Search

‡ Abstract. In this short paper we study the game of cops and robbers, which is played on the vertices of some fixed graph G. Cops and a robber are allowed to move along the edges of G, and the goal of cops is to capture the robber. The cop number cðGÞ of G is the minimum number of cops required to win the game. Meyniel conjectured a long time ago that Oð ffiffiffi p Þ cops are enough for any connected G on n vertices. Improving several previous results, we prove that the cop number of an n-vertex graph is at most n2 −ð1þoð1ÞÞ ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi log n p .A similar result independently and slightly before us was also obtained by Lu and Peng.

In this paper we introduce a natural model for the realization space of a polytope up to projective equivalence which we call the slack realization space of the polytope. The model arises from the positive part of an algebraic variety determined by the slack ideal of the polytope. This is a saturated determinantal ideal that encodes the combinatorics of the polytope. We also derive a new model of the realization space of a polytope from the positive part of the variety of a related ideal. The slack ideal offers an effective computational framework for several classical questions about polytopes such as rational realizability, non-prescribability of faces, and realizability of combinatorial polytopes., Comment: The original arXiv submission of this paper has now been split into two parts; this paper describing the slack realization space of a polytope and applications of the slack ideal, and a second paper focussing on toric slack ideals and projective uniqueness

Kavut, Selçuk (Balikesir Author), Very recently, a class of cryptographically significant Boolean functions were constructed by Tang and Maitra [IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 64 ( 2018), pp. 393-402] by modifying the PSap class of bent functions. The basic ideas used in Tang-Maitra construction were derived from a modification of a subclass of bent functions which is defined over the finite field, and a concern was raised in the same paper whether the implementation of such functions will be as efficient as that of Maiorana-McFarland type bent functions. In this paper, we look at the concrete realization of such functions over a vector space and answer the question positively. The first part of this paper investigates how the finite field implementation of the functions can be viewed as simple truth tables. Next, we present a completely new construction that itself starts from Maiorana-McFarland bent functions which are straightforward concatenations of linear functions., National Natural Science Foundation of China - 61872435 61602394 Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities - 2682016CX113 2682018ZT25

Two permutations of $[n]=\{1,2 \ldots n\}$ are \textit{$k$-neighbor separated} if there are two elements that are neighbors in one of the permutations and that are separated by exactly $k-2$ other elements in the other permutation. Let the maximal number of pairwise $k$-neighbor separated permutations of $[n]$ be denoted by $P(n,k)$. In a previous paper, the authors have determined $P(n,3)$ for every $n$, answering a question of K\"orner, Messuti and Simonyi affirmatively. In this paper we prove that for every fixed positive integer $\ell $, $$P(n,2^\ell+1) = 2^{n-o(n)}. $$ We conjecture that for every fixed even $k$, $P(n,k)=2^{n-o(n)}$. We also show that this conjecture is asymptotically true in the following sense $$\lim_{k \rightarrow \infty} \lim_{n \rightarrow \infty} \sqrt[n]{P(n,k)}=2.$$ Finally, we show that for even $n$, $P(n,n)= 3n/2$.

In this paper, we study zero-one laws for the Erd\H{o}s--R\'{e}nyi random graph model $G(n,p)$ in the case when $p = n^{-\alpha}$ for $\alpha>0$. For a given class $\mathcal{K}$ of logical sentences about graphs and a given function $p=p(n)$, we say that $G(n,p)$ obeys the zero-one law (w.r.t. the class $\mathcal{K}$) if each sentence $\varphi\in\mathcal{K}$ either a.a.s. true or a.a.s. false for $G(n,p)$. In this paper, we consider first order properties and monadic second order properties of bounded \textit{quantifier depth} $k$, that is, the length of the longest chain of nested quantifiers in the formula expressing the property. Zero-one laws for properties of quantifier depth $k$ we call the \textit{zero-one $k$-laws}. The main results of this paper concern the zero-one $k$-laws for monadic second order properties (MSO properties). We determine all values $\alpha>0$, for which the zero-one $3$-law for MSO properties does not hold. We also show that, in contrast to the case of the $3$-law, there are infinitely many values of $\alpha$ for which the zero-one $4$-law for MSO properties does not hold. To this end, we analyze the evolution of certain properties of $G(n,p)$ that may be of independent interest.

This is the last paper of a series of four papers in which we prove the following relaxation of the Loebl-Komlos-Sos Conjecture: For every $\alpha>0$ there exists a number~$k_0$ such that for every $k>k_0$ every $n$-vertex graph $G$ with at least $(\frac12+\alpha)n$ vertices of degree at least $(1+\alpha)k$ contains each tree $T$ of order $k$ as a subgraph. In the first two papers of this series, we decomposed the host graph $G$, and found a suitable combinatorial structure inside the decomposition. In the third paper, we refined this structure, and proved that any graph satisfying the conditions of the above approximate version of the Loebl-Komlos-Sos Conjecture contains one of ten specific configurations. In this paper we embed the tree $T$ in each of the ten configurations., Comment: 81 pages, 12 figures. A fix reflecting the change of Preconfiguration Clubs in Paper III, additional small changes

