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We introduce a graph Ramsey game called Ramsey, Paper, Scissors. This game has two players, Proposer and Decider. Starting from an empty graph on $n$ vertices, on each turn Proposer proposes a potential edge and Decider simultaneously decides (without knowing Proposer's choice) whether to add it to the graph. Proposer cannot propose an edge which would create a triangle in the graph. The game ends when Proposer has no legal moves remaining, and Proposer wins if the final graph has independence number at least $s$. We prove a threshold phenomenon exists for this game by exhibiting randomized strategies for both players that are optimal up to constants. Namely, there exist constants $0B\sqrt{n}\log{n}$. This is a factor of $\Theta(\sqrt{\log{n}})$ larger than the lower bound coming from the off-diagonal Ramsey number $r(3,s)$.

We study the classical \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathsf {NP}}$$\end{document}NP-hard problems of finding maximum-size subsets from given sets of k terminal pairs that can be routed via edge-disjoint paths (MaxEDP) or node-disjoint paths (MaxNDP) in a given graph. The approximability of MaxEDP/MaxNDP is currently not well understood; the best known lower bound is \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${2^{\varOmega (\sqrt{\log n})}}$$\end{document}2Ω(logn), assuming \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathsf {NP}\not \subseteq \mathsf {DTIME}(n^{\mathcal {O}(\log n)})}$$\end{document}NP⊈DTIME(nO(logn)). This constitutes a significant gap to the best known approximation upper bound of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {O}(\sqrt{n})}$$\end{document}O(n) due to Chekuri et al. (Theory Comput 2:137–146, 2006), and closing this gap is currently one of the big open problems in approximation algorithms. In their seminal paper, Raghavan and Thompson (Combinatorica 7(4):365–374, 1987) introduce the technique of randomized rounding for LPs; their technique gives an \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {O}(1)}$$\end{document}O(1)-approximation when edges (or nodes) may be used by \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {O}\left( \log n/\log \log n\right) }$$\end{document}Ologn/loglogn paths. In this paper, we strengthen the fundamental results above. We provide new bounds formulated in terms of the feedback vertex set number r of a graph, which measures its vertex deletion distance to a forest. In particular, we obtain the following results:For MaxEDP, we give an \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {O}(\sqrt{r} \log ({k}r))}$$\end{document}O(rlog(kr))-approximation algorithm. Up to a logarithmic factor, our result strengthens the best known ratio \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {O}(\sqrt{n})}$$\end{document}O(n) due to Chekuri et al., as \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${r\le n}$$\end{document}r≤n.Further, we show how to route \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\varOmega ({\text {OPT}}^{*})}$$\end{document}Ω(OPT∗) pairs with congestion bounded by \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathcal {O}(\log (kr)/\log \log (kr))}$$\end{document}O(log(kr)/loglog(kr)), strengthening the bound obtained by the classic approach of Raghavan and Thompson.For MaxNDP, we give an algorithm that gives the optimal answer in time \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${(k+r)^{\mathcal {O}(r)}\cdot n}$$\end{document}(k+r)O(r)·n. This is a substantial improvement on the run time of \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${2^kr^{\mathcal {O}(r)}\cdot n}$$\end{document}2krO(r)·n, which can be obtained via an algorithm by Scheffler. We complement these positive results by proving that MaxEDP is \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathsf {NP}}$$\end{document}NP-hard even for \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${r=1}$$\end{document}r=1, and MaxNDP is \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathsf {W}[1]}$$\end{document}W[1]-hard when r is the parameter. This shows that neither problem is fixed-parameter tractable in r unless \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\mathsf {FPT}= \mathsf {W}[1]}$$\end{document}FPT=W[1] and that our approximability results are relevant even for very small constant values of r.

Let us fix a prime $p$. The Erd\H{o}s-Ginzburg-Ziv problem asks for the minimum integer $s$ such that any collection of $s$ points in the lattice $\mathbb{Z}^n$ contains $p$ points whose centroid is also a lattice point in $\mathbb{Z}^n$. For large $n$, this is essentially equivalent to asking for the maximum size of a subset of $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ without $p$ distinct elements summing to zero. In this paper, we give a new upper bound for this problem for any fixed prime $p\geq 5$ and large $n$. In particular, we prove that any subset of $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ without $p$ distinct elements summing to zero has size at most $C_p\cdot \left(2\sqrt{p}\right)^n$, where $C_p$ is a constant only depending on $p$. For $p$ and $n$ going to infinity, our bound is of the form $p^{(1/2)\cdot (1+o(1))n}$, whereas all previously known upper bounds were of the form $p^{(1-o(1))n}$ (with $p^n$ being a trivial bound). Our proof uses the so-called multi-colored sum-free theorem which is a consequence of the Croot-Lev-Pach polynomial method. This method and its consequences were already applied by Naslund as well as by Fox and the author to prove bounds for the problem studied in this paper. However, using some key new ideas, we significantly improve their bounds., Comment: 11 pages

