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Samuel Braunfeld

Publications and source records attributed to Samuel Braunfeld.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Set-defined graph classes: $\chi$-boundedness meets tropical algebra

We study set-defined graph classes: hereditary classes whose vertices are assigned fixed-length numerical tuples, with adjacency determined solely by equality patterns among coordinates. These classes arise in structural graph theory, communication complexity, logic, and adjacency labeling schemes. We ask when they are $\chi$-bounded, that is, when chromatic number is bounded in terms of clique number throughout the class. First, we prove a decomposition theorem: every graph in a set-defined class can be partitioned into a number of parts polynomially bounded in its clique number, each inducing a union of a bounded number of shift-colorable graphs, that is, graphs admitting a homomorphism to a shift graph. Thus bounded unions of shift-colorable graphs form the fundamental obstruction to $\chi$-boundedness in set-defined classes. For full set-defined classes, consisting of all graphs realizable by a fixed Boolean rule on equality patterns, we prove a stronger dichotomy: every such class is either polynomially $\chi$-bounded or contains shift graphs of arbitrarily large chromatic number. Moreover, we provide an algorithm that, given a Boolean-function description of a full set-defined class, decides $\chi$-boundedness of the class. It reduces the problem to feasibility of tropical linear programs, and its correctness follows from a duality with winning strategies in mean-payoff games. Conversely, every integer system of tropical inequalities, and hence every mean-payoff game, can be encoded in strongly polynomial time as a set-defined class whose non-$\chi$-boundedness is equivalent to feasibility. This provides a graph-theoretic counterpart of tropical feasibility and mean-payoff-game solvability, linking structural graph theory, tropical algebra, and game-theoretic algorithms.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2026

Model checking in finite fields and finite groups

We prove the following results. 1. First order model checking is fixed-parameter tractable on the class of finite fields, as a corollary of results of Ax on the theory of (pseudo)finite fields. 2. Every hereditary graph class first order definable in the class of finite groups is monadically stable, and thus has fixed-parameter tractable first order model checking. 3. Monadic second order model checking is not slicewise polynomial on the class of cyclic groups of prime-power order, unless E = NE.

cs.LO↗
arXiv2025

Labelled growth rates of $\omega$-categorical structures and applications in choiceless set theory

We study the labelled growth rate of an $\omega$-categorical structure $\mathfrak{A}$, i.e., the number of orbits of $Aut(\mathfrak{A})$ on $n$-tuples of distinct elements, and show that the model-theoretic property of monadic stability yields a gap in the spectrum of allowable labelled growth rates. As a further application, we obtain gap in the spectrum of allowable labelled growth rates in hereditary graph classes, with no a priori assumption of $\omega$-categoricity. We also establish a way to translate results about labelled growth rates of $\omega$-categorical structures into combinatorial statements about sets with weak finiteness properties in the absence of the axiom of choice, and derive several results from this translation.

math.LO↗
arXiv2025

Separability Properties of Monadically Dependent Graph Classes

A graph class $\mathcal C$ is monadically dependent if one cannot interpret all graphs in colored graphs from $\mathcal C$ using a fixed first-order interpretation. We prove that monadically dependent classes can be exactly characterized by the following property, which we call flip-separability: for every $r\in \mathbb{N}$, $\varepsilon>0$, and every graph $G\in \mathcal{C}$ equipped with a weight function on vertices, one can apply a bounded (in terms of $\mathcal{C},r,\varepsilon$) number of flips (complementations of the adjacency relation on a subset of vertices) to $G$ so that in the resulting graph, every radius-$r$ ball contains at most an $\varepsilon$-fraction of the total weight. On the way to this result, we introduce a robust toolbox for working with various notions of local separations in monadically dependent classes.

math.CO↗
arXiv2024

Boolean combinations of graphs

Boolean combinations allow combining given combinatorial objects to obtain new, potentially more complicated, objects. In this paper, we initiate a systematic study of this idea applied to graphs. In order to understand expressive power and limitations of boolean combinations in this context, we investigate how they affect different combinatorial and structural properties of graphs, in particular $\chi$-boundedness, as well as characterize the structure of boolean combinations of graphs from various classes.