This is the third of a series of four papers in which we prove the following relaxation of the Loebl-Komlos-Sos Conjecture: For every $\alpha>0$ there exists a number $k_0$ such that for every $k>k_0$ every $n$-vertex graph $G$ with at least $(\frac12+\alpha)n$ vertices of degree at least $(1+\alpha)k$ contains each tree $T$ of order $k$ as a subgraph. In the first paper of the series, we gave a decomposition of the graph $G$ into several parts of different characteristics. In the second paper, we found a combinatorial structure inside the decomposition. In this paper, we will give a refinement of this structure. In the forthcoming fourth paper, the refined structure will be used for embedding the tree $T$., Comment: 59 pages, 4 figures; further comments by a referee incorporated; this includes a subtle but important fix to Lemma 5.1; as a consequence, Preconfiguration Clubs was changed

This is the second of a series of four papers in which we prove the following relaxation of the Loebl-Komlos--Sos Conjecture: For every $\alpha>0$ there exists a number $k_0$ such that for every $k>k_0$ every $n$-vertex graph $G$ with at least $(\frac12+\alpha)n$ vertices of degree at least $(1+\alpha)k$ contains each tree $T$ of order $k$ as a subgraph. In the first paper of the series, we gave a decomposition of the graph $G$ into several parts of different characteristics; this decomposition might be viewed as an analogue of a regular partition for sparse graphs. In the present paper, we find a combinatorial structure inside this decomposition. In the last two papers, we refine the structure and use it for embedding the tree $T$., Comment: 38 pages, 4 figures; new is Section 5.1.1; accepted to SIDMA

Assume that we are given a set of applicants and a set of posts such that each applicant has a preference list over the posts. A matching $M$ between the applicants and the posts is said to be popular if there is no other matching $N$ such that the number of applicants that prefer $N$ to $M$ is larger than the number of applicants that prefer $M$ to $N$. Then, the goal of the popular matching problem is to decide whether there is a popular matching, and find a popular matching if one exists. Abraham, Irving, Kavitha, and Mehlhorn proved that this problem can be solved in polynomial time even if the preference lists contain ties. In this paper, we consider the popular matching problem with matroid constraints. In this problem, for each post, we are given a matroid on the set of applicants. A set of applicants assigned to each post must be an independent set of its matroid. Kamiyama proved that if there is not a tie in the preference lists, then this problem can be solved in polynomial time. In this paper, ...

This paper studies the fundamental relations among integer flows, modulo orientations, integer-valued and real-valued circular flows, and monotonicity of flows in signed graphs. A (signed) graph is...

In this paper we show examples for applications of the Bombieri-Lang conjecture in additive combinatorics, giving bounds on the cardinality of sumsets of squares and higher powers of integers. Using similar methods we give bounds on the sum-product problem for matchings., Comment: 14 pages

Let $P_G(k)$ be the number of proper $k$-colorings of a finite simple graph $G$. Tomescu's conjecture, which was recently solved by Fox, He, and Manners, states that $P_G(k) \le k!(k-1)^{n-k}$ for all connected graphs $G$ on $n$ vertices with chromatic number $k\geq 4$. In this paper, we study the same problem with the additional constraint that $G$ is $\ell$-connected. For $2$-connected graphs $G$, we prove a tight bound \[ P_G(k) \le (k-1)!((k-1)^{n-k+1} + (-1)^{n-k}), \] and show that equality is only achieved if $G$ is a $k$-clique with an ear attached. For $\ell \ge 3$, we prove an asymptotically tight upper bound \[ P_G(k) \le k!(k-1)^{n-\ell - k + 1} + O((k-2)^n), \] and provide a matching lower bound construction. For the ranges $k \geq \ell$ or $\ell \geq (k-2)(k-1)+1$ we further find the unique graph maximizing $P_G(k)$. We also consider generalizing $\ell$-connected graphs to connected graphs with minimum degree $\delta$.

In this paper we go one step further in the automatic generation of FPTASes for multistage stochastic dynamic programs with scalar state and action spaces, in which the cost-to-go functions have a ...

Submodularity is one of the most important properties in combinatorial optimization, and $k$-submodularity is a generalization of submodularity. Maximization of a $k$-submodular function requires an exponential number of value oracle queries, and approximation algorithms have been studied. For unconstrained $k$-submodular maximization, Iwata et al. gave randomized $k/(2k-1)$-approximation algorithm for monotone functions, and randomized $1/2$-approximation algorithm for nonmonotone functions. In this paper, we present improved randomized algorithms for nonmonotone functions. Our algorithm gives $\frac{k^2+1}{2k^2+1}$-approximation for $k\geq 3$. We also give a randomized $\frac{\sqrt{17}-3}{2}$-approximation algorithm for $k=3$. We use the same framework used in Iwata et al. and Ward and \v{Z}ivn\'{y} with different probabilities., Comment: 22 pages,3 figures

Clustering is one of the fundamental tasks in data analytics and machine learning. In many situations, different clusterings of the same data set become relevant. For example, different algorithms for the same clustering task may return dramatically different solutions. We are interested in applications in which one clustering has to be transformed into another; e.g., when a gradual transition from an old solution to a new one is required. In this paper, we devise methods for constructing such a transition based on linear programming and network theory. We use a so-called clustering-difference graph to model the desired transformation and provide methods for decomposing the graph into a sequence of elementary moves that accomplishes the transformation. These moves are equivalent to the edge directions, or circuits, of the underlying partition polytopes. Therefore, in addition to a conceptually new metric for measuring the distance between clusterings, we provide new bounds on the circuit diameter of these partition polytopes.