Let $S \subset \Bbb R^n$ be a smooth compact hypersurface with a strictly positive second fundamental form, $E$ be the Fourier extension operator on $S$, and $X$ be a Lebesgue measurable subset of $\Bbb R^n$. If $X$ contains a ball of each radius, then the problem of determining the range of exponents $(p,q)$ for which the estimate $\| Ef \|_{L^q(X)} \leq C \| f \|_{L^p(S)}$ holds is equivalent to the restriction conjecture. In this paper, we study the estimate under the following assumption on the set $X$: there is a number $0 < \alpha \leq n$ such that $|X \cap B_R| \leq c \, R^\alpha$ for all balls $B_R$ in $\Bbb R^n$ of radius $R \geq 1$. On the left-hand side of this estimate, we are integrating the function $|Ef(x)|^q$ against the measure $\chi_X dx$. Our approach consists of replacing the characteristic function $\chi_X$ of $X$ by an appropriate weight function $H$, and studying the resulting estimate in three different regimes: small values of $\alpha$, intermediate values of $\alpha$, and large values of $\alpha$. In the first regime, we establish the estimate by using already available methods. In the second regime, we prove a weighted H\"{o}lder-type inequality that holds for general non-negative Lebesgue measurable functions on $\Bbb R^n$, and combine it with the result from the first regime. In the third regime, we borrow a recent fractal Fourier restriction theorem of Du and Zhang and combine it with the result from the second regime. In the opposite direction, the results of this paper improve on the Du-Zhang theorem in the range $0 < \alpha < n/2$., Comment: 31 pages. Minor revision

A classical theorem of Koksma states that for Lebesgue almost every $x>1$ the sequence $(x^n)_{n=1}^{\infty}$ is uniformly distributed modulo one. In the present paper we extend Koksma's theorem to the pair correlation setting. More precisely, we show that for Lebesgue almost every $x>1$ the pair correlations of the fractional parts of $(x^n)_{n=1}^{\infty}$ are asymptotically Poissonian. The proof is based on a martingale approximation method., Version 2: some minor changes. The paper will appear in the Israel Journal of Mathematics

In this paper we study 1/k geodesics, those closed geodesics that minimize on all subintervals of length $L/k$, where $L$ is the length of the geodesic. We develop new techniques to study the minimizing properties of these curves on doubled polygons, and demonstrate a sequence of doubled polygons whose closed geodesics exhibit unbounded minimizing properties. We also compute the length of the shortest closed geodesic on doubled odd-gons and show that this length approaches 4 times the diameter., Comment: This paper is a result of a SUMRY (REU) project at Yale

In this paper we study some cube packing problems. In particular we are interested in compact subsets of $\mathbb{R}^n,n\geq 2$, which contain boundaries of cubes with all side lengths in $(0,1)$. We show here that such sets must have lower box dimension at least $n-0.5$ and we will also provide sharp examples. We also show here that such sets must be large in general in a precise sense which is also introduced in this paper., 9 pages. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1711.06533

This paper is concerned with voting processes on graphs where each vertex holds one of two different opinions. In particular, we study the \emph{Best-of-two} and the \emph{Best-of-three}. Here at each synchronous and discrete time step, each vertex updates its opinion to match the majority among the opinions of two random neighbors and itself (the Best-of-two) or the opinions of three random neighbors (the Best-of-three). Previous studies have explored these processes on complete graphs and expander graphs, but we understand significantly less about their properties on graphs with more complicated structures. In this paper, we study the Best-of-two and the Best-of-three on the stochastic block model $G(2n,p,q)$, which is a random graph consisting of two distinct Erdős-Renyi graphs $G(n,p)$ joined by random edges with density $q\leq p$. We obtain two main results. First, if $p=\omega(\log n/n)$ and $r=q/p$ is a constant, we show that there is a phase transition in $r$ with threshold $r^*$ (specifically, $r^*=\sqrt{5}-2$ for the Best-of-two, and $r^*=1/7$ for the Best-of-three). If $r>r^*$, the process reaches consensus within $O(\log \log n+\log n/\log (np))$ steps for any initial opinion configuration with a bias of $\Omega(n)$. By contrast, if $r r^*$, we show that, for any initial opinion configuration, the process reaches consensus within $O(\log n)$ steps. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first result concerning multiple-choice voting for arbitrary initial opinion configurations on non-complete graphs.

A graph Γ is called a bi-circulant if it admits a cyclic group as a group of automorphisms acting semiregularly on the vertices of Γ with two orbits. The characterization of tetravalent edgetransitive bi-circulants was given in several recent papers. In this paper, a classification is given of connected tetravalent vertex-transitive bi-circulants of order twice an odd integer.

Bidimensionality Theory was introduced by [E.D. Demaine, F.V. Fomin, M.Hajiaghayi, and D.M. Thilikos. Subexponential parameterized algorithms on graphs of bounded genus and H-minor-free graphs, J. ACM, 52 (2005), pp.866--893] as a tool to obtain sub-exponential time parameterized algorithms on H-minor-free graphs. In [E.D. Demaine and M.Hajiaghayi, Bidimensionality: new connections between FPT algorithms and PTASs, in Proceedings of the 16th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms (SODA), SIAM, 2005, pp.590--601] this theory was extended in order to obtain polynomial time approximation schemes (PTASs) for bidimensional problems. In this work, we establish a third meta-algorithmic direction for bidimensionality theory by relating it to the existence of linear kernels for parameterized problems. In particular, we prove that every minor (respectively contraction) bidimensional problem that satisfies a separation property and is expressible in Countable Monadic Second Order Logic (CMSO), admits a linear kernel for classes of graphs that exclude a fixed graph (respectively an apex graph) H as a minor. Our results imply that a multitude of bidimensional problems g graph classes. For most of these problems no polynomial kernels on H-minor-free graphs were known prior to our work., Comment: An an earlier version of this paper appeared in SODA 2010. That paper contained preliminary versions of some of the results of this paper

