arXiv subjects

Yan X Zhang

Publications and source records attributed to Yan X Zhang.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Tiling Triangles with $2π/3$ Angles

Motivated by a question of Erdös and inquiries by Beeson and Laczkovich, we explore the possible $N$ for which a triangle $T$ can tile into $N$ congruent copies of a triangle $R$. The \emph{reptile} cases (where $T$ is similar to $R$) and the \emph{commensurable-angles} cases (where all angles of $R$ are rational multiples of $π$) are well-understood. We tackle the most interesting remaining case, which is when $R$ contains an angle of $2π/3$ and when $T$ is one of $6$ ``sporadic'' specific triangles, of which only $2$ were known to have constructions. For each of these, we create a family of constructions and conjecture that they are the only possible $N$ that occur for these triangles.

math.CO↗

arXiv2026

Rationality of certain triangle tilings

We consider tilings of a triangle $ABC$ by congruent copies of a triangle that has one angle equal to $120^\circ$, has non-commensurable angles (that is, not all angles are rational multiples of $π$), and is not similar to $ABC$. We prove that any such tiling has commensurable sides, meaning that the side lengths can be taken to be integers after scaling. As a consequence, we show that outside of a couple of special cases, a triangle (allowing all angles) tiling must either have commensurable angles or commensurable sides (that is, all sides have rational ratios).

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Chunking Attacks on File Backup Services using Content-Defined Chunking

Systems such as file backup services often use content-defined chunking (CDC) algorithms, especially those based on rolling hash techniques, to split files into chunks in a way that allows for data deduplication. These chunking algorithms often depend on per-user parameters in an attempt to avoid leaking information about the data being stored. We present attacks to extract these chunking parameters and discuss protocol-agnostic attacks and loss of security once the parameters are breached (including when these parameters are not setup at all, which is often available as an option). Our parameter-extraction attacks themselves are protocol-specific but their ideas are generalizable to many potential CDC schemes.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2025

On the clustering behavior of sliding windows

Things can go spectacularly wrong when clustering timeseries data that has been preprocessed with a sliding window. We highlight three surprising failures that emerge depending on how the window size compares with the timeseries length. In addition to computational examples, we present theoretical explanations for each of these failure modes.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Pure Simplicial and Clique Complexes with a Fixed Number of Facets

We study structural and enumerative aspects of pure simplicial complexes and clique complexes. We prove a necessary and sufficient condition for any simplicial complex to be a clique complex that depends only on the list of facets. We also prove a theorem that a class of ``triangle-intersection free" pure clique complexes are uniquely determined up to isomorphism merely from the facet-adjacency matrix. Lastly, we count the number of pure simplicial complexes with a fixed number of facets and find an upper bound to the number of pure clique complexes.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Folding Custom Gates with Verifier Input

In the context of interactive proofs, a "folding scheme" (popularized by Nova) is a way to combine multiple instances of a constraint system into a single instance, so the validity of the multiple instances can statistically be reduced to the validity of a single one. We show how Nova folding can be generalized to ``custom'' gates and extra rounds of verifier randomness. As an application of this extension, we present Origami, the first (to our knowledge) known example of a folding scheme for lookups.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2023

On Isospectral Integral Circulant Graphs

Understanding when two non-isomorphic graphs can have the same spectra is a classic problem that is still not completely understood, even for integral circulant graphs. We say that a natural number $N$ satisfies the \emph{integral spectral Adàm property (ISAP)} if any two integral circulant graphs of order $N$ with the same spectra must be isomorphic. It seems to be open whether all $N$ satisfy the ISAP; Mönius and So showed that $N$ satisfies the ISAP if $N = p^k, pq^k,$ or $pqr$. We show that: (a) for any prime factorization structure $N = p_1^{a_1}\cdots p_k^{a_k}$, $N$ satisfies the ISAP for "most" values of the $p_i$; (b) $N=p^2q^n$ satisfy the ISAP if $p,q$ are odd and $(q-1) \nmid (p-1)^2(p+1)$; (c) all $N =p^2q^2$ satisfy the ISAP.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Revisiting Optimal Resilience of Fast Byzantine Consensus (Extended Version)

It is a common belief that Byzantine fault-tolerant solutions for consensus are significantly slower than their crash fault-tolerant counterparts. Indeed, in PBFT, the most widely known Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus protocol, it takes three message delays to decide a value, in contrast with just two in Paxos. This motivates the search for fast Byzantine consensus algorithms that can produce decisions after just two message delays \emph{in the common case}, e.g., under the assumption that the current leader is correct and not suspected by correct processes. The (optimal) two-step latency comes with the cost of lower resilience: fast Byzantine consensus requires more processes to tolerate the same number of faults. In particular, $5f+1$ processes were claimed to be necessary to tolerate $f$ Byzantine failures. In this paper, we present a fast Byzantine consensus algorithm that relies on just $5f-1$ processes. Moreover, we show that $5f-1$ is the tight lower bound, correcting a mistake in the earlier work. While the difference of just $2$ processes may appear insignificant for large values of $f$, it can be crucial for systems of a smaller scale. In particular, for $f=1$, our algorithm requires only $4$ processes, which is optimal for any (not necessarily fast) partially synchronous Byzantine consensus algorithm.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2020

