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Let $X$ be a configuration of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$. What is the maximum number of vertices that $conv(T(X))$ can have among all the possible permissible projective transformations $T$? In this paper, we investigate this and connected questions. After presenting several upper bounds, we study a closely related problem (via Gale transforms) concerning the number of minimal Radon partitions of a set of points. We then present some bounds for this number that enable us to partially answer a question due to Pach and Szegedy. We also discuss another related problem concerning the size of topes in arrangements of hyperplanes.

Given a set $A$ of positive integers $a_1, Comment: 30 pages, 1 figure

In this paper, by developing several new adjacency lemmas about a path on $4$ or $5$ vertices, we show that the average degree of 7-critical graphs is at least 6. It implies Vizing's planar graph conjecture for planar graphs with maximum degree $7$ and its extension to graphs embeddable in a surface with nonnegative Euler characteristic due to Sanders and Zhao (J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 83 (2001) 201-212 and J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 87 (2003) 254-263) and Zhang (Graphs and Combinatorics 16 (2000) 467-495).

In 1976, Alspach, Mason, and Pullman conjectured that any tournament $T$ of even order can be decomposed into exactly ${\rm ex}(T)$ paths, where ${\rm ex}(T):= \frac{1}{2}\sum_{v\in V(T)}|d_T^+(v)-d_T^-(v)|$. We prove this conjecture for all sufficiently large tournaments. We also prove an asymptotically optimal result for tournaments of odd order., 73 pages, 2 figures; final version, to appear in the Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society

Given integers k ��� 2 and a_1,���,a_k ��� 1, let a: = (a_1,���,a_k) and n: = a_1+���+a_k. An a-multiset permutation is a string of length n that contains exactly a_i symbols i for each i = 1,���,k. In this work we consider the problem of exhaustively generating all a-multiset permutations by star transpositions, i.e., in each step, the first entry of the string is transposed with any other entry distinct from the first one. This is a far-ranging generalization of several known results. For example, it is known that permutations (a_1 = ��� = a_k = 1) can be generated by star transpositions, while combinations (k = 2) can be generated by these operations if and only if they are balanced (a_1 = a_2), with the positive case following from the middle levels theorem. To understand the problem in general, we introduce a parameter ��(a): = n-2max{a_1,���,a_k} that allows us to distinguish three different regimes for this problem. We show that if ��(a) < 0, then a star transposition Gray code for a-multiset permutations does not exist. We also construct such Gray codes for the case ��(a) > 0, assuming that they exist for the case ��(a) = 0. For the case ��(a) = 0 we present some partial positive results. Our proofs establish Hamilton-connectedness or Hamilton-laceability of the underlying flip graphs, and they answer several cases of a recent conjecture of Shen and Williams. In particular, we prove that the middle levels graph is Hamilton-laceable., LIPIcs, Vol. 219, 39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022), pages 34:1-34:14

We introduce a notion of curvature on finite, combinatorial graphs. It can be easily computed by solving a linear system of equations. We show that graphs with curvature bounded below by $K>0$ have diameter bounded by $\mbox{diam}(G) \leq 2/K$ (a Bonnet-Myers theorem), that $\mbox{diam}(G) = 2/K$ implies that $G$ has constant curvature (a Cheng theorem) and that there is a spectral gap $\lambda_1 \geq K/(2n)$ (a Lichnerowicz theorem). It is computed for several families of graphs and often coincides with Ollivier curvature or Lin-Lu-Yau curvature. The von Neumann minimax theorem features prominently in the proofs.

The poset Ramsey number $R(Q_m,Q_n)$ is the smallest integer $N$ such that any blue-red coloring of the elements of the Boolean lattice $Q_N$ has a blue induced copy of $Q_m$ or a red induced copy of $Q_n$. The weak poset Ramsey number $R_w(Q_m,Q_n)$ is defined analogously, with weak copies instead of induced copies. It is easy to see that $R(Q_m,Q_n) \ge R_w(Q_m,Q_n)$. Axenovich and Walzer showed that $n+2 \le R(Q_2,Q_n) \le 2n+2$. Recently, Lu and Thompson improved the upper bound to $\frac{5}{3}n+2$. In this paper, we solve this problem asymptotically by showing that $R(Q_2,Q_n)=n+O(n/\log n)$. In the diagonal case, Cox and Stolee proved $R_w(Q_n,Q_n) \ge 2n+1$ using a probabilistic construction. In the induced case, Bohman and Peng showed $R(Q_n,Q_n) \ge 2n+1$ using an explicit construction. Improving these results, we show that $R_w(Q_m,Q_n) \ge n+m+1$ for all $m \ge 2$ and large $n$ by giving an explicit construction; in particular, we prove that $R_w(Q_2,Q_n)=n+3$.