Let G be a graph with vertex set V(G), edge set E(G) and maximum degree Δ respectively. G is called degree-magic if it admits a labelling of the edges by integers {1, 2, …, |E(G)|} such that for any vertex v the sum of the labels of the edges incident with v is equal to $${{1 + \left| {E(G)} \right|} \over 2} \cdot d(v)$$ , where d(v) is the degree of v. Let f be a proper edge coloring of G such that for each vertex v ∈ V(G), |{e : e ∈ Ev, f(e) ≤ Δ/2}| = |{e : e ∈ Ev, f(e) > Δ/2}|, and such an f is called a balanced edge coloring of G. In this paper, we show that if G is a supermagic even graph with a balanced edge coloring and m ≥ 1, then (2m + 1)G is a supermagic graph. If G is a d-magic even graph with a balanced edge coloring and n ≥ 2, then nG is a d-magic graph. Results in this paper generalise some known results.

Associated to a presentable $\infty$-category $\mathcal{C}$ and an object $X \in \mathcal{C}$ is the tangent $\infty$-category $\mathcal{T}_X\mathcal{C}$, consisting of parameterized spectrum objects over $X$. This gives rise to a cohomology theory, called Quillen cohomology, whose category of coefficients is $\mathcal{T}_X\mathcal{C}$. When $\mathcal{C}$ consists of algebras over a nice $\infty$-operad in a stable $\infty$-category, $\mathcal{T}_X\mathcal{C}$ is equivalent to the $\infty$-category of operadic modules, by work of Basterra--Mandell, Schwede and Lurie. In this paper we develop the model-categorical counterpart of this identification and extend it to the case of algebras over an enriched operad, taking values in a model category which is not necessarily stable. This extended comparison can be used, for example, to identify the cotangent complex of enriched categories, an application we take up in a subsequent paper., Comment: The section concerning stabilization of model categories was separated into an independent paper, appearing now as arXiv:1802.08031

The paper studies the connectivity properties of facet graphs of simplicial complexes of combinatorial interest. In particular, it is shown that the facet graphs of d-cycles, d-hypertrees and d-hypercuts are, respectively, (d +1)-, d-and (n − d − 1)-vertex-connected. It is also shown that the facet graph of a d-cycle cannot be split into more than s connected components by removing at most s vertices. In addition, the paper discusses various related issues, as well as an extension to cell-complexes.

A uniform attachment graph (with parameter $k$), denoted $G_{n,k}$ in the paper, is a random graph on the vertex set $[n]$, where each vertex $v$ makes $k$ selections from $[v-1]$ uniformly and independently, and these selections determine the edge set. We study several aspects of this graph. Our motivation comes from two similarly constructed, well-studied random graphs: $k$-out graphs and preferential attachment graphs. In this paper, we find the asymptotic distribution of its minimum degree and connectivity, and study the expansion properties of $G_{n,k}$ to show that the conductance of $G_{n,k}$ is of order $(\log n)^{-1}$. We also study the bootstrap percolation on $G_{n,k}$, where, each vertex is either initially infected with probability $p$, independently of others, or gets infected later as a result of having $r$ infected neighbors at some point. We show that, for $2\le r\le k-1$, if $p\ll (\log n)^{-r/(r-1)}$, then, with probability approaching 1, the process ends before all vertices get infected. On the other hand, if $p\ge \omega(\log n)^{-r/(r-1)}$, where $\omega$ is a certain very slowly growing function, then all the vertices get infected with probability approaching 1.

Let P be a Borel probability measure on ℝ generated by an infinite system of similarity mappings {Sj : j ∈ ℕ} such that $$P=\Sigma_{j=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{2^{j}}P\circ{S}_j^{-1}$$ , where for each j ∈ ℕ and x ∈ ℝ, $$S_j(x)=\frac{1}{3^j}x+1-\frac{1}{3^{j-1}}$$ . Then, the support of P is the dyadic Cantor set C generated by the similarity mappings f1, f2 : ℝ → ℝ such that f1(x) = 1/3x and f2(x) = 1/3x+ 2/3 for all x ∈ ℝ. In this paper, using the infinite system of similarity mappings {Sj : j ∈ ℕ} associated with the probability vector $$(\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{{{2^2}}},...)$$ , for all n ∈ ℕ, we determine the optimal sets of n-means and the nth quantization errors for the infinite self-similar measure P. The technique obtained in this paper can be utilized to determine the optimal sets of n-means and the nth quantization errors for more general infinite self-similar measures.

