrepancy at most C/n after n runs (for an explicit constant C), rather than c/sqrt n.

math.PR↗

arXiv2009

Perfect matchings for the three-term Gale-Robinson sequences

In 1991, David Gale and Raphael Robinson, building on explorations carried out by Michael Somos in the 1980s, introduced a three-parameter family of rational recurrence relations, each of which (with suitable initial conditions) appeared to give rise to a sequence of integers, even though a priori the recurrence might produce non-integral rational numbers. Throughout the '90s, proofs of integrality were known only for individual special cases. In the early '00s, Sergey Fomin and Andrei Zelevinsky proved Gale and Robinson's integrality conjecture. They actually proved much more, and in particular, that certain bivariate rational functions that generalize Gale-Robinson numbers are actually polynomials with integer coefficients. However, their proof did not offer any enumerative interpretation of the Gale-Robinson numbers/polynomials. Here we provide such an interpretation in the setting of perfect matchings of graphs, which makes integrality/polynomiality obvious. Moreover, this interpretation implies that the coefficients of the Gale-Robinson polynomials are positive, as Fomin and Zelevinsky conjectured.

math.CO↗

arXiv2007

Degree-growth of monomial maps

For projectivizations of rational maps Bellon and Viallet defined the notion of algebraic entropy using the exponential growth rate of the degrees of iterates. We want to call this notion to the attention of dynamicists by computing algebraic entropy for certain rational maps of projective spaces (Theorem 6.2) and comparing it with topological entropy (Theorem 5.1). The particular rational maps we study are monomial maps (Definition 1.2), which are closely related to toral endomorphisms. Theorems 5.1 and 6.2 imply that the algebraic entropy of a monomial map is always bounded above by its topological entropy, and that the inequality is strict if the defining matrix has more than one eigenvalue outside the unit circle. Also, Bellon and Viallet conjectured that the algebraic entropy of every rational map is the logarithm of an algebraic integer, and Theorem 6.2 establishes this for monomial maps. However, a simple example (the monomial map of Example 7.2) shows that a stronger conjecture of Bellon and Viallet is incorrect, in that the sequence of algebraic degrees of the iterates of a rational map of projective space need not satisfy a linear recurrence relation with constant coefficients.

math.DS↗

arXiv2007

Combinatorial interpretations for rank-two cluster algebras of affine type

Fomin and Zelevinsky show that a certain two-parameter family of rational recurrence relations, here called the (b,c) family, possesses the Laurentness property: for all b,c, each term of the (b,c) sequence can be expressed as a Laurent polynomial in the two initial terms. In the case where the positive integers b,c satisfy bc<4, the recurrence is related to the root systems of finite-dimensional rank 2 Lie algebras; when bc>4, the recurrence is related to Kac-Moody rank 2 Lie algebras of hyperbolic type. Here we investigate the borderline cases bc=4, corresponding to Kac-Moody Lie algebras of affine type. In these cases, we show that the Laurent polynomials arising from the recurence can be viewed as generating functions that enumerate the perfect matchings of certain graphs. By providing combinatorial interpretations of the individual coefficients of these Laurent polynomials, we establish their positivity.

math.CO↗

arXiv2005

Topological entropy for non-uniformly continuous maps

The topological entropy of a continuous self-map of a compact metric space can be defined in several distinct ways; when the space is not assumed compact, these definitions can lead to distinct invariants. The original, purely topological invariant defined by Adler et. al. is infinite if the system has at least one orbit with empty limit set. The Bowen-Dinaburg formulation (based on separated sets) is equivalent to the invariant defined by Friedland (based on a compactification of the inverse limit), and dominates another invariant proposed by Bowen (maximizing dispersion rates for orbits emanating from compact subsets). Examples show that these two invariants are both heavily dependent on the uniform structure induced by the metric used to calculate them.

math.DS↗

arXiv2004

Lambda-determinants and domino-tilings

Consider the $2n$-by-$2n$ matrix $M=(m_{i,j})_{i,j=1}^{2n}$ with $m_{i,j} = 1$ for $i,j$ satisfying $|2i-2n-1|+|2j-2n-1| \leq 2n$ and $m_{i,j} = 0$ for all other $i,j$, consisting of a central diamond of 1's surrounded by 0's. When $n \geq 4$, the $λ$-determinant of the matrix $M$ (as introduced by Robbins and Rumsey) is not well-defined. However, if we replace the 0's by $t$'s, we get a matrix whose $λ$-determinant is well-defined and is a polynomial in $λ$ and $t$. The limit of this polynomial as $t \to 0$ is a polynomial in $λ$ whose value at $λ=1$ is the number of domino tilings of a $2n$-by-$2n$ square.

