arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Oleg Pikhurko.
We give a sketch of proof that any two (Lebesgue) measurable subsets of the unit sphere in $R^n$, for $n\ge 3$, with non-empty interiors and of the same measure are equidecomposable using pieces that are measurable.
In Martin Gardner's October, 1976 Mathematical Games column in Scientific American, he posed the following problem: "What is the smallest number of [queens] you can put on a board of side n such that no [queen] can be added without creating three in a row, a column, or a diagonal?" We use the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz to prove that this number is at least n, except in the case when n is congruent to 3 modulo 4, in which case one less may suffice. A second, more elementary proof is also offered in the case that n is even.
S.Janson [Poset limits and exchangeable random posets, Combinatorica 31 (2011), 529--563] defined limits of finite posets in parallel to the emerging theory of limits of dense graphs. We prove that each poset limit can be represented as a kernel on the unit interval with the standard order, thus answering an open question of Janson. We provide two proofs: real-analytic and combinatorial. The combinatorial proof is based on a Szemeredi-type Regularity Lemma for posets which may be of independent interest. Also, as a by-product of the analytic proof, we show that every atomless ordered probability space admits a measure-preserving and almost order-preserving map to the unit interval.
We discuss the definability of finite graphs in first-order logic with two relation symbols for adjacency and equality of vertices. The logical depth $D(G)$ of a graph $G$ is equal to the minimum quantifier depth of a sentence defining $G$ up to isomorphism. The logical width $W(G)$ is the minimum number of variables occurring in such a sentence. The logical length $L(G)$ is the length of a shortest defining sentence. We survey known estimates for these graph parameters and discuss their relations to other topics (such as the efficiency of the Weisfeiler-Lehman algorithm in isomorphism testing, the evolution of a random graph, quantitative characteristics of the zero-one law, or the contribution of Frank Ramsey to the research on Hilbert's Entscheidungsproblem). Also, we trace the behavior of the descriptive complexity of a graph as the logic becomes more restrictive (for example, only definitions with a bounded number of variables or quantifier alternations are allowed) or more expressible (after powering with counting quantifiers).
Erdos asked in 1962 about the value of f(n,k,l), the minimum number of k-cliques in a graph of order n and independence number less than l. The case (k,l)=(3,3) was solved by Lorden. Here we solve the problem (for all large n) when (k,l) is (3,4), (3,5), (3,6), (3,7), (4,3), (5,3), (6,3), and (7,3). Independently, Das, Huang, Ma, Naves, and Sudakov did the cases (k,l)=(3,4) and (4,3).
The Turán density π(H) of a family H of k-graphs is the limit as n tends to infinity of the maximum edge density of an H-free k-graph on n vertices. Let I^k consist of all possible Turán densities and let F^k be the set of Turán densities of finite k-graph families. Here we prove that F^k contains every density obtained from an arbitrary finite construction by optimally blowing it up and using recursion inside the specified set of parts. As an application, we show that F^k contains an irrational number for each k\ge 3. Also, we show that I^k has cardinality of the continuum. In particular, I^k is not equal to F^k.
For permutations P and T of lengths |P|\le|T|, let t(P,T) be the probability that the restriction of T to a random |P|-point set is (order) isomorphic to P. We show that every sequence \{T_j\} of permutations such that |T_j|\to\infty and t(P,T_j)\to 1/4! for every 4-point permutation P is quasirandom (that is, t(P,T_j)\to 1/|P|! for every P). This answers a question posed by Graham.
Motivated by the work of Anstee, Griggs, and Sali on forbidden submatrices and the extremal sat-function for graphs, we introduce sat-type problems for matrices. Let F be a family of k-row matrices. A matrix M is called F-admissible if M contains no submatrix G\in F (as a row and column permutation of G). A matrix M without repeated columns is F-saturated if M is F-admissible but the addition of any column not present in M violates this property. In this paper we consider the function sat(n,F) which is the minimum number of columns of an F-saturated matrix with n rows. We establish the estimate sat(n,F)=O(n^{k-1}) for any family F of k-row matrices and also compute the sat-function for a few small forbidden matrices.
Given a planar graph $G$, we consider drawings of $G$ in the plane where edges are represented by straight line segments (which possibly intersect). Such a drawing is specified by an injective embedding $π$ of the vertex set of $G$ into the plane. We prove that a wheel graph $W_n$ admits a drawing $π$ such that, if one wants to eliminate edge crossings by shifting vertices to new positions in the plane, then at most $(2+o(1))\sqrt n$ of all $n$ vertices can stay fixed. Moreover, such a drawing $π$ exists even if it is presupposed that the vertices occupy any prescribed set of points in the plane. Similar questions are discussed for other families of planar graphs.
The stability method is very useful for obtaining exact solutions of many extremal graph problems. Its key step is to establish the stability property which, roughly speaking, states that any two almost optimal graphs of the same order $n$ can be made isomorphic by changing o(n^2) edges. Here we show how the recently developed theory of graph limits can be used to give an analytic approach to stability. As an application, we present a new proof of the Erdos-Simonovits Stability Theorem. Also, we investigate various properties of the edit distance. In particular, we show that the combinatorial and fractional versions are within a constant factor from each other, thus answering a question of Goldreich, Krivelevich, Newman, and Rozenberg.