In [BGLM] and [GLNP] it was conjectured that if $H$ is a simple Lie group of real rank at least 2, then the number of conjugacy classes of (arithmetic) lattices in $H$ of covolume at most $x$ is $x^{(\gamma(H)+o(1))\log x/\log\log x}$ where $\gamma(H)$ is an explicit constant computable from the (absolute) root system of $H$. In [BLu] we disproved this conjecture. In this paper we prove that for most groups $H$ the conjecture is actually true if we restrict to counting only non-uniform lattices., Comment: 23 pages, revised following referee's comments. Dedicated to Aner Shalev on his 60th birthday. This paper is related to our previous work arXiv:0905.1841 with which it shares some preliminaries

Recent studies of [Formula: see text]-groups of coclass [Formula: see text] concentrate on the coclass graph [Formula: see text]. While the detailed structure of [Formula: see text] is unknown, it is known that its general structure is dominated by the subgraph of ‘skeleton groups’. The original definition of these groups is technical, but some modifications for special cases have been used successfully in the literature. Given their importance, in this paper we define and investigate skeleton groups more rigorously. In particular, we study their isomorphism problem, which is a crucial step towards understanding the skeleton subgraph of [Formula: see text]. During our work we identified erroneous arguments for constructing isomorphisms in a proof of the 2013 paper on [Formula: see text]. We correct these errors here by proving the required results in a more general context.

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 $n$, $P(n,n)= 3n/2$.

A $(\beta,\epsilon)$-hopset for a weighted undirected $n$-vertex graph $G=(V,E)$ is a set of edges, whose addition to the graph guarantees that every pair of vertices has a path between them that contains at most $\beta$ edges, whose length is within $1+\epsilon$ of the shortest path. In her seminal paper, Cohen \cite[JACM 2000]{C00} introduced the notion of hopsets in the context of parallel computation of approximate shortest paths, and since then it has found numerous applications in various other settings, such as dynamic graph algorithms, distributed computing, and the streaming model. Cohen \cite{C00} devised efficient algorithms for constructing hopsets with {\em polylogarithmic} in $n$ number of hops. Her constructions remain the state-of-the--art since the publication of her paper in STOC'94, i.e., for more than two decades. In this paper we exhibit the first construction of sparse hopsets with a {\em constant number of hops}. We also find efficient algorithms for hopsets in various computational settings, improving the best known constructions. Generally, our hopsets strictly outperform the hopsets of \cite{C00}, both in terms of their parameters, and in terms of the resources required to construct them. We demonstrate the applicability of our results for the fundamental problem of computing approximate shortest paths from $s$ sources. Our results improve the running time for this problem in the parallel, distributed and streaming models, for a vast range of $s$.

In 1998, R. Downey in his review paper outlined a research agenda for the study and description of sufficient conditions for computable representability of linear orderings, namely, the problem of describing order properties P such that, for any low linear ordering Limplies that, the feasibility of the condition P(L) implies that L has a computable presentation. This paper is a part of the research program initiated by R. Downey. It is shown in the paper that any low linear ordering whose factor order (in other words, condensation) is η (the order type of naturally ordered natural numbers) has a computable presentation via a 0—computable isomorphism if this ordering does not contain a strongly η-like infinite interval. A countable linear ordering is said to be strongly η-like if there exists some natural number k such that each maximal block of the ordering is of cardinality no more than k. It is also proved that the above result does not hold for a 0—computable isomorphism instead of the 0—computable one. Namely, we construct a low linear ordering L with condensation η and without strongly η-like infinite interval so that L has no computable presentation via a 0— computable isomorphism.

This paper considers an edge minimization problem in saturated bipartite graphs. An $n$ by $n$ bipartite graph $G$ is $H$-saturated if $G$ does not contain a subgraph isomorphic to $H$ but adding any missing edge to $G$ creates a copy of $H$. More than half a century ago, Wessel and Bollob\'as independently solved the problem of minimizing the number of edges in $K_{(s,t)}$-saturated graphs, where $K_{(s,t)}$ is the `ordered' complete bipartite graph with $s$ vertices from the first color class and $t$ from the second. However, the very natural `unordered' analogue of this problem was considered only half a decade ago by Moshkovitz and Shapira. When $s=t$, it can be easily checked that the unordered variant is exactly the same as the ordered case. Later, Gan, Kor\'andi, and Sudakov gave an asymptotically tight bound on the minimum number of edges in $K_{s,t}$-saturated $n$ by $n$ bipartite graphs, which is only smaller than the conjecture of Moshkovitz and Shapira by an additive constant. In this paper, we confirm their conjecture for $s=t-1$ with the classification of the extremal graphs. We also improve the estimates of Gan, Kor\'andi, and Sudakov for general $s$ and $t$, and for all sufficiently large $n$., Comment: Reflected minor suggestions from reviewers

In this paper we introduce a general framework for the study of limits of relational structures in general and graphs in particular, which is based on a combination of model theory and (functional) analysis. We show how the various approaches to graph limits fit to this framework and that they naturally appear as "tractable cases" of a general theory. As an outcome of this, we provide extensions of known results. We believe that this put these into next context and perspective. For example, we prove that the sparse--dense dichotomy exactly corresponds to random free graphons. The second part of the paper is devoted to the study of sparse structures. First, we consider limits of structures with bounded diameter connected components and we prove that in this case the convergence can be "almost" studied component-wise. We also propose the structure of limits objects for convergent sequences of sparse structures. Eventually, we consider the specific case of limits of colored rooted trees with bounded height and of graphs with bounded tree-depth, motivated by their role of elementary brick these graphs play in decompositions of sparse graphs, and give an explicit construction of a limit object in this case. This limit object is a graph built on a standard probability space with the property that every first-order definable set of tuples is measurable. This is an example of the general concept of {\em modeling} we introduce here. Our example is also the first "intermediate class" with explicitly defined limit structures., Comment: added journal reference

