Papers

We announce a series of results on the combinatorial study of the q-Catalan triangle (C_{n,k}(q)), defined by C_{n,0}(q)=q^{n(n-1)/2} and C_{n,k}(q)=C_{n,k-1}(q)+q^{n-k-1}C_{n-1,k}(q). We establish combinatorial interpretations via a universal combinatorial family of seven components: four families of pattern-avoiding permutations weighted by inversion or co-inversion statistics, Dyck paths, binary words and triangulations. We introduce the mirror polynomial C-tilde_{n,k}(q)=q^{n(n-1)/2}C_{n,k}(q^{-1}), prove its dual recurrence and co-inversion interpretation. The q,p-Catalan triangle and a multivariate generalization opening the way to cyclotomic q-analogues are introduced. Theorems on the q-Catalan triangle via 312-avoiding permutations and the mirror recurrence are proved completely here. This is the first paper of series W0-W5 on classical and q-deformed interpretations of the Catalan triangle.

A graph is called $F$-free if it does not contain a copy of $F$. Let $G(r,s)$ denote a $K_{r+1}$-free graph of order $n$ with chromatic number at least $s$ that maximizes the spectral radius. Nikiforov [Linear Algebra Appl., 2007] proved the spectral Turán theorem, which implies that $G(r,s)$ is the $r$-partite Turán graph $T_{n,r}$ for $s\leq r$. Lin, Ning, and Wu [Combin. Probab. Comput., 2021] characterized the unique spectral extremal graph $G(2,3)$. This result was later extended by Li and Peng [SIAM J. Discrete Math., 2023] to all $s=r+1\geq 3$. In this paper, we push the characterization further by determining the unique extremal graph $G(2,4)$ for all sufficiently large $n$. Specifically, we show that $G(2,4)$ is precisely a blow-up of the Grötzsch graph. Interestingly, under the same conditions, $G(2,4)$ also coincides with the unique edge-extremal graph identified by Ren, Wang, Wang, and Yang [arXiv:2404.07486v2].

The Fibonacci cube $\Gamma_n$ is the subgraph of the hypercube $Q_n$ induced by vertices with no consecutive $1$s. Munarini introduced Pell graphs, a variation of Fibonacci cubes defined on ternary strings. A generalization of Pell graphs to $(k+1)$-ary strings has recently been proposed. In this paper we introduce Munarini graphs, which constitute an alternative generalization of Fibonacci cubes and Pell graphs. One of the main advantages of Munarini graphs is that, unlike previously proposed generalization, they are daisy cubes, as are Fibonacci cubes and Pell graphs. In this first article, we study some of their fundamental properties including the size, the recursive structure, the cube and maximal cube polynomials.

Chudnovsky, Cook, Davies, and Oum introduced the notion of Pollyanna graph classes: a class $\mathcal{C}$ is Pollyanna if for every $\chi$-bounded class $\mathcal{F}$, the intersection $\mathcal{C} \cap \mathcal{F}$ is polynomially $\chi$-bounded. They further defined $\mathcal{C}$ to be strongly Pollyanna if it is $k$-strongly Pollyanna for some integer $k$, meaning that $\mathcal{C} \cap \mathcal{F}$ is polynomially $\chi$-bounded for every $k$-good class $\mathcal{F}$. They asked whether there are Pollyanna graph classes that are not strongly Pollyanna. In this note we answer this question affirmatively, under the literal interpretation that graph classes are not required to be hereditary. We construct a class $\mathcal{C}$ that is Pollyanna but, for every $k \ge 1$, is not $k$-strongly Pollyanna; in particular $\mathcal{C}$ is not strongly Pollyanna.

One of the central problems in the topology of hyperplane arrangements is determining whether the complement is a $K(\pi,1)$-space. In this paper, we study Manin–Schechtman arrangements, introduced as higher-dimensional analogs of the braid arrangement, and prove that their complements have non-vanishing higher homotopy groups. Consequently, these arrangements fail to be $K(\pi,1)$ in a broad range of cases.