Gao, Huo, Liu and Ma (2019) proved a result on the existence of paths connecting specified two vertices whose lengths differ by one or two. By using this result, they settled two famous conjectures due to Thomassen (1983). In this paper, we improve their result, and obtain a generalization of a result of Bondy and Vince (1998)., Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures

A graph $G$ is $H$-free if it has no induced subgraph isomorphic to $H$, where $H$ is a graph. In this paper, we show that every $\frac{3}{2}$-tough $(P_4 \cup P_{10})$-free graph has a 2-factor. The toughness condition of this result is sharp. Moreover, for any $\varepsilon>0$ there exists a $(2-\varepsilon)$-tough $2P_5$-free graph without a 2-factor. This implies that the graph $P_4 \cup P_{10}$ is best possible for a forbidden subgraph in a sense., 16 pages, 3 figures

Let $D$ be a $k$-regular bipartite tournament on $n$ vertices. We show that, for every $p$ with $2 \le p \le n/2-2$, $D$ has a cycle $C$ of length $2p$ such that $D \setminus C$ is hamiltonian unless $D$ is isomorphic to the special digraph $F_{4k}$. This statement was conjectured by Manoussakis, Song and Zhang [K. Zhang, Y. Manoussakis, and Z. Song. Complementary cycles containing a fixed arc in diregular bipartite tournaments. Discrete Mathematics, 133(1-3):325--328,1994]. In the same paper, the conjecture was proved for $p=2$ and more recently Bai, Li and He gave a proof for $p=3$ [Y. Bai, H. Li, and W. He. Complementary cycles in regular bipartite tournaments. Discrete Mathematics, 333:14--27, 2014]., Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures

We study Hamiltonicity and pancyclicity in the graph obtained as the union of a deterministic $n$-vertex graph $H$ with $\delta(H)\geq\alpha n$ and a random $d$-regular graph $G$, for $d\in\{1,2\}$. When $G$ is a random $2$-regular graph, we prove that a.a.s. $H\cup G$ is pancyclic for all $\alpha\in(0,1]$, and also extend our result to a range of sublinear degrees. When $G$ is a random $1$-regular graph, we prove that a.a.s. $H\cup G$ is pancyclic for all $\alpha\in(\sqrt{2}-1,1]$, and this result is best possible. Furthermore, we show that this bound on $\delta(H)$ is only needed when $H$ is `far' from containing a perfect matching, as otherwise we can show results analogous to those of random $2$-regular graphs. Our proofs provide polynomial-time algorithms to find cycles of any length., Comment: To appear in Random Structures and Algorithms

For a graph $G$, we write $G\rightarrow \big(K_{r+1},\mathcal{T}(n,D)\big)$ if every blue-red colouring of the edges of $G$ contains either a blue copy of $K_{r+1}$, or a red copy of each tree with $n$ edges and maximum degree at most $D$. In 1977, Chv\'atal proved that for any integers $r,n,D \ge 2$, $K_N \rightarrow \big(K_{r+1},\mathcal{T}(n,D)\big)$ if and only if $N \ge rn+1$. We prove a random analogue of Chv\'atal's theorem for bounded degree trees, that is, we show that for each $r,D\ge 2$ there exist constants $C,C'>0$ such that if $p \ge C{n}^{-2/(r+2)}$ and $N \geq rn + C'/p$, then \[G(N,p) \rightarrow \big(K_{r+1},\mathcal{T}(n,D)\big)\] with high probability as $n\to \infty$. The proof combines a stability argument with the embedding of trees in expander graphs. Furthermore, the proof of the stability result is based on a sparse random analogue of the Erd\H{o}s--S\'os conjecture for trees with linear size and bounded maximum degree, which may be of independent interest., Comment: 30 pages, 3 figures

Answering a question of Mohar from 2007, we show that for every $4$-critical planar graph, its set of $4$-colorings is a Kempe class., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures; incorporated referees' suggestions

We prove that a class of graphs with an excluded minor and with the maximum degree sublinear in the number of edges is maximally modular, that is, modularity tends to 1 as the number of edges tends to infinity., 7 pages, 1 figure

We prove that a tournament and its complement contain the same number of oriented Hamiltonian paths (resp. cycles) of any given type, as a generalization of Rosenfeld's result proved for antidirected paths.