Given a graph $G$, a probability measure $\mu$ on the subsets of the edge set of $G$ is said to be $1$-independent if events determined by edge sets that are at graph distance at least $1$ apart in $G$ are independent. Call such a probability measure a $1$-ipm on $G$, and denote by $\mathbf{G}_{\mu}$ the associated random spanning subgraph of $G$. Let $\mathcal{M}_{1,\geqslant p}(G)$ (resp. $\mathcal{M}_{1,\leqslant p}(G)$) denote the collection of $1$-ipms $\mu$ on $G$ for which each edge is included in $\mathbf{G}_{\mu}$ with probability at least $p$ (resp. at most $p$). Let $\mathbb{Z}^2$ denote the square integer lattice. Balister and Bollob\'as raised the question of determining the critical value $p_{\star}=p_{1,c}(\mathbb{Z}^2)$ such that for all $p>p_{\star}$ and all $\mu \in \mathcal{M}_{1,\geqslant p}(\mathbb{Z}^2)$, $\left(\mathbf{\mathbb{Z}^2}\right)_{\mu}$ almost surely contains an infinite component. This can be thought of as asking for a $1$-independent analogue of the celebrated Harris--Kesten theorem. In this paper we investigate both this problem and connectivity problems for $1$-ipms more generally. We give two lower bounds on $p_{\star}$ that significantly improve on the previous bounds. Furthermore, motivated by the Russo--Seymour--Welsh lemmas, we define a $1$-independent critical probability for long paths and determine its value for the line and ladder lattices. Finally, for finite graphs $G$ we study $f_{1,G}(p)$ (respectively $F_{1,G}(p)$), the infimum (resp. supremum) over all $\mu\in \mathcal{M}_{1,\geqslant p}(G)$ (resp. all $\mu \in \mathcal{M}_{1,\leqslant p}(G)$) of the probability that $\mathbf{G}_{\mu}$ is connected. We determine $f_{1,G}(p)$ and $F_{1,G}(p)$ exactly when $G$ is a path, a complete graph and a cycle of length at most $5$. Many new problems arise from our work, which are discussed in the final section of the paper., Comment: 43 pages, 3 figures

A Shilla graph is defined as a distance-regular graph of diameter 3 with second eigen-value θ1 equal to a3. For a Shilla graph, let us put a = a3 and b = k/a. It is proved in this paper that a Shilla graph with b2 = c2 and noninteger eigenvalues has the following intersection array: $$\left\{ {\frac{{{b^2}\left( {b - 1} \right)}}{2},\frac{{\left( {b - 1} \right)\left( {{b^2} - b + 2} \right)}}{2},\frac{{b\left( {b - 1} \right)}}{4};1,\frac{{b\left( {b - 1} \right)}}{4},\frac{{b{{\left( {b - 1} \right)}^2}}}{2}} \right\}$$ If Γ is a Q-polynomial Shilla graph with b2 = c2 and b = 2r, then the graph Γ has intersection array $$\left\{ {2tr\left( {2r + 1} \right),\left( {2r + 1} \right)\left( {2rt + t + 1} \right),r\left( {r + t} \right);1,r\left( {r + t} \right),t\left( {4{r^2} - 1} \right)} \right\}$$ and, for any vertex u in Γ, the subgraph Γ3(u) is an antipodal distance-regular graph with intersection array $$\left\{ {t\left( {2r + 1} \right),\left( {2r - 1} \right)\left( {t + 1} \right),1;1,t + 1,t\left( {2r + 1} \right)} \right\}$$ The Shilla graphs with b2 = c2 and b = 4 are also classified in the paper.

The theme of this paper is the analysis of bootstrap percolation processes on random graphs generated by preferential attachment. This is a class of infection processes where vertices have two states: they are either infected or susceptible. At each round every susceptible vertex which has at least $r\geq 2$ infected neighbours becomes infected and remains so forever. Assume that initially $a(t)$ vertices are randomly infected, where $t$ is the total number of vertices of the graph. Suppose also that $r < m$, where $2m$ is the average degree. We determine a critical function $a_c(t)$ such that when $a(t) \gg a_c(t)$, complete infection occurs with high probability as $t \rightarrow \infty$, but when $a(t) \ll a_c (t)$, then with high probability the process evolves only for a bounded number of rounds and the final set of infected vertices is asymptotically equal to $a(t)$., This paper is significantly different to the previous version

For a sequence of integers $\{a(x)\}_{x \geq 1}$ we show that the distribution of the pair correlations of the fractional parts of $\{ \langle \alpha a(x) \rangle \}_{x \geq 1}$ is asymptotically Poissonian for almost all $\alpha$ if the additive energy of truncations of the sequence has a power savings improvement over the trivial estimate. Furthermore, we give an estimate for the Hausdorff dimension of the exceptional set as a function of the density of the sequence and the power savings in the energy estimate. A consequence of these results is that the Hausdorff dimension of the set of $\alpha$ such that $\{\langle \alpha x^d \rangle\}$ fails to have Poissonian pair correlation is at most $\frac{d+2}{d+3} < 1$. This strengthens a result of Rudnick and Sarnak which states that the exceptional set has zero Lebesgue measure. On the other hand, classical examples imply that the exceptional set has Hausdorff dimension at least $\frac{2}{d+1}$. An appendix by Jean Bourgain was added after the first version of this paper was written. In this appendix two problems raised in the paper are solved., Comment: 22 pages. Version 2 contains an appendix by Jean Bourgain. Version 3 with corrections suggested by the referee. The paper will be published in the Israel Journal of Mathematics