We study three nonmonotone coupon-collector models through a stationary-entry viewpoint. In such models the all-present state is not absorbing, so completion is governed not by the disappearance of a monotone terminal cloud but by rare new entries into a target state, except in the reset-button model, where exact regeneration gives a separate reduction. We prove a finite stationary-entry theorem: a mixing estimate, a one-block clump-control estimate, and the stationary entry flux imply an exponential hitting law. For the reset-button collector, regeneration gives an exact probability-generating function in terms of the ordinary coupon-collector transform and recovers the known beta-function expectation, while also yielding rare-success exponential limits and negligible-reset Gumbel limits. For the clumsy collector with fixed loss probability $p$ and $q=1-p$, the stationary-entry flux is $p q^n$, and $p q^n T_n$ converges to $\operatorname{Exp}(1)$. Thus the fixed-loss standardized limit is exponential rather than Gumbel. For the post-loss careless collector, we compute the sharp stationary-entry flux $$ \mu_n\sim (q;q)_\infty^{-1}\frac{n!}{n^n}q^{n(n+1)/2} $$ and prove $\mu_nT_n\Rightarrow\operatorname{Exp}(1)$, with matching moment asymptotics. This shows that the careless scale is governed by a stationary high tail, or ordered lucky climb, rather than by the independent one-point marginal heuristic. We also analyze a combined clumsy-careless model, confirming stability of the high-tail entry mechanism.

In this paper, we introduce the Laplacian and the signless Laplacian for the eccentricity matrix of a connected graph, referred to as the eccentricity Laplacian and the eccentricity signless Laplacian, respectively. We establish the equivalence among the eccentricity Laplacian, eccentricity signless Laplacian, and eccentricity spectrum for different classes of graphs. We provide spectral characterization of $\mathcal{E}$-bipartite graphs by the symmetry of $\mathcal{E}$-spectrum and the similarity of these Laplacian matrices.

In the early 1920s, Hardy and Littlewood considered the number of integer points in the right-angled triangles with irrational inclines of the diagonal. We extend their results to higher dimensions.

For an $n$-element matroid $M$ given by an $n \times n$ matrix representation over a finite field $\mathbb F$ and an integer $k$, we present an algorithm with running time $O_{k,\mathbb F}(n^2)+O(n^\omega)$ that either finds a branch-decomposition of $M$ of width at most $k$, or confirms that the branch-width of $M$ is more than $k$, where $\omega < 2.3714$ is the matrix multiplication exponent, and the $O_{k,\mathbb F}(\cdot)$-notation hides factors that depend on $k$ and $\mathbb F$ in a computable manner. All previous algorithms, including Hliněný and Oum [SIAM J. Comput. (2008)] and Jeong, Kim, and Oum [SIAM J. Discrete Math. (2021)], have cubic-time bottlenecks. Moreover, if the input matrix representation is given in standard form, our algorithm runs in $O_{k,\mathbb F}(n^2)$ time, since $O(n^\omega)$ time is only needed for finding a standard form of the input matrix. When $M$ is given by an $m \times n$ matrix, the overhead for finding a standard form is $O(mn \min(m,n)^{\omega-2})$. As corollaries, we obtain faster algorithms for rank-width of directed graphs and path-width of matroids represented over a fixed finite field. Furthermore, we also present an approximation algorithm for finding branch-width that works on infinite fields provided that the input matrix is in standard form and contains a bounded number of distinct values of entries. To suggest that our algorithm is optimal, we observe that for every field $\mathbb F$, deciding whether the branch-width of a matroid represented over $\mathbb F$ is $0$ is as hard as deciding whether a square matrix over $\mathbb F$ is singular. Under the assumption that singularity testing requires $\Omega(n^\omega)$-time, this implies that the overhead of $O(n^{\omega})$ is unavoidable. We also show strengthenings of this observation to rule out some approximations under this assumption.

In this study, we obtain the following two families of circulant graphs each has Type-2 isomorphic circulant graphs w.r.t. $m$ such that $m$ has more than one value. (i) Family of circulant graphs $C_{432}(R)$, each has isomorphic circulant graphs of Type-2 w.r.t. $m$ = 2 as well as $m$ = 3; and (ii) Family of circulant graphs $C_{6750}(S)$, each has isomorphic circulant graphs of Type-2 w.r.t. $m$ = 3 as well as $m$ = 5. This study is the $8^{th}$ part of a detailed study on Type-2 isomorphic circulant graphs having ten parts \cite{v2-1}-\cite{v2-10}.