Given a large graph H, does the binomial random graph G(n, p) contain a copy of H as an induced subgraph with high probability? This classical question has been studied extensively for various graphs H, going back to the study of the independence number of G(n, p) by Erdos and Bollobas and by Matula in 1976. In this paper we prove an asymptotically best possible result for induced matchings by showing that if C/n

In this paper, we design a framework to obtain efficient algorithms for several problems with a global constraint (acyclicity or connectivity) such as Connected Dominating Set, Node Weighted Steiner Tree, Maximum Induced Tree, Longest Induced Path, and Feedback Vertex Set. We design a meta-algorithm that solves all these problems and whose running time is upper bounded by $2^{O(k)}\cdot n^{O(1)}$, $2^{O(k \log(k))}\cdot n^{O(1)}$, $2^{O(k^2)}\cdot n^{O(1)}$, and $n^{O(k)}$ where $k$ is respectively the clique-width, $\mathbb{Q}$-rank-width, rank-width, and maximum induced matching width of a given decomposition. Our approach simplifies and unifies the known algorithms for each of the parameters and its running time matches asymptotically also the running times of the best known algorithms for basic \sf NP-hard problems such as Vertex Cover and Dominating Set. Our framework is based on the $d$-neighbor equivalence defined in [B. Bui-Xuan, J. A. Telle, and M. Vatshelle, Theoret. Comput. Sci., (2013), pp. 66--76] and the rank-based approach introduced in [H. L. Bodlaender, M. Cygan, S. Kratsch, and J. Nederlof, Inform. and Comput., 243 (2015), pp. 86--111]. The results we obtain highlight the importance of the $d$-neighbor equivalence relation on the algorithmic applications of width measures. We also prove that our framework could be useful for ${\sf W}[1]$-hard problems parameterized by clique-width such as Max Cut and Maximum Minimal Cut. For these latter problems, we obtain $n^{O(k)}$, $n^{O(k)}$, and $n^{2^{O(k)}}$ time algorithms where $k$ is respectively the clique-width, the $\mathbb{Q}$-rank-width, and the rank-width of the input graph. publishedVersion

Let $B_n^{(k)}$ be the book graph which consists of $n$ copies of $K_{k+1}$ all sharing a common $K_k$, and let $C_m$ be a cycle of length $m$. In this paper, we first determine the exact value of $r(B_n^{(2)}, C_m)$ for $\frac{8}{9}n+112\le m\le \lceil\frac{3n}{2}\rceil+1$ and $n \geq 1000$. This answers a question of Faudree, Rousseau and Sheehan (Cycle--book Ramsey numbers, {\it Ars Combin.,} {\bf 31} (1991), 239--248) in a stronger form when $m$ and $n$ are large. Building upon this exact result, we are able to determine the asymptotic value of $r(B_n^{(k)}, C_n)$ for each $k \geq 3$. Namely, we prove that for each $k \geq 3$, $r(B_n^{(k)}, C_n)= (k+1+o_k(1))n.$ This extends a result due to Rousseau and Sheehan (A class of Ramsey problems involving trees, {\it J.~London Math.~Soc.,} {\bf 18} (1978), 392--396)., Comment: Journal Ref. SIAM J. Discrete Math

We study covering numbers and local covering numbers with respect to difference graphs and complete bipartite graphs. In particular we show that in every cover of a Young diagram with $\binom{2k}{k}$ steps with generalized rectangles there is a row or a column in the diagram that is used by at least $k+1$ rectangles, and prove that this is best-possible. This answers two questions by Kim, Martin, Masa{\v{r}}{\'\i}k, Shull, Smith, Uzzell, and Wang (Europ. J. Comb. 2020), namely: - What is the local complete bipartite cover number of a difference graph? - Is there a sequence of graphs with constant local difference graph cover number and unbounded local complete bipartite cover number? We add to the study of these local covering numbers with a lower bound construction and some examples. Following Kim \emph{et al.}, we use the results on local covering numbers to provide lower and upper bounds for the local dimension of partially ordered sets of height~2. We discuss the local dimension of some posets related to Boolean lattices and show that the poset induced by the first two layers of the Boolean lattice has local dimension $(1 + o(1))\log_2\log_2 n$. We conclude with some remarks on covering numbers for digraphs and Ferrers dimension., Comment: Parts of this paper have previously been reported in arXiv submission arXiv:1902.08223

In this paper we describe a parallel algorithm for generating all non-isomorphic rank $3$ simple matroids with a given multiplicity vector. We apply our implementation in the HPC version of GAP to generate all rank $3$ simple matroids with at most $14$ atoms and a splitting characteristic polynomial. We have stored the resulting matroids alongside with various useful invariants in a publicly available, ArangoDB-powered database. As a byproduct we show that the smallest divisionally free rank $3$ arrangement which is not inductively free has $14$ hyperplanes and exists in all characteristics distinct from $2$ and $5$. Another database query proves that Terao's freeness conjecture is true for rank $3$ arrangements with $14$ hyperplanes in any characteristic., Improved exposition

In this paper, lower bounds on the probability of a finite union of events are considered, i.e. $P\left(\bigcup_{i=1}^N A_i\right)$, in terms of the individual event probabilities $\{P(A_i), i=1,\ldots,N\}$ and the sums of the pairwise event probabilities, i.e., $\{\sum_{j:j\neq i} P(A_i\cap A_j), i=1,\ldots,N\}$. The contribution of this paper includes the following: (i) in the class of all lower bounds that are established in terms of only the $P(A_i)$'s and $\sum_{j:j\neq i} P(A_i\cap A_j)$'s, the optimal lower bound is given numerically by solving a linear programming (LP) problem with $N^2-N+1$ variables; (ii) a new analytical lower bound is proposed based on a relaxed LP problem, which is at least as good as the bound due to Kuai, et al.; (iii) numerical examples are provided to illustrate the performance of the bounds., Comment: SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 2016

