arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Paul Horn.
We give a nibble-free construction proving $R(3,k)\ge(1/200+o(1))k^2/\log k$. We also include Shearer's proof bounding the independence number of a triangle-free graph, which implies $R(3,k)\le (1+o(1))(k^2/\log k)$.
A sequence of positive integers $(a_1,a_2,\ldots,a_k)$ is called $\ell$-additive if $a_1+a_2+\cdots+a_k=\ell a_1$ or $\ell a_k$. In this paper, we prove that for all $k\geq3$, if $n$ is sufficiently large, then every permutation of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ has a 2-additive subsequence of length $k$. We also provide polynomial bounds for the smallest $n$ such that every permutation of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ has a 2-additive subsequence of length $k$. When only monotone subsequences are considered, we show that $18$ is the smallest $n$ such that every permutation of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ has a monotone 2-additive subsequence of length three. Strong bounds are obtained for the minimum number of $\ell$-additive subsequences of any length, as well as monotone $2$-additive subsequences of length three. Using techniques in arithmetic Ramsey theory, we also show similar results for products and inverse sums.
A graph $G$ is $D$-distinguishable if there is a labeling of its vertices with $D$ labels such that the only automorphism of $G$ which preserves the labeling is the identity. The distinguishing number of $G$ is the minimum value $D$ for which $G$ is $D$-distinguishable. The fixing number of $G$ is the minimum cardinality of a subset of the vertices of $G$ which is fixed pointwise only by the trivial automorphism. We prove that the fixing number of any $2$-distinguishable tree of order $n \geq 3$ is at most $4n/11$, or at most $(D-1)n / (D+1)$ for a $D$-distinguishable tree ($D \geq 3$). For every $D$ and $r$ at least $2$, we characterize the $D$-distinguishable trees with radius $r$ by constructing a universal tree $T_r^D$ which has the property that a tree $T$ of radius $r$ is $D$-distinguishable if and only if $T$ is a union of branches of $T_r^D$. We obtain a similar collection of universal trees for the property of having a constant paint cost spectrum, i.e., the minimum size of the complement of a color class in a distinguishing $D$-coloring of $T$ is equal to the fixing number. Finally, we prove bounds on the distinguishing and fixing numbers of a tree in terms of the eccentricities of its vertices.
We present a flexible random construction which, for certain graphs $H$, is able to produce $H$-free graphs with edge density strictly larger than that of the $H$-free process, while simultaneously preserving pseudorandom properties and allowing a much easier analysis. As our main application, we use this construction to show that the off-diagonal Ramsey numbers satisfy $R(3,k)\ge \left(\frac12+o(1)\right)\frac{k^2}{\log{k}}$, improving the previously best bound $R(3,k)\ge \left(\frac13+o(1)\right)\frac{k^2}{\log{k}}$. While the best known upper bound is $R(3,k)\le \left(1+o(1)\right)\frac{k^2}{\log{k}}$, the constant of $\frac12$ has been conjectured to be asymptotically tight by multiple groups.
We determine the sharp asymptotic scale of the probability that two uniformly random permutations are comparable in weak Bruhat order, showing that $\mathbb{P}(σ_1 \preceq_W σ_2)=\exp\Bigl(\bigl(-\tfrac12+o(1)\bigr)\,n\log n\Bigr)$. This significantly improves both of the best known bounds, due to Hammett and Pittel, which placed this probability between $\exp((-1+o(1))n\log n)$ and $\exp(-Θ(n))$. We also improve the best known lower bound for strong Bruhat-order comparability, due to the same authors, by proving a subexponential lower bound. The Bruhat orders are natural partial orders on the symmetric group, appearing in wide-reaching settings including the geometry of flag manifolds, the representation theory of $\mathfrak{S}_{n}$, and the combinatorics of the permutohedron. To analyze weak Bruhat order, we combine classic analytic, tableau-theoretic, and poset-theoretic tools, including the Plancherel measure and the RSK bijection. For strong Bruhat order we construct large families where members are comparable with high probability. Our proof that members are comparable combines the tableau criterion with an associated random-walk-type deviation process.
Given $n>0$, let $S\subset [0,1]^2$ be a set of $n$ points, chosen uniformly at random. Let $R\cup B$ be a random partition, or coloring, of $S$ in which each point of $S$ is included in $R$ uniformly at random with probability $1/2$. Corujo et al.~(JOCO 2023) studied the random variable $M(n)$ equal to the number of points of $S$ that are covered by the rectangles of a maximum matching of $S$ using pairwise-disjoint rectangles. Each rectangle is axis-aligned and covers exactly two points of $S$ of the same color. They designed a deterministic algorithm to match points of $S$, and the algorithm was modeled as a discrete stochastic process over a finite set of states. After claiming that the stochastic process is a Markov chain, they proved that almost surely $M(n)\ge 0.83\,n$ for $n$ large enough. The issue is that such a process is not actually a Markov one, as we discuss in this note. We argue this issue, and correct it by obtaining the same result but considering that the stochastic process is not Markov, but satisfies some kind of first-order homogeneity property that allows us to compute its marginal distributions.