math.CO↗

arXiv2003

Exponentiation and Euler measure

Two of the pillars of combinatorics are the notion of choosing an arbitrary subset of a set with $n$ elements (which can be done in $2^n$ ways), and the notion of choosing a $k$-element subset of a set with $n$ elements (which can be done in $n \choose k$ ways). In this article I sketch the beginnings of a theory that would import these notions into the category of hedral sets in the sense of Morelli and the category of polyhedral sets in the sense of Schanuel. Both of these theories can be viewed as extensions of the theory of finite sets and mappings between finite sets, with the concept of cardinality being replaced by the more general notion of Euler measure (sometimes called combinatorial Euler characteristic). I prove a ``functoriality'' theorem (Theorem 1) for subset-selection in the context of polyhedral sets, which provides quasi-combinatorial interpretations of assertions such as $2^{-1} = \frac12$ and ${1/2 \choose 2} = -\frac18$. Furthermore, the operation of forming a power set can be viewed as a special case of the operation of forming the set of all mappings from one set to another; I conclude the article with a polyhedral analogue of the set of all mappings between two finite sets, and a restrictive but suggestive result (Theorem 2) that offers a hint of what a general theory of exponentiation in the polyhedral category might look like.

math.CO↗

arXiv2002

Generalized domino-shuffling

The problem of counting tilings of a plane region using specified tiles can often be recast as the problem of counting (perfect) matchings of some subgraph of an Aztec diamond graph A_n, or more generally calculating the sum of the weights of all the matchings, where the weight of a matching is equal to the product of the (pre-assigned) weights of the constituent edges (assumed to be non-negative). This article presents efficient algorithms that work in this context to solve three problems: finding the sum of the weights of the matchings of a weighted Aztec diamond graph A_n; computing the probability that a randomly-chosen matching of A_n will include a particular edge (where the probability of a matching is proportional to its weight); and generating a matching of A_n at random. The first of these algorithms is equivalent to a special case of Mihai Ciucu's cellular complementation algorithm and can be used to solve many of the same problems. The second of the three algorithms is a generalization of not-yet-published work of Alexandru Ionescu, and can be employed to prove an identity governing a three-variable generating function whose coefficients are all the edge-inclusion probabilities; this formula has been used as the basis for asymptotic formulas for these probabilities, but a proof of the generating function identity has not hitherto been published. The third of the three algorithms is a generalization of the domino-shuffling algorithm described by Elkies, Kuperberg, Larsen and Propp; it enables one to generate random ``diabolo-tilings of fortresses'' and thereby to make intriguing inferences about their asymptotic behavior.

math.CO↗

arXiv2002

The many faces of alternating-sign matrices

I give a survey of different combinatorial forms of alternating-sign matrices, starting with the original form introduced by Mills, Robbins and Rumsey as well as corner-sum matrices, height-function matrices, three-colorings, monotone triangles, tetrahedral order ideals, square ice, gasket-and-basket tilings and full packings of loops.

math.CO↗

arXiv2002

The shape of a typical boxed plane partition

Using a calculus of variations approach, we determine the shape of a typical plane partition in a large box (i.e., a plane partition chosen at random according to the uniform distribution on all plane partitions whose solid Young diagrams fit inside the box). Equivalently, we describe the distribution of the three different orientations of lozenges in a random lozenge tiling of a large hexagon. We prove a generalization of the classical formula of MacMahon for the number of plane partitions in a box; for each of the possible ways in which the tilings of a region can behave when restricted to certain lines, our formula tells the number of tilings that behave in that way. When we take a suitable limit, this formula gives us a functional which we must maximize to determine the asymptotic behavior of a plane partition in a box. Once the variational problem has been set up, we analyze it using a modification of the methods employed by Logan and Shepp and by Vershik and Kerov in their studies of random Young tableaux.

math.CO↗

arXiv2002

Euler measure as generalized cardinality

Schanuel has pointed out that there are mathematically interesting categories whose relationship to the ring of integers is analogous to the relationship between the category of finite sets and the semi-ring of non-negative integers. Such categories are inherently geometrical or topological, in that the mapping to the ring of integers is a variant of Euler characteristic. In these notes, I sketch some ideas that might be used in further development of a theory along lines suggested by Schanuel.