In this paper, we find several determinants expressing the Fibonomial coefficients. We also give the generating functions, Vandermonde identity, and continued fractions about Fibonomial coefficients.

We consider a subtraction Nim with subtraction set {s_1,s_2,s_3={2,4n,4n+2}, where n is a positive integer such that n >= 3. We do not treat the case that n=1 or n=2 in this article. We show that this game satisfies the reverse-mex property of Grundy numbers, i.e., G(x)=mex{G(x+s_1), G(x+s_2), G(x+s_3)}, where the mex is taken over successors rather than predecessors. We modify the rule of this subtraction Nim to allow a one-time pass, that is, a passing move usable at most once during the game, unavailable from terminal positions; once used by either player, it becomes unavailable. In classical Nim, the introduction of a pass move complicates the game, and finding a formula that describes the set of P-positions in traditional three-pile Nim with a pass remains an important open question. In the case of subtraction Nim with a pass, however, the introduction of a pass move does not complicate the game. We prove that this game still satisfies the reverse-mex property of Grundy numbers when a pass move is available.

A graceful labeling of a graph $G$ is an injective function $f : V(G) \to \{0, \ldots, |E(G)|\}$ such that $\{\,|f(u)-f(v)| : uv \in E(G)\,\} = \{1, \ldots, |E(G)|\}$. If such a labeling exists, then we call $G$ graceful. Introduced by Rosa in 1967, graceful labeling has been widely studied, and the Graceful Tree Conjecture asserts that every tree is graceful. The conjecture is known to hold for several classes of trees, including caterpillars, trees with at most four leaves, trees of diameter at most five, and certain spiders. An important subclass is that of \emph{$\alpha$-labelings}, where a graceful labeling $f$ admits an integer $\alpha$ such that each edge joins a vertex with label at most $\alpha$ to one with label greater than $\alpha$. A result from 1982 by Huang, Kotzig, and Rosa shows that if $H$ has an $\alpha$-labeling with a vertex $u$ labeled $0$ or $\alpha$, and $G$ has a graceful labeling with a vertex $v$ labeled $0$, then identifying $u$ and $v$ yields a graceful graph, though this requires a $0$-labeled vertex in $G$. We prove a related result that relaxes this condition: if $G$ has a graceful labeling $f$ such that $f(u)+\lfloor n/2 \rfloor + 1 \le n$ and $n \not\equiv 1 \pmod{4}$, where $u\in V(G)$ and $n\ge 2$ is an integer, then joining $u$ to an end vertex of the vertex-disjoint $n$-vertex path $P_n$ yields a graceful graph. As an application, we show that any spider with legs $L_1,\ldots,L_s$ ($s \ge 1$) satisfying $|E(L_{2})| \ge 2|E(L_1)|+ 4$ and $|E(L_{i+1})| \ge 2|E(L_i)|+ 2$ for $i \in \{2,\ldots, s-1\}$ is graceful. Furthermore, we give an explicit graceful labeling for spiders with one leg of arbitrary length and all others of length at most two such that the center is labeled by $0$. This labeling enables the construction of larger graceful spiders by attaching paths at the center.

A set $\mathcal{G}$ of integers is called a $g$-Golomb ruler of length $n$ if the difference between any two distinct elements of $\mathcal{G}$ is repeated at most $g$ times. If $g=1$, these are also called $B_2$-sets, Sidon sets, and Babcock sets. We define $G(g,n)$ to represent the minimum diameter of a $g$-Golomb Ruler. In this paper, we prove that for all $b\ge 1$, if $g \ge \frac{7}{4}\left(b^{3/2} -b\right)+1,$ then $G(g,g+b)=g+2b-2$. Sharper bounds are given for $b\le 18$. The main technique is through an arithmetic property of the integers that are not in a $g$-Golomb ruler, leading us to introduce LM rulers, a new class of rulers where every distance $d$ occurs as a difference at most $d-1$ times. We show that the minimum diameter of an $n$-element LM ruler $L(n)$ is $\sqrt{8/9} \cdot (n-1)^{3/2} \le L(n) \le \frac{7}{4}\left((n+1)^{3/2}-(n+1)\right).$