We study two-player positional games where Maker and Breaker take turns to select a previously unoccupied number in $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$. Maker wins if the numbers selected by Maker contain a solution to the equation \[ x_1^{1/\ell}+\cdots+x_k^{1/\ell}=y^{1/\ell} \] where $k$ and $\ell$ are integers with $k\geq2$ and $\ell\neq0$, and Breaker wins if they can stop Maker. Let $f(k,\ell)$ be the smallest positive integer $n$ such that Maker has a winning strategy when $x_1,\ldots,x_k$ are not necessarily distinct, and let $f^*(k,\ell)$ be the smallest positive integer $n$ such that Maker has a winning strategy when $x_1,\ldots,x_k$ are distinct. When $\ell\geq1$, we prove that, for all $k\geq2$, $f(k,\ell)=(k+2)^\ell$ and $f^*(k,\ell)=(k^2+3)^\ell$; when $\ell\leq-1$, we prove that $f(k,\ell)=[k+Θ_k(1)]^{-\ell}$ and $f^*(k,\ell)=[\exp(O_k(k\log k))]^{-\ell}$. Our proofs use elementary combinatorial arguments as well as results from number theory and arithmetic Ramsey theory.
Motivated by classical work of Alon and Füredi, we introduce and address the following problem: determine the minimum number of affine hyperplanes in $\mathbb{R}^d$ needed to cover every point of the triangular grid $T_d(n) := \{(x_1,\dots,x_d)\in\mathbb{Z}_{\ge 0}^d\mid x_1+\dots+x_d\le n-1\}$ at least $k$ times. For $d = 2$, we solve the problem exactly for $k \leq 4$, and obtain a partial solution for $k > 4$. We also obtain an asymptotic formula (in $n$) for all $d \geq k - 2$. The proofs rely on combinatorial arguments and linear programming.
Consider a simple graph in which a random walk begins at a given vertex. It moves at each step with equal probability to any neighbor of its current vertex, and ends when it has visited every vertex. We call such a random walk a random cover tour. It is well known that cycles and complete graphs have the property that a random cover tour starting at any vertex is equally likely to end at any other vertex. Ronald Graham asked whether there are any other graphs with this property. In 1993, Lászlo Lovász and Peter Winkler showed that cycles and complete graphs are the only undirected graphs with this property. We strengthen this result by showing that cycles and complete graphs (with all edges considered bidirected) are the only directed graphs with this property.
A spanning tree of an edge-colored graph is rainbow provided that each of its edges receives a distinct color. In this paper we consider the natural extremal problem of maximizing and minimizing the number of rainbow spanning trees in a graph $G$. Such a question clearly needs restrictions on the colorings to be meaningful. For edge-colorings using $n-1$ colors and without rainbow cycles, known in the literature as JL-colorings, there turns out to be a particularly nice way of counting the rainbow spanning trees and we solve this problem completely for JL-colored complete graphs $K_n$ and complete bipartite graphs $K_{n,m}$. In both cases, we find tight upper and lower bounds; the lower bound for $K_n$, in particular, proves to have an unexpectedly chaotic and interesting behavior. We further investigate this question for JL-colorings of general graphs and prove several results including characterizing graphs which have JL-colorings achieving the lowest possible number of rainbow spanning trees. We establish other results for general $n-1$ colorings, including providing an analogue of Kirchoff's matrix tree theorem which yields a way of counting rainbow spanning trees in a general graph $G$.
A graph where each vertex $v$ has a list $L(v)$ of available colors is $L$-colorable if there is a proper coloring such that the color of $v$ is in $L(v)$ for each $v$. A graph is $k$-choosable if every assignment $L$ of at least $k$ colors to each vertex guarantees an $L$-coloring. Given a list assignment $L$, an $L$-request for a vertex $v$ is a color $c\in L(v)$. In this paper, we look at a variant of the widely studied class of precoloring extension problems from [Z. Dvořák, S. Norin, and L. Postle: List coloring with requests. J. Graph Theory 2019], wherein one must satisfy "enough", as opposed to all, of the requested set of precolors. A graph $G$ is $\varepsilon$-flexible for list size $k$ if for any $k$-list assignment $L$, and any set $S$ of $L$-requests, there is an $L$-coloring of $G$ satisfying an $\varepsilon$-fraction of the requests in $S$. It is conjectured that planar graphs are $\varepsilon$-flexible for list size $5$, yet it is proved only for list size $6$ and for certain subclasses of planar graphs. We give a stronger version of the main tool used in the proofs of the aforementioned results. By doing so, we improve upon a result by Masařík and show that planar graphs without $K_4^-$ are $\varepsilon$-flexible for list size $5$. We also prove that planar graphs without $4$-cycles and $3$-cycle distance at least 2 are $\varepsilon$-flexible for list size $4$. Finally, we introduce a new (slightly weaker) form of $\varepsilon$-flexibility where each vertex has exactly one request. In that setting, we provide a stronger tool and we demonstrate its usefulness to further extend the class of graphs that are $\varepsilon$-flexible for list size $5$.