Let ${{hom}}(G,H)$ denote the number of homomorphisms from a graph $G$ to a graph $H$. In this paper we study the number of homomorphisms of trees into a path, and prove that ${{hom}}(P_m,P_n)\leq {{hom}}(T_m,P_n)\leq {{hom}}(S_m,P_n),$ where $T_m$ is any tree on $m$ vertices, and $P_m$ and $S_m$ denote the path and star on $m$ vertices, respectively. This completes the study of extremal problems concerning the number of homomorphisms between trees started in the paper Graph Homomorphisms Between Trees [Electron. J. Combin., 21 (2014), 4.9] written by the authors of the current paper.

Extension of a graph $G$ is the construction of a new graph with certain properties by adding edges to some pairs of vertices in $G$. In this paper, we focus on extension of a quadrangulation of a surface to even triangulations, where a quadrangulation is a map on a surface with every face quadrangular and a triangulation is even if all the vertices have even degree. Zhang and He [SIAM J. Comput., 34 (2005), pp. 683--696] gave a formula for the exact number of distinct even triangulations extended from a given plane quadrangulation, and a lower bound of the number for the case of orientable nonspherical surfaces. They also posed the problem of finding the exact number for the latter case. In this paper, using topological methods, we improve the results by Zhang and He in the following directions: (I) extension of quadrangulations of a nonorientable surface and (II) complete enumeration of even triangulations extended from a given quadrangulation of a nonspherical surface. Indeed, we completely solve the p...

Many of the tools developed for the theory of tree-decompositions of graphs do not work for directed graphs. In this paper we show that some of the most basic tools do work in the case where the model digraph is a directed path. Using these tools we define a notion of a directed blockage in a digraph and prove a min-max theorem for directed path-width analogous to the result of Bienstock, Roberston, Seymour and Thomas for blockages in graphs. Furthermore, we show that every digraph with directed path width $\geq k$ contains each arboresence of order $\leq k + 1$ as a butterfly minor. Finally we also show that every digraph admits a linked directed path-decomposition of minimum width, extending a result of Kim and Seymour on semi-complete digraphs., 13 pages

The broadcast congested clique model (BClique) is a message-passing model of distributed computation where $n$ nodes communicate with each other in synchronous rounds. First, in this paper we prove...

The main theme of this paper is the enumeration of the occurrence of a pattern in words and permutations. We mainly focus on asymptotic properties of the sequence $f_r^v(k,n),$ the number of $n$-array $k$-ary words that contain a given pattern $v$ exactly $r$ times. In addition, we study the asymptotic behavior of the random variable $X_n,$ the number of pattern occurrences in a random $n$-array word. The two topics are closely related through the identity $P(X_n=r) = $ $\frac{1}{k^n}f_r^v(k,n).$ In particular, we show that for any $r\geq 0,$ the Stanley-Wilf sequence $\bigl(f_r^v(k,n)\bigr)^{1/n}$ converges to a limit independent of $r,$ and determine the value of the limit. We then obtain several limit theorems for the distribution of $X_n,$ including a CLT, large deviation estimates, and the exact growth rate of the entropy of $X_n.$ Furthermore, we introduce a concept of weak avoidance and link it to a certain family of non-product measures on words that penalize pattern occurrences but do not forbid them entirely. We analyze this family of probability measures in a small parameter regime, where the distributions can be understood as a perturbation of a uniform measure. Finally, we extend some of our results for words, including the one regarding the equivalence of the limits of the Stanley-Wilf sequences, to pattern occurrences in permutations., Comment: 33 pages

A rational link may be represented by any of the (infinitely) many link diagrams corresponding to various continued fraction expansions of the same rational number. The continued fraction expansion of the rational number in which all signs are the same is called a {\em nonalternating form} and the diagram corresponding to it is a reduced alternating link diagram, which is minimum in terms of the number of crossings in the diagram. Famous formulas exist in the literature for the braid index of a rational link by Murasugi and for its HOMFLY polynomial by Lickorish and Millet, but these rely on a special continued fraction expansion of the rational number in which all partial denominators are even (called {\em all-even form}). In this paper we present an algorithmic way to transform a continued fraction given in nonalternating form into the all-even form. Using this method we derive formulas for the braid index and the HOMFLY polynomial of a rational link in terms of its reduced alternating form, or equivalently the nonalternating form of the corresponding rational number.

Let $\Gamma$ be a graph with vertex set $V(\Gamma)$. A subset $C$ of $V(\Gamma)$ is called a perfect code in $\Gamma$ if $C$ is an independent set of $\Gamma$ and every vertex in $V(\Gamma)\setminus C$ is adjacent to exactly one vertex in $C$. A subset $C$ of a group $G$ is called a perfect code of $G$ if there exists a Cayley graph of $G$ which admits $C$ as a perfect code. A group $G$ is said to be code-perfect if every proper subgroup of $G$ is a perfect code of $G$. In this paper we prove that a group is code-perfect if and only if it has no elements of order $4$. We also prove that a proper subgroup $H$ of an abelian group $G$ is a perfect code of $G$ if and only if the Sylow $2$-subgroup of $H$ is a perfect code of the Sylow $2$-subgroup of $G$. This reduces the problem of determining when a given subgroup of an abelian group is a perfect code to the case of abelian $2$-groups. Finally, we determine all subgroup perfect codes in any generalized quaternion group., Comment: This is the final version to be published in SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics, 18 pp

In a recent paper, Garber, Gavrilyuk, and Magazinov [Discrete Comput. Geom., 53 (2015), pp. 245--260] proposed a sufficient combinatorial condition for a parallelohedron to be affinely Voronoi. We ...