The fractional arboricity of a digraph $D$, denoted by $\gamma(D)$, is defined as $\gamma(D)= \max_{H \subseteq D, |V(H)| >1} \frac {|A(H)|} {|V(H)|-1}$. Frank in [Covering branching, Acta Scientiarum Mathematicarum (Szeged) 41 (1979), 77-81] proved that a digraph $D$ decomposes into $k$ branchings, if and only if $\Delta^{-}(D) \leq k$ and $\gamma(D) \leq k$. In this paper, we study digraph analogues for the Nine Dragon Tree Conjecture. We conjecture that, for positive integers $k$ and $d$, if $D$ is a digraph with $\gamma(D) \leq k + \frac{d-k}{d+1}$ and $\Delta^{-}(D) \leq k+1$, then $D$ decomposes into $k + 1$ branchings $B_{1}, \ldots, B_{k}, B_{k+1}$ with $\Delta^{+}(B_{k+1}) \leq d$. This conjecture, if true, is a refinement of Frank's characterization. A series of acyclic bipartite digraphs is also presented to show the bound of $\gamma(D)$ given in the conjecture is best possible. We prove our conjecture for the cases $d \leq k$. As more evidence to support our conjecture, we prove that if $D$ is a digraph with the maximum average degree $mad(D)$ $\leq$ $2k + \frac{2(d-k)}{d+1}$ and $\Delta^{-}(D) \leq k+1$, then $D$ decomposes into $k + 1$ pseudo-branchings $C_{1}, \ldots, C_{k}, C_{k+1}$ with $\Delta^{+}(C_{k+1}) \leq d$.

Let $G$ be a simple graph with maximum degree $\Delta(G)$. A subgraph $H$ of $G$ is overfull if $|E(H)|>\Delta(G)\lfloor |V(H)|/2 \rfloor$. Chetwynd and Hilton in 1985 conjectured that a graph $G$ with $\Delta(G)>|V(G)|/3$ has chromatic index $\Delta(G)$ if and only if $G$ contains no overfull subgraph. The 1-factorization conjecture is a special case of this overfull conjecture, which states that for even $n$, every regular $n$-vertex graph with degree at least about $n/2$ has a 1-factorization and was confirmed for large graphs in 2014. Supporting the overfull conjecture as well as generalizing the 1-factorization conjecture in an asymptotic way, in this paper, we show that for any given $0, Comment: Fixed some typos and revised Lemmas 2.7, 2.11, and 2.12. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2104.06253

Let H be a tree. It was proved by Rodl that graphs that do not contain H as an induced subgraph, and do not contain the complete bipartite graph $K_{t,t}$ as a subgraph, have bounded chromatic number. Kierstead and Penrice strengthened this, showing that such graphs have bounded degeneracy. Here we give a further strengthening, proving that for every tree H, the degeneracy is at most polynomial in t. This answers a question of Bonamy, Pilipczuk, Rzazewski, Thomasse and Walczak.

We study a class of determinant inequalities that are closely related to Sidorenko's famous conjecture (Also conjectured by Erd\H os and Simonovits in a different form). Our main result can also be interpreted as an entropy inequality for Gaussian Markov random fields (GMRF). We call a GMRF on a finite graph $G$ homogeneous if the marginal distributions on the edges are all identical. We show that if $G$ is bipartite then the differential entropy of any homogeneous GMRF on $G$ is at least $|E(G)|$ times the edge entropy plus $|V(G)|-2|E(G)|$ times the point entropy. We also show that in the case of non-negative correlation on edges, the result holds for an arbitrary graph $G$. The connection between Sidorenko's conjecture and GMRF's is established via a large deviation principle on high dimensional spheres combined with graph limit theory. Connection with Ihara zeta function and the number of spanning trees is also discussed., Comment: Significant text overlap with arXiv:1701.03632. In fact, this paper is a significantly expanded version of arXiv:1701.03632 with one new author

A well-known theorem of Whitney states that a 3-connected planar graph admits an essentially unique embedding into the 2-sphere. We prove a 3-dimensional analogue: a simply-connected $2$-complex every link graph of which is 3-connected admits an essentially unique locally flat embedding into the 3-sphere, if it admits one at all. This can be thought of as a generalisation of the 3-dimensional Schoenflies theorem.