Let P_G(q) denote the number of proper q-colorings of a graph G. This function, called the chromatic polynomial of G, was introduced by Birkhoff in 1912, who sought to attack the famous four-color problem by minimizing P_G(4) over all planar graphs G. Since then, motivated by a variety of applications, much research was done on minimizing or maximizing P_G(q) over various families of graphs. In this paper, we study an old problem of Linial and Wilf, to find the graphs with n vertices and m edges which maximize the number of q-colorings. We provide the first approach which enables one to solve this problem for many nontrivial ranges of parameters. Using our machinery, we show that for each q >= 4 and sufficiently large m < κ_q n^2 where κ_q is approximately 1/(q log q), the extremal graphs are complete bipartite graphs minus the edges of a star, plus isolated vertices. Moreover, for q = 3, we establish the structure of optimal graphs for all large m <= n^2/4, confirming (in a stronger form) a conjecture of Lazebnik from 1989.
Let c(G) be the smallest number of edges we have to test in order to determine an unknown acyclic orientation of the given graph G in the worst case. For example, if G is the complete graph on n vertices, then c(G) is the smallest number of comparisons needed to sort n numbers. We prove that c(G)\le (1/4+o(1))n^2 for any graph G on n vertices, answering in the affirmative a question of Aigner, Triesch, and Tuza [Discrete Mathematics, 144 (1995) 3-10]. Also, we show that, for every e>0, it is NP-hard to approximate the parameter c(G) within a multiplicative factor 74/73-e.
We study a problem motivated by a question related to quantum-error-correcting codes. Combinatorially, it involves the following graph parameter: $$f(G)=\min\set{|A|+|\{x\in V\setminus A : d_A(x)\text{is odd}\}| : A\neq\emptyset},$$ where $V$ is the vertex set of $G$ and $d_A(x)$ is the number of neighbors of $x$ in $A$. We give asymptotically tight estimates of $f$ for the random graph $G_{n,p}$ when $p$ is constant. Also, if $$f(n)=\max\set{f(G): |V(G)|=n}$$ then we show that $f(n)\leq (0.382+o(1))n$.
We consider the following one-player game called Dundee. We are given a deck consisting of s_i cards of Value i, where i=1,...,v, and an integer m\le s_1+...+s_v. There are m rounds. In each round, the player names a number between 1 and v and draws a random card from the deck. The player loses if the named number coincides with the drawn value in at least one round. The famous Problem of Thirteen, proposed by Monmort in 1708, asks for the probability of winning in the case when v=13, s_1=...=s_{13}=4, m=13, and the player names the sequence 1,...,13. This problem and its various generalizations were studied by numerous mathematicians, including J. and N. Bernoulli, De Moivre, Euler, Catalan, and others. However, it seems that nobody has considered which strategies of the player maximize the probability of winning. We study two variants of this problem. In the first variant, the player's bid in Round i may depend on the values of the random cards drawn in the previous rounds. We completely solve this version. In the second variant, the player has to specify the whole sequence of m bids in advance, before turning any cards. We are able to solve this problem when s_1=...=s_v and m is arbitrary.
Let $D(G)$ be the minimum quantifier depth of a first order sentence $Φ$ that defines a graph $G$ up to isomorphism. Let $D_0(G)$ be the version of $D(G)$ where we do not allow quantifier alternations in $Φ$. Define $q_0(n)$ to be the minimum of $D_0(G)$ over all graphs $G$ of order $n$. We prove that for all $n$ we have $\log^*n-\log^*\log^*n-1\le q_0(n)\le \log^*n+22$, where $\log^*n$ is equal to the minimum number of iterations of the binary logarithm needed to bring $n$ to 1 or below. The upper bound is obtained by constructing special graphs with modular decomposition of very small depth.
Let l>k>2. Let the k-graph H^k_l be obtained from the complete 2-graph K_l^2 by enlarging each edge with a new set of k-2 vertices. Mubayi ["A hypergraph extension of Turan's theorem", to appear in J. Combin. Th. (B)] computed asymptotically the Turan function ex(n,H_l^k). Here we determine the exact value of ex(n,H_l^k) for all sufficiently large n, settling a conjecture of Mubayi.
Let D(G) be the smallest quantifier depth of a first order formula which is true for a graph G but false for any other non-isomorphic graph. This can be viewed as a measure for the first order descriptive complexity of G. We will show that almost surely D(G)=Θ(\ln n/\ln\ln n), where G is a random tree of order n or the giant component of a random graph G(n,c/n) with constant c>1. These results rely on computing the maximum of D(T) for a tree T of order n and maximum degree l, so we study this problem as well.
Caro and Yuster (Electronic J.Comb 7 (2000)) studied a generalization of the Turan problem, where a certain function (instead of the size) of an F-free graph of order n has to be maximized. We prove that for a wide class of functions the asymptotics of the maximum is given by complete partite graphs.