The flip graph of triangulations has as vertices all triangulations of a convex $n$-gon, and an edge between any two triangulations that differ in exactly one edge. An $r$-rainbow cycle in this graph is a cycle in which every inner edge of the triangulation appears exactly $r$ times. This notion of a rainbow cycle extends in a natural way to other flip graphs. In this paper we investigate the existence of $r$-rainbow cycles for three different flip graphs on classes of geometric objects: the aforementioned flip graph of triangulations of a convex $n$-gon, the flip graph of plane trees on an arbitrary set of $n$ points, and the flip graph of non-crossing perfect matchings on a set of $n$ points in convex position. In addition, we consider two flip graphs on classes of non-geometric objects: the flip graph of permutations of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ and the flip graph of $k$-element subsets of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$. In each of the five settings, we prove the existence and non-existence of rainbow cycles for different values of $r$, $n$ and~$k$.

This paper answers an open question posed in 1993 concerning the least dense arrangement of a `full' packing of equal-sized disks. A disk $D$ in the packing is full if it touches at least four other disks and these disks leave no gap large enough for any other disk to touch $D$. A packing is called full if every disk is full. In the context of disks with unit diameter, Cowan [J. Appl. Probab., 30 (1993), pp. 263--268] showed that the intensity of disk centers (the average number per unit area) for any full packing must be greater than $12/(4+\sqrt3+5\tan(3\pi/10))= 0.95132\ldots$ and questioned if intensities less than $1$ were possible. In this paper, we answer his question affirmatively by showing that, for every intensity from $[0.95257\ldots,1]$, there exists a full packing of unit-diameter disks. We also establish that a full packing exists for all higher intensities up to the obvious maximum of $ \frac{2}{\sqrt{3}}$. Specific packings are constructed to demonstrate these existence issues.

In this paper, we investigate the permutation property of the Dickson polynomials $E_n(x, a)$ of the second kind over $\mathbb{Z}_m$. Due to a known result, it suffices to consider permutation polynomials $E_n(x, a)$ over $\mathbb{Z}_{p^t}$, where $p$ is a prime and $t$ is a positive integer. We identify all permutation polynomials of $E_n(x, a)$ over $\mathbb{Z}_{p^t}$ for (I) $p=2$ and (II) $p$ is odd and $a$ is a square over $\mathbb{Z}_p$. For odd $p$ and nonsquares $a$ in $\mathbb{Z}_p$, we determine a large class (if not all) of permutation polynomials $E_n(x, a)$ over $\mathbb{Z}_{p^t}$. A conjecture is also presented in this paper. If this conjecture is true, then all Dickson permutation polynomials $E_n(x, a)$ of the second kind over $\mathbb{Z}_m$ are determined.

In recent years, several classes of codes are introduced to provide some fault-tolerance and guarantee system reliability in distributed storage systems, among which locally repairable codes (LRCs for short) play an important role. However, most known constructions are over large fields with sizes close to the code length, which lead to the systems computationally expensive. Due to this, binary LRCs are of interest in practice. In this paper, we focus on binary linear LRCs with disjoint repair groups. We first derive an explicit bound for the dimension k of such codes, which can be served as a generalization of the bounds given in [11, 36, 37]. We also give several new constructions of binary LRCs with minimum distance $d = 6$ based on weakly independent sets and partial spreads, which are optimal with respect to our newly obtained bound. In particular, for locality $r\in \{2,3\}$ and minimum distance $d = 6$, we obtain the desired optimal binary linear LRCs with disjoint repair groups for almost all parameters.

Let $G$ be an $n$-vertex graph with $n\ge 3$. A classic result of Dirac from 1952 asserts that $G$ is hamiltonian if $\delta(G)\ge n/2$. Dirac's theorem is one of the most influential results in the study of hamiltonicity and by now there are many related known results\,(see, e.g., J. A. Bondy, Basic Graph Theory: Paths and Circuits, Chapter 1 in: {\it Handbook of Combinatorics Vol.1}). A {\it Halin graph} is a planar graph consisting of two edge-disjoint subgraphs: a spanning tree of at least 4 vertices and with no vertex of degree 2, and a cycle induced on the set of the leaves of the spanning tree. Halin graphs possess rich hamiltonicity properties such as being hamiltonian, hamiltonian connected, and almost pancyclic. As a continuous "generalization" of Dirac's theorem, in this paper, we show that there exists a positive integer $n_0$ such that any graph $G$ with $n\ge n_0$ vertices and $\delta(G)\ge (n+1)/2$ contains a spanning Halin subgraph. In particular, it contains a spanning Halin subgraph which is also pancyclic., Comment: 25 pages, 3 figures

The notion of digits in finite fields was introduced a few years ago as an attempt to deliver insight in related yet unresolved questions over the natural numbers. Several such intractable questions are related to the sum of digits function, which assigns to every natural number the sum of its digits. Its analogue over finite fields, which is a map from F_q to F_p, q = p h where p prime and h ≥ 2, has been studied by several authors. In particular, Cathy Swaenepoel [J. Number Theory, 189(2018), pp. 97-114] investigated the sum of digits of products of field elements. The main techniques involved were estimates on certain character sums and Gaussian sums over F_q and F_p. In this paper, we extend and generalize these results using a different approach, based on spectral graph theory, without any reference to character theory.