Define a permutation $\sigma$ to be coprime if $\gcd(m,\sigma(m)) = 1$ for $m\in[n]$. In this note, proving a recent conjecture of Pomerance, we prove that the number of coprime permutations on $[n]$ is $n!\cdot (c+o(1))^n$ where \[c = \prod_{p\text{ prime }}\frac{(p-1)^{2(1-1/p)}}{p\cdot (p-2)^{(1-2/p)}}.\] The techniques involve entropy maximization for the upper bound, and a mixture of number-theoretic bounds, permanent estimates, and the absorbing method for the lower bound., Comment: 11 pages; simplified proof with improved quantitative aspects

Circle geometries are incidence structures that capture the geometry of circles on spheres, cones and hyperboloids in 3-dimensional space. In a previous paper, the author characterised the largest intersecting families in finite ovoidal circle geometries, except for M\"obius planes of odd order. In this paper we show that also in these M\"obius planes, if the order is greater than 3, the largest intersecting families are the sets of circles through a fixed point. We show the same result in the only known family of finite non-ovoidal circle geometries. Using the same techniques, we show a stability result on large intersecting families in all ovoidal circle geometries. More specifically, we prove that an intersecting family $\mathcal F$ in one of the known finite circle geometries of order $q$, with $|\mathcal F| \geq \frac 1 {\sqrt2} q^2 + 2 \sqrt 2 q + 8$, must consist of circles through a common point, or through a common nucleus in case of a Laguerre plane of even order., Comment: 18 pages

A hole in a graph $G$ is an induced cycle of length at least four, and a $k$-multihole in $G$ is a set of pairwise disjoint and nonadjacent holes. It is well known that if $G$ does not contain any holes then its chromatic number is equal to its clique number. In this paper we show that, for any $k$, if $G$ does not contain a $k$-multihole, then its chromatic number is at most a polynomial function of its clique number. We show that the same result holds if we ask for all the holes to be odd or of length four; and if we ask for the holes to be longer than any fixed constant or of length four. This is part of a broader study of graph classes that are polynomially $\chi$-bounded.

We bound the second eigenvalue of random $d$-regular graphs, for a wide range of degrees $d$, using a novel approach based on Fourier analysis. Let $G_{n, d}$ be a uniform random $d$-regular graph on $n$ vertices, and let $\lambda (G_{n, d})$ be its second largest eigenvalue by absolute value. For some constant $c > 0$ and any degree $d$ with $\log^{10} n \ll d \leq c n$, we show that $\lambda (G_{n, d}) = (2 + o(1)) \sqrt{d (n - d) / n}$ asymptotically almost surely. Combined with earlier results that cover the case of sparse random graphs, this fully determines the asymptotic value of $\lambda (G_{n, d})$ for all $d \leq c n$. To achieve this, we introduce new methods that use mechanisms from discrete Fourier analysis, and combine them with existing tools and estimates on $d$-regular random graphs - especially those of Liebenau and Wormald., Comment: 38 pages, 1 figure

We construct a new family of random permutons, called skew Brownian permuton, which describes the limits of several models of random constrained permutations. This family is parametrized by two real parameters. For a specific choice of the parameters, the skew Brownian permuton coincides with the Baxter permuton, i.e., the permuton limit of Baxter permutations. We prove that for another specific choice of the parameters, the skew Brownian permuton coincides with the biased Brownian separable permuton, a one-parameter family of permutons previously studied in the literature as the limit of uniform permutations in substitution-closed classes. This brings two different limiting objects under the same roof, identifying a new larger universality class. The skew Brownian permuton is constructed in terms of flows of solutions of certain stochastic differential equations (SDEs) driven by two-dimensional correlated Brownian excursions in the non-negative quadrant. We call these SDEs skew perturbed Tanaka equations because they are a mixture of the perturbed Tanaka equations and the equations encoding skew Brownian motions. We prove existence and uniqueness of (strong) solutions for these new SDEs. In addition, we show that some natural permutons arising from Liouville quantum gravity spheres decorated with two Schramm-Loewner evolution curves are skew Brownian permutons and such permutons cover almost the whole range of possible parameters. Some connections between constrained permutations and decorated planar maps have been investigated in the literature at the discrete level; this paper establishes this connection directly at the continuum level. Proving the latter result, we also give an SDE interpretation of some quantities related to SLE-decorated Liouville quantum gravity spheres., New version including referee's corrections, accepted for publication in Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society