For the OEIS sequence A032123, the number of length-$2n$ black-and-white strings with $n$ black beads, considered up to reversal, R. J. Mathar contributed in November 2013 the conjectured order-5 P-recursive recurrence \[ \begin{aligned} &n(n-1)\,a(n) - 2(n-1)(3n-4)\,a(n-1) + 4(2n^{2}-14n+19)\,a(n-2) &\qquad + 8(n^{2}+5n-19)\,a(n-3) - 16(n-3)(3n-10)\,a(n-4) &\qquad + 32(n-4)(2n-9)\,a(n-5) \;=\; 0, \qquad n \ge 6. \end{aligned} \] We give a short proof. Burnside's lemma applied to the reversal action gives the closed form $a(n) = \tfrac{1}{2}\bigl(\binom{2n}{n} + [n \text{ even}]\binom{n}{n/2}\bigr)$; the two summands satisfy elementary recurrences of order $1$ and $2$ respectively; and Mathar's order-5 operator, applied to each summand separately, reduces to a polynomial identity that simplifies to zero after a brief calculation. The supplementary archive includes a SymPy script which verifies the polynomial identities symbolically and checks Mathar's recurrence numerically for $n = 6, \ldots, 5000$.

A minimal counterexample to the Erdős-Gyárfás conjecture is a graph of minimum possible order and size with minimum degree at least 3 that contains no cycle whose length is a power of 2. Markström observed that any such graph must contain an independent set of vertices of degree at least 4 together with a nonempty set of vertices of degree exactly 3. As an immediate consequence, every regular minimal counterexample must be cubic. Building on this structure, two additional consequences are derived. First, every vertex of a minimal counterexample is adjacent to a vertex of degree exactly 3. Second, at least 4/7 of the vertices of any minimal counterexample must have degree exactly 3.

We describe a general method for constructing representations of finite integral symmetric relation algebras from distance-regular graphs. Given a distance-regular graph of diameter $d$, the distances between vertices induces a coloring of the complete graph with $d$ colors, and we show that this coloring yields a representation of finite integral symmetric relation algebra on $d+1$ atoms. We then introduce a necessary and sufficient condition for when such a representation is algebraic, proving that this occurs if and only if the distance-regular graph is also distance-transitive. We study the diameter-3 case of this method in detail, and we express a condition for the representation's mandatory cycles in terms of the distance-regular graph's intersection array. We apply this result to give a positive answer to an open question of Roger Maddux; namely, whether the relation algebra $30_{65}$ has a representation on a finite set. The representation is given on 42 points, and arises from the second subconstituent of the Hoffman-Singleton graph. We further use this method to describe an infinite class of finite representations of $26_{65}$ and the smallest possible representation of $31_{65}$.

Using a probabilistic approach, we derive some interesting combinatorial identities involving gamma and beta functions. These results generalize certain well-known combinatorial identities involving binomial coefficients and special functions. In particular, by studying moments of the difference of two gamma and beta random variables, both in the dependent and independent cases, we obtain new combinatorial identities. This approach provides a systematic method to derive further combinatorial identities from probabilistic transformations.

For a graph \(G\) with no isolated vertices, its Laplacian ratio is defined as \[ \pi(G)=\frac{\operatorname{per}(L(G))}{\prod_{v\in V(G)} d(v)}, \] where \(L(G)\) is the Laplacian matrix of \(G\), \(d(v)\) is the degree of \(v\), and \(\operatorname{per}\) denotes the permanent. Brualdi and Goldwasser asked for the maximum value of \(\pi(T)\) among trees \(T\) with a fixed number of vertices. Wu, Dong and Lai recently proposed a conjectural answer to this problem. We give infinite families of counterexamples to their conjecture.

The objects of study are triangulations of the dilated standard triangle in the plane. Motivated by work on T-curves (Geiselmann et al., 2026), the focus lies on unimodular triangulations with a fixed symmetry axis. Lower and upper bounds are given, in combination with full enumerations of a few small cases.