The Cycle Packing problem asks whether a given undirected graph $G=(V,E)$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint cycles. Since the publication of the classic Erdös--Pósa theorem in 1965, this problem received significant attention in the fields of graph theory and algorithm design. In particular, this problem is one of the first problems studied in the framework of parameterized complexity. The nonuniform fixed-parameter tractability of Cycle Packing follows from the Robertson--Seymour theorem, a fact already observed by Fellows and Langston in the 1980s. In 1994, Bodlaender showed that Cycle Packing can be solved in time $2^{\mathcal{O}(k^2)}\cdot |V|$ using exponential space. In the case a solution exists, Bodlaender's algorithm also outputs a solution (in the same time). It has later become common knowledge that Cycle Packing admits a $2^{\mathcal{O}(k\log^2k)}\cdot |V|$-time (deterministic) algorithm using exponential space, which is a consequence of the Erdös--Pósa theorem. Nowadays, the design of this algorithm is given as an exercise in textbooks on parameterized complexity. Yet, no algorithm that runs in time $2^{o(k\log^2k)}\cdot |V|^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$, beating the bound $2^{\mathcal{O}(k\log^2k)}\cdot |V|^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$, has been found. In light of this, it seems natural to ask whetherthe $2^{\mathcal{O}(k\log^2k)}\cdot |V|^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$ bound is essentially optimal. In this paper, we answer this question negatively by developing a $2^{\mathcal{O}(\frac{k\log^2k}{\log\log k})}\cdot |V|$-time (deterministic) algorithm for Cycle Packing. In the case a solution exists, our algorithm also outputs a solution (in the same time). Moreover, apart from beating the bound $2^{\mathcal{O}(k\log^2k)}\cdot |V|^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$, our algorithm runs in time linear in $|V|$, and its space complexity is polynomial in the input size. publishedVersion

The family of judicious partitioning problems, introduced by Bollobás and Scott to the field of extremal combinatorics, has been extensively studied from a structural point of view for over two decades. This rich realm of problems aims to counterbalance the objectives of classical partitioning problems such as Min Cut, Min Bisection, and Max Cut. While these classical problems focus solely on the minimization/maximization of the number of edges crossing the cut, judicious (bi)partitioning problems ask the natural question of the minimization/maximization of the number of edges lying in the (two) sides of the cut. In particular, Judicious Bipartition (JB) seeks a bipartition that is “judicious” in the sense that neither side is burdened by too many edges, and Balanced JB (BJB) also requires that the sizes of the sides themselves are “balanced” in the sense that neither of them is too large. Both of these problems were defined in the work by Bollobás and Scott and have received notable scientific attention since then. In this paper, we shed light on the study of judicious partitioning problems from the viewpoint of algorithm design. Specifically, we prove that BJB is fixed parameter tractable (FPT) (which also proves that JB is FPT). publishedVersion

Gelfand-Tsetlin polytopes are prominent objects in algebraic combinatorics. The number of integer points of the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope $\mathrm{GT}(\lambda)$ is equal to the dimension of the corresponding irreducible representation of $GL(n)$. It is well-known that the Gelfand-Tsetlin polytope is a marked order polytope; the authors have recently shown it to be a flow polytope. In this paper, we draw corollaries from this result and establish a general theory connecting marked order polytopes and flow polytopes., Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures

A Boolean function $g$ is said to be an optimal predictor for another Boolean function $f$ , if it minimizes the probability that $f(X^{n})\neq g(Y^{n})$ among all functions, where $X^{n}$ is uniform over the Hamming cube and $Y^{n}$ is obtained from $X^{n}$ by independently flipping each coordinate with probability $\delta$ . This paper is about self-predicting functions, which are those that coincide with their optimal predictor.

Let $G$ be a graph with a threshold function $\theta:V(G)\rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ such that $1\leq \theta(v)\leq d_G(v)$ for every vertex $v$ of $G$, where $d_G(v)$ is the degree of $v$ in $G$. Suppose we are given a target set $S\subseteq V(G)$. The paper considers the following repetitive process on $G$. At time step 0 the vertices of $S$ are colored black and the other vertices are colored white. After that, at each time step $t>0$, the colors of white vertices (if any) are updated according to the following rule. All white vertices $v$ that have at least $\theta(v)$ black neighbors at the time step $t-1$ are colored black, and the colors of the other vertices do not change. The process runs until no more white vertices can update colors from white to black. The following optimization problem is called Target Set Selection: Finding a target set $S$ of smallest possible size such that all vertices in $G$ are black at the end of the process. Such an $S$ is called an {\em optimal target set} for $G$ under the threshold function $\theta$. We are interested in finding an optimal target set for the well-known class of honeycomb networks under an important threshold function called {\em strict majority threshold}, where $\theta(v)=\lceil (d_G(v)+1)/2\rceil$ for each vertex $v$ in $G$. In a graph $G$, a {\em feedback vertex set} is a subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ such that the subgraph induced by $V(G)\setminus S$ is cycle-free. In this paper we give exact value on the size of the optimal target set for various kinds of honeycomb networks under strict majority threshold, and as a by-product we also provide a minimum feedback vertex set for different kinds regular graphs in the class of honeycomb networks