For a half-translation surface (S,q), the associated saddle connection complex A(S,q) is the simplicial complex where vertices are the saddle connections on (S,q), with simplices spanned by sets of pairwise disjoint saddle connections. This complex can be naturally regarded as an induced subcomplex of the arc complex. We prove that any simplicial isomorphism $\phi : A(S,q) \to A(S',q')$ between saddle connection complexes is induced by an affine diffeomorphism $F : (S,q) \to (S',q')$. In particular, this shows that the saddle connection complex is a complete invariant of affine equivalence classes of half-translation surfaces. Throughout our proof, we develop several combinatorial criteria of independent interest for detecting various geometric objects on a half-translation surface., Comment: 66 pages, 29 figures; v6: accepted for publication by the Journal of Topology

Two constructions of lattice packings of $ n $-dimensional cross-polytopes ($ \ell_1 $ balls) are described, the density of which exceeds that of any prior construction by a factor of at least $ 2^{\frac{n}{\ln n}(1 + o(1))} $ when $ n \to \infty $. The first family of lattices is explicit and is obtained by applying Construction A to a class of Reed-Solomon codes. The second family has subexponential construction complexity and is based on the notion of Sidon sets in finite Abelian groups. The construction based on Sidon sets also gives the highest known asymptotic density of packing discrete cross-polytopes of fixed radius $ r \geqslant 3 $ in $ \mathbb{Z}^n $., 7 pages. v2: Section 2 and the discussion after the proof of Theorem 3.1 are added, v3: minor changes. To appear in the Bulletin of the London Mathematical Society

Gy\'{a}rf\'{a}s and S\'{a}rk\"{o}zy conjectured that every $n\times n$ Latin square has a `cycle-free' partial transversal of size $n-2$. We confirm this conjecture in a strong sense for almost all Latin squares, by showing that as $n \rightarrow \infty$, all but a vanishing proportion of $n\times n$ Latin squares have a Hamilton transversal, i.e. a full transversal for which any proper subset is cycle-free. In fact, we prove a counting result that in almost all Latin squares, the number of Hamilton transversals is essentially that of Taranenko's upper bound on the number of full transversals. This result strengthens a result of Kwan (which in turn implies that almost all Latin squares also satisfy the famous Ryser-Brualdi-Stein conjecture)., Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures. To appear in Random Structures & Algorithms

We construct a unilateral lattice tiling of $\mathbb{R}^n$ into hypercubes of two differnet side lengths $p$ or $q$. This generalizes the Pythagorean tiling in $\mathbb{R}^2$. We also show that this tiling is unique up to symmetries, which proves a variation of a conjecture by B\"olcskei from 2001. For positive integers $p$ and $q$ this tiling also provides a tiling of $(\mathbb{Z}/(p^n+q^n)\mathbb{Z})^n$., Comment: 16 pages

M. Carr and S. Devadoss introduced in [7] the notion of tubing on a finite simple graph $\Gamma$, in the context of configuration spaces on the Hilbert plane. To any finite simple graph $\Gamma$ they associated a finite partially ordered set, whose elements are the tubings of $\Gamma$ and whose geometric realization is a convex polytope ${\mathcal K}\Gamma$, the graph-associahedron. For the complete graphs they recovered permutahedra, for linear graphs they got Stasheff's associahedra, while for simple graph they obtained the standard simplexes. The goal of the present work is to give an \emph{algebraic} description of graph associahedra. We introduce a substitution operation on tubings, which allows us to describe the set of faces of graph-associahedra as a free object, spanned by the set of all connected simple graphs, under operations given via connected subgraphs. The boundary maps of graph-associahedra defines natural derivations in this context. Along the way, we introduce a topological interpretation of the graph tubings and our new operations. In the last section, we show that substitution of tubings may be understood in the context of M. Batanin and M. Markl's operadic categories.