Let G be a graph of order n . A subset S of V ( G ) is a dominating set of G if every vertex in V ( G ) ⧹ S is adjacent to at least one vertex of S . The domination polynomial of G is the polynomial D ( G , x ) = ∑ i = γ ( G ) n d ( G , i ) x i , where d ( G , i ) is the number of dominating sets of G of size i , and γ ( G ) is the size of a smallest dominating set of G , called the domination number of G . We say two graphs G and H are dominating equivalent if D ( G , x ) = D ( H , x ) . A graph G is said to be dominating unique , or simply D -unique, if D ( H , x ) = D ( G , x ) implies that H ≅ G . The goal of this paper is to find a new approach to determine the dominating uniqueness of graphs. In this paper, we define a new graph polynomial, called star polynomial, and introduced an analogy notion of star uniqueness of graphs. As an application, if G is a graph without isolated vertices, we show that a graph G is star unique if and only if G ‾ ∨ K m is dominating unique for each m ⩾ 0 . As a by-product, the dominating uniqueness of many families of dense graphs is also determined.

In 1874, Franz Mertens proved the so-called Mertens’ theorem, and in 1974, Kenneth S. Williams showed Mertens’ theorem associated with a character. In a previous paper, we presented a graph-theoretic analogue to Williams’ theorem. In this paper, we generalize our previous work in the sense that a character is extended to a representation. To our knowledge, a number-theoretic analogue to our result is not yet known. So, we expect that, by using our methods, it can be proven in the future.

In this paper, we examine embeddings of alternating and symmetric groups into almost simple groups of exceptional type. In particular, we prove that if the alternating or symmetric group has degree equal to 5, or 8 or more, then it cannot appear as the maximal subgroup of any almost simple exceptional group of Lie type. Furthermore, in the remaining open cases of degrees 6 and 7 we give considerable information about the possible embeddings. Note that no maximal alternating or symmetric subgroups are known in the remaining cases. This is the first in a sequence of papers aiming to substantially improve the state of knowledge about the maximal subgroups of exceptional groups of Lie type.

The aim of the paper is to present the binomial transformation formulae of Fibonacci numbers scaled by complex multipliers. Many of these new and nontrivial relations follow from the fundamental properties of the so-called delta-Fibonacci numbers defined by Wituła and Słota. The paper contains some original relations connecting the values of delta-Fibonacci numbers with the respective values of Chebyshev polynomials of the first and second kind.

This paper studies a higher dimensional generalization of Frieze's $\zeta(3)$-limit theorem in the Erd\"os-R\'enyi graph process. Frieze's theorem states that the expected weight of the minimum spanning tree converges to $\zeta(3)$ as the number of vertices goes to infinity. In this paper, we study the $d$-Linial-Meshulam process as a model for random simplicial complexes, where $d=1$ corresponds to the Erd\"os-R\'enyi graph process. First, we define spanning acycles as a higher dimensional analogue of spanning trees, and connect its minimum weight to persistent homology. Then, our main result shows that the expected weight of the minimum spanning acycle behaves in $O(n^{d-1})$., Comment: 24 pages

The k-core, defined as the maximal subgraph of minimum degree at least k, of the random graph G(n,p) has been studied extensively. In a landmark paper Pittel, Wormald and Spencer [J Combin Theory Ser B 67 (1996), 111–151] determined the threshold dk for the appearance of an extensive k-core. The aim of the present paper is to describe how the k-core is “embedded” into the random graph in the following sense. Let k≥3 and fix d=np>dk. Colour each vertex that belongs to the k-core of G(n,p) in black and all remaining vertices in white. Here we derive a multi-type branching process that describes the local structure of this coloured random object as n tends to infinity. This generalises prior results on, e.g., the internal structure of the k-core. In the physics literature it was suggested to characterize the core by means of a message passing algorithm called Warning Propagation. Ibrahimi, Kanoria, Kraning and Montanari [Ann Appl Probab 25 (2015), 2743–2808] used this characterization to describe the 2-core of random hypergraphs. To derive our main result we use a similar approach. A key observation is that a bounded number of iterations of this algorithm is enough to give a good approximation of the k-core. Based on this the study of the k-core reduces to the analysis of Warning Propagation on a suitable Galton-Watson tree. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 00, 000–000, 2017

Let D ∈ ℤ and let C D be the set of all monic cubic polynomials x 3 + ax 2 + bx + c ∈ ℤ[x] with the discriminant equal to D. Along the line of our preceding papers, the following Theorem has been proved: If D is square-free and 3 ∤ h(−3D) where h(−3D) is the class number of Q ( − 3 D ) , $\mathbb Q(\sqrt {-3D}),$ then all polynomials in C D have the same type of factorization over the Galois field 𝔽 p where p is a prime, p > 3. In this paper, we prove the validity of the above implication also for primes 2 and 3.