math.CO↗
arXiv2024

Omega-categorical limits of betweenness relations and $D$-sets

We explore two constructions of oligomorphic Jordan permutation groups preserving a `limit of betweenness relations' and a `limit of $D$-relations', from \cite{bhattmacph2006jordan} and \cite{almazaydeh2021jordan} respectively. Several issues left open in \cite{almazaydeh2021jordan} are resolved. In particular it is shown that the `limit of $D$-relations' is not homogeneous in the given language, but is `homogenizable', that is, there is a homogeneous structure over a finite relational language with the same universe and the same automorphism group. The structure is NIP, but not monadically NIP, its age is not well-quasi-ordered under embeddability, and the growth rate of the sequence enumerating orbits on $k$-sets grows faster than exponentially. The automorphism group is maximal-closed in the symmetric group. Similar results are shown for the construction in \cite{bhattmacph2006jordan}.

math.LO↗
arXiv2024

Indiscernibles in monadically NIP theories

We prove various results around indiscernibles in monadically NIP theories. First, we provide several characterizations of monadic NIP in terms of indiscernibles, mirroring previous characterizations in terms of the behavior of finite satisfiability. Second, we study (monadic) distality in hereditary classes and complete theories. Here, via finite combinatorics, we prove a result implying that every planar graph admits a distal expansion. Finally, we prove a result implying that no monadically NIP theory interprets an infinite group, and note an example of a (monadically) stable theory with no distal expansion that does not interpret an infinite group.

math.LO↗
arXiv2024

When invariance implies exchangeability (and applications to invariant Keisler measures)

We study the problem of when, given a countable homogeneous structure $M$ and a space $S$ of expansions of $M$, every $\mathrm{Aut}(M)$-invariant probability measure on $S$ is exchangeable (i.e. invariant under all permutations of the domain). We show, for example, that if $M$ is a finitely bounded homogeneous $3$-hypergraph with free amalgamation (including the generic tetrahedron-free $3$-hypergraph), all $\mathrm{Aut}(M)$-invariant random expansions by graphs are exchangeable. Moreover, we extend and recover both the work of Angel, Kechris, and Lyons on invariant random orderings and some of the work of Crane and Towsner, and Ackerman on relative exchangeability. In the second part of the paper, we apply our results to the study of invariant Keisler measures, which we prove to be particular invariant random expansions. Thus, we describe the spaces of invariant Keisler measures of various homogeneous structures, obtaining the first results of this kind since the work of Albert and Ensley. We also show there are $2^{\aleph_0}$ supersimple homogeneous ternary structures for which there are non-forking formulas which are universally measure zero.

math.LO↗
arXiv2023

Decidability in geometric grid classes of permutations

We prove that the basis and the generating function of a geometric grid class of permutations Geom$(M)$ are computable from the matrix $M$, as well as some variations on this result. Our main tool is monadic second-order logic on permutations and words.

math.CO↗
arXiv2023

Monadic NIP in monotone classes of relational structures

We prove that for any monotone class of finite relational structures, the first-order theory of the class is NIP in the sense of stability theory if, and only if, the collection of Gaifman graphs of structures in this class is nowhere dense. This generalises to relational structures a result previously known for graphs and answers an open question posed by Adler and Adler (2014). The result is established by the application of Ramsey-theoretic techniques and shows that the property of being NIP is highly robust for monotone classes. We also show that the model-checking problem for first-order logic is intractable on any class of monotone structures that is not (monadically) NIP. This is a contribution towards the conjecture of Bonnet et al. that the hereditary classes of structures admitting fixed-parameter tractable model-checking are precisely those that are monadically NIP.

math.LO↗
arXiv2023

Big Ramsey Degrees and Infinite Languages

This paper investigates big Ramsey degrees of unrestricted relational structures in (possibly) infinite languages. Despite significant progress in the study of big Ramsey degrees, the big Ramsey degrees of many classes of structures with finite small Ramsey degrees are still not well understood. We show that if there are only finitely many relations of every arity greater than one, then unrestricted relational structures have finite big Ramsey degrees, and give some evidence that this is tight. This is the first time finiteness of big Ramsey degrees has been established for a random structure in an infinite language. Our results represent an important step towards a better understanding of big Ramsey degrees for structures with relations of arity greater than two.