A well-known conjecture of Alspach says that every $2k$-regular Cayley graph of an abelian group can be decomposed into Hamiltonian cycles. We consider an analogous question for infinite abelian groups. In this setting one natural analogue of a Hamiltonian cycle is a spanning double-ray. However, a naive generalisation of Alspach's conjecture fails to hold in this setting due to the existence of $2k$-regular Cayley graphs with finite cuts $F$ where $|F|$ and $k$ differ in parity, which necessarily preclude the existence of a decomposition into spanning double-rays. We show that every $4$-regular Cayley graph of an infinite abelian group all of whose finite cuts are even can be decomposed into spanning double-rays, and so characterise when such decompositions exist. We also characterise when such graphs can be decomposed either into Hamiltonian circles, a more topological generalisation of a Hamiltonian cycle in infinite graphs, or into a Hamiltonian circle and a spanning double-ray., 14 pages

Let G be a graph on n vertices. For i ∈ {0,1} and a connected graph G, a spanning forest F of G is called an i-perfect forest if every tree in F is an induced subgraph of G and exactly i vertices of F have even degree (including zero). An i-perfect forest of G is proper if it has no vertices of degree zero. Scott (2001) showed that every connected graph with even number of vertices contains a (proper) 0-perfect forest. We prove that one can find a 0-perfect forest with minimum number of edges in polynomial time, but it is NP-hard to obtain a 0-perfect forest with maximum number of edges. We also prove that for a prescribed edge e of G, it is NP-hard to obtain a 0-perfect forest containing e, but we can find a 0-perfect forest not containing e in polynomial time. It is easy to see that every graph with odd number of vertices has a 1-perfect forest. It is not the case for proper 1-perfect forests. We give a characterization of when a connected graph has a proper 1-perfect forest., LIPIcs, Vol. 202, 46th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2021), pages 54:1-54:13

Given an arrangement of subtori of arbitrary codimension in a torus, we compute the cohomology groups of the complement. Then, using the Leray spectral sequence, we describe the multiplicative structure on the graded cohomology. We also provide a differential model for the cohomology ring by considering a toric wonderful model and its Morgan algebra. Finally we focus on the divisorial case, proving a new presentation for the cohomology of toric arrangements., Comment: 25 pages. In this version a new Section was added, containing a presentation for the cohomology ring of toric arrangements. Furthermore the other sections were expanded to improve readability

Distributing points on a (possibly high-dimensional) sphere with minimal energy is a long-standing problem in and outside the field of mathematics. This paper considers a novel energy function that arises naturally from statistics and combinatorial optimization, and studies its theoretical properties. Our result solves both the exact optimal spherical point configurations in certain cases and the minimal energy asymptotics under general assumptions. Connections between our results and the L1-Principal Component analysis and Quasi-Monte Carlo methods are also discussed., 24 pages, 5 figures. To appear in Random Structures & Algorithms

A path partition (also referred to as a linear forest) of a graph $G$ is a set of vertex-disjoint paths which together contain all the vertices of $G$. An isolated vertex is considered to be a path in this case. The path partition conjecture states that every $n$-vertices $d$-regular graph has a path partition with at most $\frac{n}{d+1}$ paths. The conjecture has been proved for all $d

Each graph and choice of a commutative ring gives rise to an associated graphical group. In this article, we introduce and investigate graph polynomials that enumerate conjugacy classes of graphical groups over finite fields according to their sizes., 20 pages; to appear in Bull. Lond. Math. Soc

The Gyarfas-Sumner conjecture says that for every forest $H$, there is a function $f$ such that if $G$ is $H$-free then $\chi(G)\le f(\omega(G))$ (where $\chi, \omega$ are the chromatic number and the clique number of $G$). Louis Esperet conjectured that, whenever such a statement holds, $f$ can be chosen to be a polynomial. The Gyarfas-Sumner conjecture is only known to be true for a modest set of forests $H$, and Esperet's conjecture is known to be true for almost no forests. For instance, it is not known when $H$ is a five-vertex path. Here we prove Esperet's conjecture when each component of $H$ is a star.