In earlier papers we have developed an algebraic theory of discrete tomography. In those papers the structure of the functions $f: A \to \{0,1\}$ and $f: A \to \mathbb{Z}$ having given line sums in certain directions have been analyzed. Here $A$ was a block in $\mathbb{Z}^n$ with sides parallel to the axes. In the present paper we assume that there is noise in the measurements and (only) that $A$ is an arbitrary or convex finite set in $\mathbb{Z}^n$. We derive generalizations of earlier results. Furthermore we apply a method of Beck and Fiala to obtain results of he following type: if the line sums in $k$ directions of a function $h: A \to [0,1]$ are known, then there exists a function $f: A \to \{0,1\}$ such that its line sums differ by at most $k$ from the corresponding line sums of $h$., Comment: 16 pages

Cyclic codes are a subclass of linear codes and have applications in consumer electronics, data storage systems, and communication systems as they have efficient encoding and decoding algorithms. In this paper, some monomials and trinomials over finite fields are employed to construct a number of families of cyclic codes. Lower bounds on the minimum weight of some families of the cyclic codes are developed. The minimum weights of other families of the codes constructed in this paper are determined. The dimensions of the codes are flexible. Many of the codes presented in this paper are optimal or almost optimal in the sense that they meet some bounds on linear codes. Open problems regarding cyclic codes from monomials and trinomials are also presented.

Using the correspondence between abstract regular polytopes and string C-groups, in a recent paper [M. E. Fernandes, D. Leemans, and M. Mixer, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, 119 (2012), pp. 42–56], we constructed an abstract regular polytope of rank r, for each $r \geq 3$, with automorphism group isomorphic to $A_{2r+3}$ when r is odd, and $A_{2r+1}$ when r is even. In this paper, the remaining cases are completed. It is shown that every group $A_n$, with n sufficiently large, acts on at least one abstract regular polytope of rank $\lfloor\frac{n-1}{2}\rfloor$. We conjecture that this is the highest possible rank for $n\geq 12$.

A seminal result of Reed et al. [Combinatorica, 16 (1996), pp. 535--554] says that a directed graph has either $k$ vertex-disjoint directed circuits or a set of at most $f(k)$ vertices meeting all directed circuits. This paper aims at generalizing their result to packing directed circuits through a prescribed set $S$ of vertices. Such a circuit is called an $S$-circuit. Even et al. [Algorithmica, 20 (1998), pp. 151--174] showed a fractional version of packing $S$-circuits. In this paper, we show that the fractionality can be bounded by at most one-fifth: Given an integer $k$ and a vertex subset $S$, whose size may not depend on $k$, we prove that either $G$ has a $1/5$-integral packing of $k$ disjoint $S$-circuits, i.e., each vertex appears in at most five of these $S$-circuits, or $G$ has a vertex set $X$ of order at most $f(k)$ (for some function $f$ of $k$) such that $G-X$ has no such circuit. We also give a fixed-parameter tractable approximation algorithm for finding a $1/5$-integral packing of $S$-c...

The minimum cost homomorphism problem has arisen as a natural and useful optimization problem in the study of graph (and digraph) coloring and homomorphisms: it unifies a number of other well studied optimization problems. It was shown by Gutin, Rafiey, and Yeo that the minimum cost problem for homomorphisms to a digraph H that admits a so-called extended Min- Max ordering is polynomial time solvable, and these authors conjectured that for all other digraphs H the problem is NP-complete. In a companion paper, we gave a forbidden structure characterization of digraphs that admit extended Min-Max orderings. In this paper, we apply this characterization to prove Gutin's conjecture.

A generalized Davenport-Schinzel sequence is one over a finite alphabet that excludes subsequences isomorphic to a fixed forbidden subsequence. The fundamental problem in this area is bounding the maximum length of such sequences. Following Klazar, we let $\mathrm{Ex}(\sigma,n)$ be the maximum length of a sequence over an $n$-letter alphabet excluding subsequences isomorphic to $\sigma$. It has been proved that for every $\sigma$, $\mathrm{Ex}(\sigma,n)$ is either linear or very close to linear. In particular it is $O(n2^{\alpha(n)^{O(1)}})$, where $\alpha$ is the inverse-Ackermann function and $O(1)$ depends on $\sigma$. In much the same way that the complete graphs $K_5$ and $K_{3,3}$ represent the minimal causes of nonplanarity, there must exist a set $\Phi_{Nonlin}$ of minimal nonlinear forbidden subsequences. Very little is known about the size or membership of $\Phi_{Nonlin}$. In this paper we construct an infinite antichain of nonlinear forbidden subsequences which, we argue, strongly supports the conjecture that $\Phi_{Nonlin}$ is itself infinite. Perhaps the most novel contribution of this paper is a succinct, humanly readable code for expressing the structure of forbidden subsequences.