math.CO↗
arXiv2022

Decomposition horizons and a characterization of stable hereditary classes of graphs

The notions of bounded-size and quasibounded-size decompositions with bounded treedepth base classes are central to the structural theory of graph sparsity introduced by two of the authors years ago, and provide a characterization of both classes with bounded expansions and nowhere dense classes. Strong connections of this theory with model theory led to considering first-order transductions, which are logically defined graph transformations, and to initiate a comparative study of combinatorial and model theoretical properties of graph classes, with an emphasis on the model theoretical notions of dependence (or NIP) and stability. In this paper, we first prove that every hereditary class with quasibounded-size decompositions with dependent (resp.\ stable) base classes is itself dependent (resp.\ stable). This result is obtained in a more general study of ``decomposition horizons'', which are class properties compatible with quasibounded-size decompositions. We deduce that hereditary classes with quasibounded-size decompositions with bounded shrubdepth base classes are stable. In the second part of the paper, we prove the converse. Thus, we characterize stable hereditary classes of graphs as those hereditary classes that admit quasibounded-size decompositions with bounded shrubdepth base classes. This result is obtained by proving that every hereditary stable class of graphs admits almost nowhere dense quasi-bush representations, thus answering positively a conjecture of Dreier et al. These results have several consequences. For example, we show that every graph $G$ in a stable, hereditary class of graphs $\mathscr C$ has a clique or a stable set of size $\Omega_{\mathscr C,\epsilon}(|G|^{1/2-\epsilon})$, for every $\epsilon>0$, which is tight in the sense that it cannot be improved to $\Omega_{\mathscr C}(|G|^{1/2})$.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2022

Existential characterizations of monadic NIP

We show that if a universal theory is not monadically NIP, then this is witnessed by a canonical configuration defined by an existential formula. As a consequence, we show that a hereditary class of relational structures is NIP (resp. stable) if and only if it is monadically NIP (resp. monadically stable). As another consequence, we show that if such a class is not monadically NIP, then it has superexponential growth rate.

math.LO↗
arXiv2022

On first-order transductions of classes of graphs

We study various aspects of the first-order transduction quasi-order on graph classes, which provides a way of measuring the relative complexity of graph classes based on whether one can encode the other using a formula of first-order (FO) logic. In contrast with the conjectured simplicity of the transduction quasi-order for monadic second-order logic, the FO-transduction quasi-order is very complex, and many standard properties from structural graph theory and model theory naturally appear in it. We prove a local normal form for transductions among other general results and constructions, which we illustrate via several examples and via the characterizations of the transductions of some simple classes. We then turn to various aspects of the quasi-order, including the (non-)existence of minimum and maximum classes for certain properties, the strictness of the pathwidth hierarchy, the fact that the quasi-order is not a lattice, and the role of weakly sparse classes in the quasi-order.

math.CO↗
arXiv2022

Worst case expansions of complete theories

Given a complete theory $T$ and a subset $Y \subseteq X^k$, we precisely determine the {\em worst case complexity}, with respect to further monadic expansions, of an expansion $(M,Y)$ by $Y$ of a model $M$ of $T$ with universe $X$. In particular, although by definition monadically stable/NIP theories are robust under arbitrary monadic expansions, we show that monadically NFCP (equivalently, mutually algebraic) theories are the largest class that is robust under anything beyond monadic expansions. We also exhibit a paradigmatic structure for the failure of each of monadic NFCP/stable/NIP and prove each of these paradigms definably embeds into a monadic expansion of a sufficiently saturated model of any theory without the corresponding property.

math.LO↗
arXiv2021

Theories with few non-algebraic types over models, and their decompositions

We consider several ways of decomposing models into parts of bounded size forming a congruence over a base, and show that admitting any such decomposition is equivalent to mutual algebraicity at the level of theories. We also show that a theory $T$ is mutually algebraic if and only if there is a uniform bound on the number of coordinate-wise non-algebraic types over every model, regardless of its cardinality.

math.LO↗