We consider the large sieve inequality for sparse sequences of moduli and give a general result depending on the additive energy (both symmetric and asymmetric) of the sequence of moduli. For example, in the case of monomials $f(X) = X^k$ this allows us to improve, in some ranges of the parameters, the previous bounds of S. Baier and L. Zhao (2005), K.~Halupczok (2012, 2015, 2018) and M.~Munsch (2020). We also consider moduli defined by polynomials $f(X) \in \mathbb{Z}[X]$, Piatetski-Shapiro sequences and general convex sequences. We then apply our results to obtain a version of the Bombieri--Vinogradov theorem with Piatetski-Shapiro moduli improving the level of distribution of R.~C.~Baker (2014)., Comment: In this new version Roger C. Baker was added as a coauthor. An application of our main result to primes in progressions with Piatetski-Shapiro moduli is now included

The skew Schubert polynomials are those which are indexed by skew elements of the Weyl group, in the sense of arXiv:0812.0639. We obtain tableau formulas for the double versions of these polynomials in all four classical Lie types, where the tableaux used are fillings of the associated skew Young diagram. These are the first such theorems for symplectic and orthogonal Schubert polynomials, even in the single case. We also deduce tableau formulas for double Schur, double theta, and double eta polynomials, in their specializations as double Grassmannian Schubert polynomials. The latter results generalize the tableau formulas for symmetric (and single) Schubert polynomials due to Littlewood (in type A) and the author (in types B, C, and D)., 16 pages, 2 figures. Minor corrections and improvements made to the exposition

We use the hypergraph container theory of Balogh--Morris--Samotij and Saxton--Thomason to obtain general rectilinear approximations and volume estimates for sequences of bodies closed under certain families of projections. We give a number of applications of our results, including a multicolour generalisation of a theorem of Hatami, Janson and Szegedy on the entropy of graph limits. Finally, we raise a number of questions on geometric and analytic approaches to containers., Comment: 25 pages, author accepted manuscript, to appear in Journal of Graph Theory

Given a connected graph $G=(V,E)$ and a length function $\ell:E\to {\mathbb R}$ we let $d_{v,w}$ denote the shortest distance between vertex $v$ and vertex $w$. A $t$-spanner is a subset $E'\subseteq E$ such that if $d'_{v,w}$ denotes shortest distances in the subgraph $G'=(V,E')$ then $d'_{v,w}\leq t d_{v,w}$ for all $v,w\in V$. We study the size of spanners in the following scenario: we consider a random embedding of $G_{n,p}$ into the unit square with Euclidean edge lengths. For $\epsilon>0$ constant, we prove the existence w.h.p. of $(1+\epsilon)$-spanners for ${\mathcal X}_p$ that have $O_\epsilon(n)$ edges. These spanners can be constructed in $O_\epsilon(n^2\log n)$ time. (We will use $O_\epsilon$ to indicate that the hidden constant depends on $\epsilon$.) There are constraints on $p$ preventing it going to zero too quickly.

We obtain some new upper bounds on the maximum number $f(n)$ of edges in $n$-vertex graphs without containing cycles of length four. This leads to an asymptotically optimal bound on $f(n)$ for a broad range of integers $n$ as well as a disproof of a conjecture of Erd\H{o}s from 1970s which asserts that $f(n)=\frac12 n^{3/2}+\frac14 n+o(n)$., Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure

By implementing algorithmic versions of Sapozhenko's graph container methods, we give new algorithms for approximating the number of independent sets in bipartite graphs. Our first algorithm applies to $d$-regular, bipartite graphs satisfying a weak expansion condition: when $d$ is constant, and the graph is a bipartite $\Omega( \log^2 d/d)$-expander, we obtain an FPTAS for the number of independent sets. Previously such a result for $d>5$ was known only for graphs satisfying the much stronger expansion conditions of random bipartite graphs. The algorithm also applies to weighted independent sets: for a $d$-regular, bipartite $\alpha$-expander, with $\alpha>0$ fixed, we give an FPTAS for the hard-core model partition function at fugacity $\lambda=\Omega(\log d / d^{1/4})$. Finally we present an algorithm that applies to all $d$-regular, bipartite graphs, runs in time $\exp\left( O\left( n \cdot \frac{ \log^3 d }{d } \right) \right)$, and outputs a $(1 + o(1))$-approximation to the number of independent sets.