Let $G$ be a simple, undirected, finite graph with vertex set $V(G)$ and edge set $E(G)$. A $k$-dimensional box is a Cartesian product of closed intervals $[a_1,b_1]\times [a_2,b_2]\times\cdots\times [a_k,b_k]$. The boxicity of $G$, box$(G)$, is the minimum integer $k$ such that $G$ can be represented as the intersection graph of $k$-dimensional boxes; i.e., each vertex is mapped to a $k$-dimensional box and two vertices are adjacent in $G$ if and only if their corresponding boxes intersect. Let $\mathcal{P}=(S,P)$ be a poset, where $S$ is the ground set and $P$ is a reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive binary relation on $S$. The dimension of $\mathcal{P}$, $\dim(\mathcal{P})$, is the minimum integer $t$ such that $P$ can be expressed as the intersection of $t$ total orders. Let $G_{\mathcal{P}}$ be the underlying comparability graph of $\mathcal{P}$; i.e., $S$ is the vertex set and two vertices are adjacent if and only if they are comparable in $\mathcal{P}$. It is a well-known fact that posets with the same underlying comparability graph have the same dimension. The first result of this paper links the dimension of a poset to the boxicity of its underlying comparability graph. In particular, we show that for any poset $\mathcal{P}$, box$(G_{\mathcal{P}})/(\chi(G_{\mathcal{P}})-1) \le \dim(\mathcal{P})\le 2\mbox{box}(G_{\mathcal{P}})$, where $\chi(G_{\mathcal{P}})$ is the chromatic number of $G_{\mathcal{P}}$ and $\chi(G_{\mathcal{P}})\ne1$. It immediately follows that if $\mathcal{P}$ is a height-$2$ poset, then box$(G_{\mathcal{P}})\le \dim(\mathcal{P})\le 2\mbox{box}(G_{\mathcal{P}})$ since the underlying comparability graph of a height-$2$ poset is a bipartite graph. The second result of the paper relates the boxicity of a graph $G$ with a natural partial order associated with the extended double cover of $G$, denoted as $G_c$: Note that $G_c$ is a bipartite graph with partite sets $A$ and $B$ which are copies of $V(G)$ such that, corresponding to every $u\in V(G)$, there are two vertices $u_A\in A$ and $u_B\in B$ and $\{u_A,v_B\}$ is an edge in $G_c$ if and only if either $u=v$ or $u$ is adjacent to $v$ in $G$. Let $\mathcal{P}_c$ be the natural height-$2$ poset associated with $G_c$ by making $A$ the set of minimal elements and $B$ the set of maximal elements. We show that $\frac{\mbox{box}(G)}{2} \le \dim(\mathcal{P}_c) \le 2\mbox{box}(G)+4$. These results have some immediate and significant consequences. The upper bound $\dim(\mathcal{P})\le 2\mbox{box}(G_\mathcal{P})$ allows us to derive hitherto unknown upper bounds for poset dimension such as $\dim(\mathcal{P})\le 2\mbox{ tree width }(G_{\mathcal{P}})+4$, since boxicity of any graph is known to be at most its tree width $+\; 2$. In the other direction, using the already known bounds for partial order dimension we get the following: (1) The boxicity of any graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ is $O(\Delta\log^2\Delta)$, which is an improvement over the best-known upper bound of $\Delta^2+2$. (2) There exist graphs with boxicity $\Omega(\Delta\log\Delta)$. This disproves a conjecture that the boxicity of a graph is $O(\Delta)$. (3) There exists no polynomial-time algorithm to approximate the boxicity of a bipartite graph on $n$ vertices with a factor of $O(n^{0.5-\epsilon})$ for any $\epsilon>0$ unless $NP=ZPP$.

Sphere packing problems have a rich history in both mathematics and physics; yet, relatively few analytical analyses of sphere packings exist, and answers to seemingly simple questions are unknown. Here, we present an analytical method for deriving all packings of n spheres in R^3 satisfying minimal rigidity constraints (>= 3 contacts per sphere and >= 3n-6 total contacts). We derive such packings for n = 9, (iii) the number of ground states (i.e. packings with the maximal number of contacts) oscillates with respect to n, (iv) for 10, The updates that have been made to version II are as follows: (i) some updates to the main text have been made, primarily correcting the number of packings reported in PRL, 103, 118303 and in version I of this paper for n = 9,10. (ii) The supplemental information for the paper has been included

A neighbor system, introduced in this paper, is a collection of integral vectors in $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ with some special structure. Such collections (slightly) generalize jump systems, which, in turn, generalize integral bisubmodular polyhedra, integral polymatroids, delta-matroids, matroids, and other structures. We show that neighbor systems provide a systematic and simple way to characterize these structures. One of our main results is a simple greedy algorithm for optimizing over (finite) neighbor systems starting from any feasible vector. The algorithm is (essentially) identical to the usual greedy algorithm on matroids and integral polymatroids when the starting vector is zero. But in all other cases, from matroids through jump systems, it appears to be a new greedy algorithm. We end the paper by introducing another structure, which is more general than neighbor systems, and indicate that essentially the same greedy algorithm also works for this structure.

This paper deals with cooperative games in which only certain coalitions are allowed to form. There have been previous models developed to confront the problem of nonfeasible coalitions. Games restricted by a communication graph are games in which the feasible coalitions are those that induce connected subgraphs. Another type of model is determined by the positions of the players in a so-called permission structure. In this paper, the restrictions to the cooperation are given by a combinatorial structure called an augmenting system which generalizes antimatroid structure and the system of connected subgraphs of a graph. Furthermore, the class of augmenting systems includes the conjunctive and disjunctive systems derived from a permission structure. The value α is a generalization of the Myerson value for games restricted by graphs and the Shapley value for games restricted by permission structures. The main results of the paper are the characterization of the value α for augmenting structures by using component efficiency, loop-null, and balanced contributions, and another characterization by consistency of this value. Furthermore, we implement a direct algorithm to compute this value by using the outputs of the original game. Ministerio de Educación - Unión Europea SEJ2006–00706 Junta de Andalucía FQM 237