Combining GHOST and Casper

We present "Gasper," a proof-of-stake-based consensus protocol, which is an idealized version of the proposed Ethereum 2.0 beacon chain. The protocol combines Casper FFG, a finality tool, with LMD GHOST, a fork-choice rule. We prove safety, plausible liveness, and probabilistic liveness under different sets of assumptions.

cs.CR↗

arXiv2018

Enumerative Gadget Phenomena for $(4,1)$-Adinkras

Adinkras are combinatorial objects developed to study supersymmetry representations. Gates et al. introduced the "gadget" as a function of pairs of adinkras, obtaining some mysterious results for $(n=4, k=1)$ adinkras with computer-aided computation. Specifically, very few values of the gadget actually appear, suggesting a great deal of symmetry in these objects. In this paper, we compute gadgets symbolically and explain some of these observed phenomena with group theory and combinatorics. Guided by this work, we give some suggestions for generalizations of the gadget to other values of the $n$ and $k$ parameters.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

Applying Fourier Analysis to Judgment Aggregation

The classical Arrow's Theorem answers "how can $n$ voters obtain a collective preference on a set of outcomes, if they have to obey certain constraints?" We give an analogue in the judgment aggregation framework of List and Pettit, answering "how can $n$ judges obtain a collective judgment on a set of logical propositions, if they have to obey certain constraints?" We abstract this notion with the concept of "normal pairs" of functions on the Hamming cube, which we analyze with Fourier analysis and elementary combinatorics. We obtain judgment aggregation results in the special case of "symbol-complete" agendas and compare them with existing theorems in the literature. Amusingly, the non-dictatorial classes of functions that arise are precisely the classical logical functions OR, AND, and XOR.

math.CO↗

arXiv2018

A Unified Enumeration of 1-dimension Garden Algebras and Valise Adinkras

In the study of supersymmetry in one dimension, various works enumerate sets of generators of garden algebras $GR(d,N)$ (and equivalently, valise Adinkras) for special cases $N = d = 4$ and $N = d = 8$, using group-theoretic methods and computer computation. We complement this work by enumerating the objects for arbitrary $N$ and $d$ via a formula in a streamlined manner.

math.CO↗

arXiv2017

Decompositions of amplituhedra

The (tree) amplituhedron A(n,k,m) is the image in the Grassmannian Gr(k,k+m) of the totally nonnegative part of Gr(k,n), under a (map induced by a) linear map which is totally positive. It was introduced by Arkani-Hamed and Trnka in 2013 in order to give a geometric basis for the computation of scattering amplitudes in N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. In the case relevant to physics (m=4), there is a collection of recursively-defined 4k-dimensional BCFW cells in the totally nonnegative part of Gr(k,n), whose images conjecturally "triangulate" the amplituhedron--that is, their images are disjoint and cover a dense subset of A(n,k,4). In this paper, we approach this problem by first giving an explicit (as opposed to recursive) description of the BCFW cells. We then develop sign-variational tools which we use to prove that when k=2, the images of these cells are disjoint in A(n,k,4). We also conjecture that for arbitrary even m, there is a decomposition of the amplituhedron A(n,k,m) involving precisely M(k, n-k-m, m/2) top-dimensional cells (of dimension km), where M(a,b,c) is the number of plane partitions contained in an a x b x c box. This agrees with the fact that when m=4, the number of BCFW cells is the Narayana number N(n-3, k+1).

math.CO↗

arXiv2014

Motors and Impossible Firing Patterns in the Parallel Chip-Firing Game

The parallel chip-firing game is an automaton on graphs in which vertices "fire" chips to their neighbors when they have enough chips to do so. The game is always periodic, and we concern ourselves with the firing sequences of vertices. We introduce the concepts of motorized parallel chip-firing games and motor vertices, study the effects of motors connected to a tree and show that motorized games can be transformed into ordinary games if the motors' firing sequences occur in some ordinary game. We then characterize exactly which periodic firing patterns can occur in an ordinary game and state some implications of the finding.

math.CO↗

arXiv2013

Enumeration of Graded (3+1)-Avoiding Posets

The notion of (3+1)-avoidance has shown up in many places in enumerative combinatorics. The natural goal of enumeration of all (3+1)-avoiding posets remains open. In this paper, we enumerate graded (3+1)-avoiding posets for both reasonable definitions of the word "graded." Our proof consists of a number of structural theorems followed by some generating function magic. We also provide asymptotics for the growth rate of the number of graded (3 + 1)-avoiding posets.

math.CO↗

arXiv2012

Matrices with restricted entries and q-analogues of permutations

We study the functions that count matrices of given rank over a finite field with specified positions equal to zero. We show that these matrices are $q$-analogues of permutations with certain restricted values. We obtain a simple closed formula for the number of invertible matrices with zero diagonal, a $q$-analogue of derangements, and a curious relationship between invertible skew-symmetric matrices and invertible symmetric matrices with zero diagonal. In addition, we provide recursions to enumerate matrices and symmetric matrices with zero diagonal by rank, and we frame some of our results in the context of Lie theory. Finally, we provide a brief exposition of polynomiality results for enumeration questions related to those mentioned, and give several open questions.

math.CO↗

arXiv2011

Adinkras for Mathematicians

Adinkras are graphical tools created for the study of representations in supersymmetry. Besides having inherent interest for physicists, adinkras offer many easy-to-state and accessible mathematical problems of algebraic, combinatorial, and computational nature. We use a more mathematically natural language to survey these topics, suggest new definitions, and present original results.

math.CO↗