Let $G_n$ be a random geometric graph, and then for $q,p \in [0,1)$ we construct a "$(q,p)$-perturbed noisy random geometric graph" $G_n^{q,p}$ where each existing edge in $G_n$ is removed with probability $q$, while and each non-existent edge in $G_n$ is inserted with probability $p$. We give asymptotically tight bounds on the clique number $\omega\left(G_n^{q,p}\right)$ for several regimes of parameter., Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures

We show that every two-colouring of the edges of the complete graph $K_n$ contains a monochromatic trail or circuit of length at least $2n^2/9 +o(n^2)$, which is asymptotically best possible., 3 pages

We show that for any fixed integer $m \geq 1$, a graph of maximum degree $\Delta$ has a coloring with $O(\Delta^{(m+1)/m})$ colors in which every connected bicolored subgraph contains at most $m$ edges. This result unifies previously known upper bounds on the number of colors sufficient for certain types of graph colorings, including star colorings, for which $O(\Delta^{3/2})$ colors suffice, and acyclic colorings, for which $O(\Delta^{4/3})$ colors suffice. Our proof uses a probabilistic method of Alon, McDiarmid, and Reed. This result also gives previously unknown upper bounds, including the fact that a graph of maximum degree $\Delta$ has a proper coloring with $O(\Delta^{9/8})$ colors in which every bicolored subgraph is planar, as well as a proper coloring with $O(\Delta^{13/12})$ colors in which every bicolored subgraph has treewidth at most $3$., Comment: The main result and method both appear in Theorem 1.2 of Aravind and Subramanian (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-10217-2_9), so this paper does not prove anything new or give any new insight into an existing result

We address several extremal problems concerning the spreading property of point sets of Steiner triple systems. This property is closely related to the structure of subsystems, as a set is spreading if and only if there is no proper subsystem which contains it. We give sharp upper bounds on the size of a minimal spreading set in a Steiner triple system and show that if all the minimal spreading sets are large then the examined triple system must be a projective space. We also show that the size of a minimal spreading set is not an invariant of a Steiner triple system.

Absence of (complex) zeros property is at the heart of the interpolation method developed by Barvinok \cite{barvinok2017combinatorics} for designing deterministic approximation algorithms for various graph counting and computing partition functions problems. Earlier methods for solving the same problem include the one based on the correlation decay property. Remarkably, the classes of graphs for which the two methods apply sometimes coincide or nearly coincide. In this paper we show that this is more than just a coincidence. We establish that if the interpolation method is valid for a family of graphs satisfying the self-reducibility property, then this family exhibits a form of correlation decay property which is asymptotic Strong Spatial Mixing (SSM) at distances $\omega(\log n)$, where $n$ is the number of nodes of the graph. This applies in particular to amenable graphs, such as graphs which are finite subsets of lattices. Our proof is based on a certain graph polynomial representation of the associated partition function. This representation is at the heart of the design of the polynomial time algorithms underlying the interpolation method itself. We conjecture that our result holds for all, and not just amenable graphs., Comment: 27 pages

An Euler tour in a hypergraph (also called a rank-2 universal cycle or 1-overlap cycle in the context of designs) is a closed walk that traverses every edge exactly once. In this paper, we define a covering $k$-hypergraph to be a non-empty $k$-uniform hypergraph in which every $(k-1)$-subset of vertices appear together in at least one edge. We then show that every covering $k$-hypergraph, for $k\geq 3$, admits an Euler tour if and only if it has at least two edges.

In this article, we extend Moon's classic formula for counting spanning trees in complete graphs containing a fixed spanning forest to complete bipartite graphs. Let $(X,Y)$ be the bipartition of the complete bipartite graph $K_{m,n}$ with $|X|=m$ and $|Y|=n$. We prove that for any given spanning forest $F$ of $K_{m,n}$ with components $T_1,T_2,\ldots,T_k$, the number of spanning trees in $K_{m,n}$ which contain all edges in $F$ is equal to $$ \frac 1{mn}\left(\prod_{i=1}^k (m_in+n_im)\right) \left (1-\sum_{i=1}^{k}\frac{m_in_i}{m_in+n_im}\right ), $$ where $m_i=|V(T_i)\cap X|$ and $n_i=|V(T_i)\cap Y|$ for $i=1,2,\ldots,k$.