Elspas and Turner \cite{eltu} raised a question on the isomorphism of $C_{16}(1,3,7)$ and $C_{16}(2,3,5)$ and Vilfred \cite{v96} gave its answer by defining Type-2 isomorphism of $C_n(R)$ w.r.t. $m$ $\ni$ $m$ = $\gcd(n, r) > 1$, $r\in R$ and $r,n\in\mathbb{N}$ and studied such graphs for $m$ = 2 in \cite{v13,v20}. But obtaining Type-2 isomorphic circulant graphs is not easy. Using a $C^{++}$ computer program, the authors obtained families of Type-2 isomorphic $C_{n}(R)$ w.r.t. $m$ = 2,3,5,7 for $n\in\mathbb{N}$ as well as $C_{np^3}(R)$ w.r.t. $m$ = $p$ for $n\in\mathbb{N}$ and $p$ is an odd prime. In this paper, we present the $C^{++}$ program and also a VB program POLY415.EXE which is used to show how Type-1 and Type-2 isomorphisms of a circulant graph take place as well as for checking and finding Type-1 and Type-2 circulant graphs of a given order and is very useful to develop its theory on Type-2 isomorphic circulant graphs \cite{v2-1}-\cite{v2-10}.

An oriented graph $\vec{H}$ is said to be tournament anti-Sidorenko if the homomorphism density of $\vec{H}$ in any tournament $\vec{T}$ is bounded above by the homomorphism density of $\vec{H}$ in a large uniformly random tournament. We prove the following: (1) Every oriented path with at least three arcs and exactly one non-leaf source or sink vertex is tournament anti-Sidorenko. (2) An oriented path is tournament anti-Sidorenko if the distance between any leaf vertex and any source or sink vertex is at least two and the distance between any pair of non-leaf source or sink vertices is a multiple of four. (3) Every spider with exactly three legs admits a tournament anti-Sidorenko orientation. The first result proves a conjecture posed by He, Mani, Nie, Tung and Wei. The third resolves a problem from the same paper, in fact establishing a substantially more general statement, and provides evidence in support of a conjecture of Fox, Himwich, Mani and Zhou. The second yields the first family of tournament anti-Sidorenko oriented paths which is exponentially large with respect to the number of arcs.

Hoang, Levit, Mandrescu and Pham asked for structural conditions ensuring that the independence polynomial of a $\W_p$ graph is log-concave, or at least unimodal, and conjectured that a connected $\W_2$ graph is $2$-quasi-regularizable if and only if $n(G)\ge 3\alpha(G)$ (2026). We prove the conjecture. The key point is a local expansion theorem: if $G$ is connected and belongs to $\W_2$, then every non-maximum independent set $A$ satisfies \[ |N_G(A)|\ge 2|A|. \] Thus the only possible obstruction to $2$-quasi-regularizability in a connected $\W_2$ graph comes from maximum independent sets, where the condition is exactly $n(G)-\alpha(G)\ge 2\alpha(G)$. We also give coefficient criteria for log-concavity and unimodality of independence polynomials of $\W_p$ graphs. These criteria combine the standard two-sided coefficient inequalities, as collected by Hoang–Levit–Mandrescu–Pham, with $\lambda$-quasi-regularizability. The new $p=2$ threshold proved here inserts the missing case into the same framework and yields explicit log-concavity and unimodality regions for connected $\W_2$ graphs.

In their classical paper On the stopping time Banach space, Bang and Odell, among a plethora of results concerning the dyadic stopping time space and its dual, presented the first non-trivial example of the duality phenomenon between combinatorial Banach spaces. We give a full characterization of such pairs $(\mc{F}_0, \mc{F}_1)$ of families of finite sets: This duality holds iff there is a perfect graph $G$ on $\NN$ such that $\mc{F}_0$ consists of all finite cliques of $G$ and $\mc{F}_1$ consists of all finite anti-cliques of $G$. As it turns out, Lovász' famous perfect graph theorem is an immediate corollary of this result. Among the many examples of such pairs of families, we investigate a particularly interesting one, when $G$ is the Sierpiński graph, and study general methods of embedding combinatorial and classical sequence spaces in the generated space, including the Schreier and $\ell_p$ spaces.

The Cullis' determinant is a generalization of the ordinary determinant for rectangular matrices. It is defined as the alternating sum of maximal minors of a given matrix. In this paper we express the Cullis' determinant of a matrix $X$ as the Pfaffian of the matrix obtained from $X$ by matrix multiplication and transposition. Relying on this result, we present an efficient polynomial-time division-free algorithm for calculating the Cullis' determinant of a given matrix with entries belonging to the commutative ring. We provide an asymptotical analysis of its arithmetical complexity in comparison to the definition-based algorithm. In addition, we derive formulas for horizontal expansion of the Cullis' determinant which complements the existing formula for Laplace expansion along the columns of a matrix.