math.CO↗

arXiv2002

Generating a random sink-free orientation in quadratic time

A sink-free orientation of a finite undirected graph is a choice of orientation for each edge such that every vertex has out-degree at least 1. Bubley and Dyer (1997) use Markov Chain Monte Carlo to sample approximately from the uniform distribution on sink-free orientations in time O(m^3 log (1/epsilon)), where m is the number of edges and epsilon the degree of approximation. Huber (1998) uses coupling from the past to obtain an exact sample in time O(m^4). We present a simple randomized algorithm inspired by Wilson's cycle popping method which obtains an exact sample in mean time at most O(nm), where n is the number of vertices.

math.PR↗

arXiv2001

A variational principle for domino tilings

We formulate and prove a variational principle (in the sense of thermodynamics) for random domino tilings, or equivalently for the dimer model on a square grid. This principle states that a typical tiling of an arbitrary finite region can be described by a function that maximizes an entropy integral. We associate an entropy to every sort of local behavior domino tilings can exhibit, and prove that almost all tilings lie within epsilon (for an appropriate metric) of the unique entropy-maximizing solution. This gives a solution to the dimer problem with fully general boundary conditions, thereby resolving an issue first raised by Kasteleyn. Our methods also apply to dimer models on other grids and their associated tiling models, such as tilings of the plane by three orientations of unit lozenges.

math.CO↗

arXiv2001

A reciprocity theorem for domino tilings

Let T(m,n) denote the number of ways to tile an m-by-n rectangle with dominos. For any fixed m, the numbers T(m,n) satisfy a linear recurrence relation, and so may be extrapolated to negative values of n; these extrapolated values satisfy the relation T(m,-2-n) = epsilon_{m,n} T(m,n), where epsilon_{m,n} is -1 if m is congruent to 2 (mod 4) and n is odd, and is +1 is otherwise. This is equivalent to a fact demonstrated by Stanley using algebraic methods. Here I give a proof that provides, among other things, a uniform combinatorial interpretation of T(m,n) that applies regardless of the sign of n.

math.CO↗

arXiv2000

Local statistics for random domino tilings of the Aztec diamond

We prove an asymptotic formula for the probability that, if one chooses a domino tiling of a large Aztec diamond at random according to the uniform distribution on such tilings, the tiling will contain a domino covering a given pair of adjacent lattice squares. This formula quantifies the effect of the diamond's boundary conditions on the behavior of typical tilings; in addition, it yields a new proof of the arctic circle theorem of Jockusch, Propp, and Shor. Our approach is to use the saddle point method to estimate certain weighted sums of squares of Krawtchouk polynomials (whose relevance to domino tilings is demonstrated elsewhere), and to combine these estimates with some exponential sum bounds to deduce our final result. This approach generalizes straightforwardly to the case in which the probability distribution on the set of tilings incorporates bias favoring horizontal over vertical tiles or vice versa. We also prove a fairly general large deviation estimate for domino tilings of simply-connected planar regions that implies that some of our results on Aztec diamonds apply to many other similar regions as well.

math.CO↗

arXiv1999

Domino tilings with barriers

In this paper, we continue the study of domino-tilings of Aztec diamonds. In particular, we look at certain ways of placing ``barriers'' in the Aztec diamond, with the constraint that no domino may cross a barrier. Remarkably, the number of constrained tilings is independent of the placement of the barriers. We do not know of a combinatorial explanation of this fact; our proof uses the Jacobi-Trudi identity.

math.CO↗

arXiv1999

Three-player impartial games

Past efforts to classify impartial three-player combinatorial games (the theories of Li and Straffin) have made various restrictive assumptions about the rationality of one's opponents and the formation and behavior of coalitions. One may instead adopt an agnostic attitude towards such issues, and seek only to understand in what circumstances one player has a winning strategy against the combined forces of the other two. By limiting ourselves to this more modest theoretical objective, and by regarding two games as being equivalent if they are interchangeable in all disjunctive sums,as far as single-player winnability is concerned, we can obtain an interesting analogue of Grundy values for three-player impartial games.

math.CO↗

arXiv1999

Enumeration of Matchings: Problems and Progress

This document is built around a list of thirty-two problems in enumeration of matchings, the first twenty of which were presented in a lecture at MSRI in the fall of 1996. I begin with a capsule history of the topic of enumeration of matchings. The twenty original problems, with commentary, comprise the bulk of the article. I give an account of the progress that has been made on these problems as of this writing, and include pointers to both the printed and on-line literature; roughly half of the original twenty problems were solved by participants in the MSRI Workshop on Combinatorics, their students, and others, between 1996 and 1999. The article concludes with a dozen new open problems. (Note: This article supersedes math.CO/9801060 and math.CO/9801061.)

math.CO↗