The study of the global structure of ultrafilters on the natural numbers with respect to the quasi-orders of Rudin-Keisler and Rudin-Blass reducibility was initiated in the 1970s by Blass, Keisler, Kunen, and Rudin. In a 1973 paper Blass studied the special class of P-points under the quasi-ordering of Rudin-Keisler reducibility. He asked what partially ordered sets can be embedded into the P-points when the P-points are equipped with this ordering. This question is of most interest under some hypothesis that guarantees the existence of many P-points, such as Martin’s axiom for σ \sigma -centered posets. In his 1973 paper he showed under this assumption that both ω 1 {\omega }_{1} and the reals can be embedded. Analogous results were obtained later for the coarser notion of Tukey reducibility. We prove in this paper that Martin’s axiom for σ \sigma -centered posets implies that the Boolean algebra P ( ω ) / FIN \mathcal {P}(\omega ) / \operatorname {FIN} equipped with its natural partial order can be embedded into the P-points both under Rudin-Keisler and Tukey reducibility. Consequently, the continuum hypothesis implies that every partial order of size at most continuum embeds into the P-points under both notions of reducibility.

This paper continues a recent resurgence of interest in combinatorial properties of a poset that are associated with graph properties of its cover graph and order diagram. The following two theorems appearing in a 1977 paper of Trotter and Moore have played important roles in motivating this more modern research: (1) The dimension of a poset is at most 3 when its cover graph is at tree; (2) The dimension of a poset is at most 3 when the poset has a zero and its order diagram is planar. Although the underlying ideas lay dormant for more than 30 years, the first of these two results has become the base case for recent results bounding the dimension of a poset in terms of (a) the tree-width of its cover graph, and (b) the maximum dimension of its blocks. The second result is the base case for bounding the dimension of a planar poset in terms of the number of minimal elements. Continuing with this line of research, we show that every poset whose cover graph is a tree is a circle order, i.e., it has a representation as a family of circular disks in the Euclidean plane partially ordered by inclusion.

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

Suppose $R$ is an associative ring with identity 1. In this paper, We give the necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and explicit representations of the group inverses of the following two classes block matrices. (i) $M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}AX+YBA (ii) $M=\left(\begin{array}{cc}A&B\\C&D\end{array}\right)$, where $A^{\sharp}$ exists, $A^{\pi}B=0$ and $(D-CA^{\sharp}B)^{\sharp}$ exists.\\ The paper's results generalize some relative results of Li et al. (J. Harbin Engineering Univ., 34, 658-661, 2013), Cao et al. (Appl. Math. Comput., 217, 10271-10277, 2011), Bu et al. (Appl. Math. Comput., 215, 132-139, 2009), Deng et al. (Linear Algebra Appl, 435, 2766-2783, 2011), and Liu et al. (J. Appl. Math. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155 /2013/247028). Some examples are given to illustrate our results.

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, ...

In this paper we introduce a counterpart structure to the shamrocks studied in the paper A dual of Macmahon's theorem on plane partitions by M. Ciucu and C. Krattenthaler (2013) [5] , which, just like the latter, can be included at the center of a lattice hexagon on the triangular lattice so that the region obtained from the hexagon by removing it has its number of lozenge tilings given by a simple product formula. The new structure, called a fern, consists of an arbitrary number of equilateral triangles of alternating orientations lined up along a lattice line. The shamrock and the fern seem to be the only such connected structures with this property. It would be interesting to understand the reason for this.

We consider consecutive random subdivision of polygons described as follows. Given an initial convex polygon with $d\ge 3$ edges, we choose a point at random on each edge, such that the proportions in which these points divide edges are i.i.d. copies of some random variable $\xi$. These new points form a new (smaller) polygon. By repeatedly implementing this procedure we obtain a sequence of random polygons. The aim of this paper is to show that under very mild non-degenerateness conditions on $\xi$, the shapes of these polygons eventually become "flat" The convergence rate to flatness is also investigated; in particular, in the case of triangles ($d=3$), we show how to calculate the exact value of the rate of convergence, connected to Lyapunov exponents. Using the theory of products of random matrices our paper greatly generalizes the results of Volkov (2013) which are achieved mostly by using ad hoc methods., Comment: 35 pages, 2 figures

This paper counts the number of reduced quasigroup words of a particular length in a certain number of generators. Taking account of the relationship with the Catalan numbers, counting words in a free magma, we introduce the term peri-Catalan number for the free quasigroup word counts. The main result of this paper is an exact recursive formula for the peri-Catalan numbers, structured by the Euclidean Algorithm. The Euclidean Algorithm structure does not readily lend itself to standard techniques of asymptotic analysis. However, conjectures for the asymptotic behavior of the peri-Catalan numbers, substantiated by numerical data, are presented. A remarkable aspect of the observed asymptotic behavior is the so-called asymptotic irrelevance of quasigroup identities, whereby cancelation resulting from quasigroup identities has a negligible effect on the asymptotic behavior of the peri-Catalan numbers for long words in a large number of generators.