The Menichetti-Kaplansky theorem states that a finite semifield that is three-dimensional over its center is either a field or a twisted field of Albert. This implies that a quadratic homogeneous bijection of $\mathbb{P}^2(\mathbb{F}_q)$ is equivalent to a Dembowski-Ostrom monomial. In this paper, we give a large class of semiquadratic homogeneous bijections of $\mathbb{P}^2(\mathbb{F}_q)$ that are inequivalent to Dembowski-Ostrom monomials. Using these bijections, we construct a large family of commutative semifields that are non-isotopic to finite fields or twisted fields, which in turn give rise to a large family of non-Desarguesian commutative semifield planes. Semiquadratic homogeneous bijections of $\mathbb{P}^1(\mathbb{F}_q)$ have been classified only recently by the first-named author, and Ding and Zieve with the result that all such bijections are either equivalent to Dembowski-Ostrom monomials or degenerate. We demonstrate that this is not the case for $\mathbb{P}^2(\mathbb{F}_q)$.

Alt $\nu$-Tamari lattices constitute a remarkable family of lattices associated with lattice paths that broadly generalize the Dyck and Tamari lattices. To systematically study the structural properties of this family, we introduce a combinatorial model that realizes the canonical join complex of alt $\nu$-Tamari lattices. Serving as a universal tool, this model allows us to prove vertex decomposability, establish an explicit shelling order, and reveal the underlying homology of the canonical join complex of alt $\nu$-Tamari lattices.

Let $\grad$, $\curl$, and $\dv$ be the graph-theoretic analogues of the gradient, curl, and divergence operators from multivariate calculus. The graph Laplacian $-\dv \grad$ gives rise to the celebrated Laplacian matrix, while the matrix representation of the graph Helmholtzian $\grad \grad^* + \curl^* \curl$ is called the Helmholtzian matrix. In this paper, we present a new graph-theoretic proof that the Helmholtzian matrix indeed represents the graph Helmholtzian. We then investigate the spectral properties of this matrix. Our main results are as follows: (i) a classification of graphs having exactly two distinct Helmholtzian eigenvalues; (ii) the nullity of the Helmholtzian matrix; and (iii) a combinatorial interpretation of the coefficients of the Helmholtzian polynomial. Furthermore, we determine the Helmholtzian spectrum for certain graph products and characterize Helmholtzian integral graphs, as well as derive bounds for the smallest Helmholtzian eigenvalue. Meanwhile, we pose some open problems for future research.

Given a (possibly infinite) subset $A$ of the natural numbers, we ask how many times a fair six-sided die must be rolled until the rolled numbers add up to an element of $A$. Using a one-dimensional dynamic programming recursion together with truncation and rigorous error bounds, we compute the expected number of rolls efficiently and with very high accuracy. When $A$ is the set of prime numbers, the irregular distribution of primes makes it difficult to obtain explicit error estimates. Nevertheless, the density of primes implies that the associated survival probability decays exponentially fast, which enables highly accurate truncation estimates. As a result, our calculations yield significantly sharper estimates for this expectation and its higher moments than the original results of Conroy, Alon, and Malinovsky. In particular, we determine the expectation to more than $1000$ decimal places.

The distance-reduction property for a generating set, i.e., a Markov basis, of a toric ideal is a condition that ensures tight connectivity of its fibres. In this paper, we study the distance-reduction property for toric ideals of graphs and move on to explore the relationship between the distance-reduction property and the bouquet structure of homogeneous toric ideals, which includes the class of toric ideals of graphs. For toric ideals of graphs which are complete intersection, we show that the minimal Markov bases are distance-reducing if and only if they distance-reduce the circuits of the ideal. We then consider how the distance-reduction properties interact with the bouquet structure of the toric ideal. Bouquets are a combinatorial structure that capture the essential combinatorial information of the toric ideal. Under the condition of homogeneity, we show that, for toric ideals with the same bouquet structure and signature, the distance-reduction properties are preserved. For homogeneous toric ideals whose bouquet matrix is a monomial curve in $\mathbb{A}^3$, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for when the minimal Markov bases are distance-reducing.