Focusing on coupling between edges, we generalize the relationship between the normalized graph Laplacian and random walks on graphs by devising an appropriate normalization for the Hodge Laplacian -- the generalization of the graph Laplacian for simplicial complexes -- and relate this to a random walk on edges. Importantly, these random walks are intimately connected to the topology of the simplicial complex, just as random walks on graphs are related to the topology of the graph. This serves as a foundational step towards incorporating Laplacian-based analytics for higher-order interactions. We demonstrate how to use these dynamics for data analytics that extract information about the edge-space of a simplicial complex that complements and extends graph-based analysis. Specifically, we use our normalized Hodge Laplacian to derive spectral embeddings for examining trajectory data of ocean drifters near Madagascar and also develop a generalization of personalized PageRank for the edge-space of simplicial complexes to analyze a book co-purchasing dataset.
This study considers the (soft) capacitated vertex cover problem in a dynamic setting. This problem generalizes the dynamic model of the vertex cover problem, which has been intensively studied in recent years. Given a dynamically changing vertex-weighted graph $G=(V,E)$, which allows edge insertions and edge deletions, the goal is to design a data structure that maintains an approximate minimum vertex cover while satisfying the capacity constraint of each vertex. That is, when picking a copy of a vertex $v$ in the cover, the number of $v$'s incident edges covered by the copy is up to a given capacity of $v$. We extend Bhattacharya et al.'s work [SODA'15 and ICALP'15] to obtain a deterministic primal-dual algorithm for maintaining a constant-factor approximate minimum capacitated vertex cover with $O(\log n / ε)$ amortized update time, where $n$ is the number of vertices in the graph. The algorithm can be extended to (1) a more general model in which each edge is associated with a nonuniform and unsplittable demand, and (2) the more general capacitated set cover problem.
Consider the following process on a simple graph without isolated vertices: Order the edges randomly and keep an edge if and only if it contains a vertex which is not contained in some preceding edge. The resulting set of edges forms a spanning forest of the graph. The probability of obtaining $k$ components in this process for complete bipartite graphs is determined as well as a formula for the expected number of components in any graph. A generic recurrence and some additional basic properties are discussed.
A rainbow spanning tree in an edge-colored graph is a spanning tree in which each edge is a different color. Carraher, Hartke, and Horn showed that for $n$ and $C$ large enough, if $G$ is an edge-colored copy of $K_n$ in which each color class has size at most $n/2$, then $G$ has at least $\lfloor n/(C\log n)\rfloor$ edge-disjoint rainbow spanning trees. Here we strengthen this result by showing that if $G$ is any edge-colored graph with $n$ vertices in which each color appears on at most $δ\cdotλ_1/2$ edges, where $δ\geq C\log n$ for $n$ and $C$ sufficiently large and $λ_1$ is the second-smallest eigenvalue of the normalized Laplacian matrix of $G$, then $G$ contains at least $\left\lfloor\frac{δ\cdotλ_1}{C\log n}\right\rfloor$ edge-disjoint rainbow spanning trees.
We establish mild conditions under which a possibly irregular, sparse graph $G$ has "many" strong orientations. Given a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices, orient each edge in either direction with probability $1/2$ independently. We show that if $G$ satisfies a minimum degree condition of $(1+c_1)\log_2{n}$ and has Cheeger constant at least $c_2\frac{\log_2\log_2{n}}{\log_2{n}}$, then the resulting randomly oriented directed graph is strongly connected with high probability. This Cheeger constant bound can be replaced by an analogous spectral condition via the Cheeger inequality. Additionally, we provide an explicit construction to show our minimum degree condition is tight while the Cheeger constant bound is tight up to a $\log_2\log_2{n}$ factor.
By studying the heat semigroup, we prove Li-Yau type estimates for bounded and positive solutions of the heat equation on graphs, under the assumption of the curvature-dimension inequality $CDE'(n,0)$, which can be consider as a notion of curvature for graphs. Furthermore, we derive that if a graph has non-negative curvature then it has the volume doubling property, from this we can prove the Gaussian estimate for heat kernel, and then Poincaré inequality and Harnack inequality. As a consequence, we obtain that the dimension of space of harmonic functions on graphs with polynomial growth is finite, which original is a conjecture of Yau on Riemannian manifold proved by Colding and Minicozzi. Under the assumption of positive curvature on graphs, we derive the Bonnet-Myers type theorem that the diameter of graphs is finite and bounded above in terms of the positive curvature by proving some Log Sobolev inequalities.
The principal permanent rank characteristic sequence is a binary sequence $r_0 r_1 \ldots r_n$ where $r_k = 1$ if there exists a principal square submatrix of size $k$ with nonzero permanent and $r_k = 0$ otherwise, and $r_0 = 1$ if there is a zero diagonal entry. A characterization is provided for all principal permanent rank sequences obtainable by the family of nonnegative matrices as well as the family of nonnegative symmetric matrices. Constructions for all realizable sequences are provided. Results for skew-symmetric matrices are also included.