For graphs $G$ and $H$, a \emph{homomorphism} from $G$ to $H$ is an edge-preserving mapping from the vertex set of $G$ to the vertex set of $H$. For a fixed graph $H$, by \textsc{Hom($H$)} we denote the computational problem which asks whether a given graph $G$ admits a homomorphism to $H$. If $H$ is a complete graph with $k$ vertices, then \textsc{Hom($H$)} is equivalent to the $k$-\textsc{Coloring} problem, so graph homomorphisms can be seen as generalizations of colorings. It is known that \textsc{Hom($H$)} is polynomial-time solvable if $H$ is bipartite or has a vertex with a loop, and NP-complete otherwise [Hell and Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il, JCTB 1990]. In this paper we are interested in the complexity of the problem, parameterized by the treewidth of the input graph $G$. If $G$ has $n$ vertices and is given along with its tree decomposition of width $\mathrm{tw}(G)$, then the problem can be solved in time $|V(H)|^{\mathrm{tw}(G)} \cdot n^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$, using a straightforward dynamic programming. We explore whether this bound can be improved. We show that if $H$ is a \emph{projective core}, then the existence of such a faster algorithm is unlikely: assuming the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH), the \textsc{Hom($H$)} problem cannot be solved in time $(|V(H)|-\epsilon)^{\mathrm{tw}(G)} \cdot n^{\mathcal{O}(1)}$, for any $\epsilon > 0$. This result provides a full complexity characterization for a large class of graphs $H$, as almost all graphs are projective cores. We also notice that the naive algorithm can be improved for some graphs $H$, and show a complexity classification for all graphs $H$, assuming two conjectures from algebraic graph theory. In particular, there are no known graphs $H$ which are not covered by our result. In order to prove our results, we bring together some tools and techniques from algebra and from fine-grained complexity., Comment: An extended abstract of this paper appeared on SODA 2020

Staircase tableaux are combinatorial objects that were first introduced due to a connection with the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) and Askey-Wilson polynomials. Since their introduction, staircase tableaux have been the object of study in many recent papers. Relevant to this paper, Hitczenko and Janson proved that distribution of parameters on the first diagonal is asymptotically normal. In addition, they conjectured that other diagonals would be asymptotically Poisson. Since then, only the second and the third diagonal were proven to follow the conjecture. This paper builds upon those results to prove the conjecture for the kth diagonal where k is fixed. In particular, we prove that the distribution of the number of α's (β's) on the kth diagonal, k > 1, is asymptotically Poisson with parameter 1/2. In addition, we prove that symbols on the kth diagonal are asymptotically independent and thus, collectively follow the Poisson distribution with parameter 1. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 49, 795–818, 2016

This paper continues the ongoing effort to study the structure of the set of nilpotent elements in noncommutative ring constructions. Let R be any ring, $${(S,\leq)}$$ a strictly (partially) ordered monoid and also $${\omega:S\rightarrow}$$ End(R) a monoid homomorphism. A skew generalized power series ring $${R[[{S,\omega\leq}}]]$$ consists of all functions from a monoid S to a coefficient ring R, whose support contains neither infinite descending chains nor infinite antichains, with pointwise addition, and with multiplication given by convolution twisted by an action $${\omega}$$ of the monoid S on the ring R. Our studies in this paper is strongly connected to the question of whether or not a skew generalized power series ring $${R[[{S,\omega\leq}}]]$$ over a nil coefficient ring R is nil, which is related to the famous question of Amitsur. However, we show that under mild “Armendariz-like” hypothesis on a coefficient ring R, we obtain stronger conditions on the coefficients of elements of a skew generalized power series ring $${R[[{S,\omega\leq}}]]$$ . We will also explore some annihilator conditions in the skew generalized power series ring setting, unifying and generalizing a number of known Armendariz-like and McCoy-like conditions in the special cases.

This is the third in a series of papers in which we prove a conjecture of Boston and Shalev that the proportion of derangements (fixed point free elements) is bounded away from zero for transitive actions of finite simple groups on a set of size greater than one. This paper treats the case of primitive subspace actions. It is also shown that if the dimension and codimension of the subspace go to infinity, then the proportion of derangements goes to one. Similar results are proved for elements in finite classical groups in cosets of the simple group. The results in this paper have applications to probabilistic generation of finite simple groups and maps between varieties over finite fields.

In this paper, an intersective polynomial is a monic polynomial in one variable with rational integer coefficients, with no rational root and having a root modulo m for all positive integers m. Let G be a finite noncyclic group and let r(G) be the smallest number of irreducible factors of an intersective polynomial with Galois group G over \(\mathbb {Q}\). Let s(G) be smallest number of proper subgroups of G having the property that the union of their conjugates is G and the intersection of all their conjugates is trivial. It is known that \(s(G)\le r(G)\). It is also known that if G is realizable as a Galois group over the rationals, then it is also realizable as the Galois group of an intersective polynomial. However it is not known, in general, whether there exists such a polynomial which is a product of the smallest feasible number s(G) of irreducible factors. In this paper, we study the case \(G=S_n\), the symmetric group on n letters. We prove that for every n, either \(r(S_n)=s(S_n)\) or \(r(S_n)=s(S_n)+1\) and that the optimal value \(s(S_n)\) is indeed attained for all odd n and for some even n. Moreover, we compute \(r(S_n)\) when n is the product of at most two odd primes and we give general upper and lower bounds for \(r(S_n)\).