Papers

A metric probability space $M$ admits thresholds if the random geometric graph on $M$ has a threshold for every monotone graph property. We connect the existence of thresholds to the uniform expansion of $M$ and prove that all standard tori, spheres, and cubes admit thresholds.

Let $mH$ be the graph formed by $m$ vertex-disjoint copies of a graph $H$. Let $G \to (H)_r$ denote that, in any $r$-colouring of the edges of $G$, there exists a monochromatic copy of $H$. In 1975, Burr, Erdős, and Spencer showed that if $H$ is a graph on $k$ vertices whose independence number is $\alpha$, then $K_n \to (mH)_2$, where $m\sim n/(2k-\alpha)$, and that the $1/(2k-\alpha)$ factor is best possible. In the 1990s, Rödl and Ruciński proved that, for all but a few graphs~$H$, the threshold for the property $\mathbb{G}(n,p) \to (H)_r$ is $n^{-1/m_2(H)}$. In this paper, generalizing the result of Burr, Erdős, and Spencer, we prove that $n^{-1/\max\{m_2(H),1\}}$ is the threshold for the property $\mathbb{G}(n,p) \to (mH)_2$, where $m\sim n/(2k-\alpha)$. This threshold matches the one found by Rödl and Ruciński for most graphs $H$, extending their result in the case $r=2$.

We study topological analogues of Kalai's cascade conjecture. Given a continuous map from an $n$-simplex to $\mathbb R^d$, let $T_r(f)$ be the set of points contained in the images of $r$ pairwise disjoint faces. We prove that if $r$ is a prime power and $\dim T_r(f)\le k$, then there exists a point that remains an $r$-Tverberg point after any $t$ vertices are deleted, provided $n=(r-1)(d+1)+t(k+1)$. For $t=1$, this gives a topological analogue of a standard consequence of Kalai's cascade conjecture. We also confirm the cascade conjecture for finite point sets whose Radon set is $0$-dimensional.

We investigate infinite-exponent partition relations on arbitrary relational structures, with a focus on linear orders and graphs. Any such relation contradicts the Axiom of Choice. We show that there are some such relations which are consistent with ZF which imply the failure not just of Choice but also of the Kinna-Wagner Selection Principle KWP$_1$ and the Ordering Principle O.

$a_n=[x^n](1-x)^{-n}(1-x^2)^{-n}$ is the sequence A348410 in the Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. Using a method from Hautus and Klarner from 1971 and the software Gfun we find an algebraic equation for the generating function $g(z)=\sum_na_nz^n$. The second identity uses the generalized binomial series, popularized in the textbook Concrete mathematics.

We study the connection between the degree sequence of a $k$-uniform hypergraph and the size of its largest matching. Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a $k$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices and let $d_1(\mathcal{F})\ge d_2(\mathcal{F})\ge\cdots\ge d_n(\mathcal{F})$ be the vertex degrees arranged in non-increasing order. For integers $k\ge 2$, $s\ge 2$ and $n > 2sk$, we prove that if the $2sk$-th largest degree satisfies $d_{2sk} > \binom{n-1}{k-1} - \binom{n-s}{k-1},$ then $\mathcal{F}$ contains a matching of size at least $s$. Moreover, by relaxing the range of $n$, we obtain the same bound for the $(k+2s-2)$-th largest degree vertex. Note that the number $k+2s-2$ is optimal. For a $k$-set of vertices $S \subseteq [n]$, the degree of $S$ is defined as $\deg(S) = \sum_{v \in S} \deg(v)$, and the minimum of $\deg(S)$ over all non-edge $k$-subsets $S \notin E(\mathcal{F})$ of $V(\mathcal{F})$ is the Ore-degree of $\mathcal{F}$, denoted by $\sigma_k(\mathcal{F})$. Balogh, Palmer and Raeisi proved: for $s \ge 2$ and $n \ge 3k^2(s-1)$, if $\sigma_k(\mathcal{F}) > k\left(\binom{n-1}{k-1} - \binom{n-s}{k-1}\right),$ then $\mathcal{F}$ contains a matching of size $s$. They also conjectured that the result holds when $n > sk$. As a corollary, we prove that the bound on $n$ can be taken to be linear in $sk$ ($ n \geq 3sk $).

An edge of a graph of order $n$ is pancyclic if it lies in a cycle of every length $3,\ldots,n$. A graph of order $n$ is vertex-pancyclic if every vertex lies in a cycle of every length $3,\ldots,n$. Recently, Li and Zhan proved that every $2$-connected $[4,2]$-graph of order at least seven contains a pancyclic edge. Zhan asked whether there exists a positive integer $k$ such that every $k$-connected vertex-pancyclic graph contains a pancyclic edge. We answer this question by showing that for every positive integer $k$, there is a $k$-connected vertex-pancyclic graph containing no pancyclic edge.

In this note, we prove a recent conjecture of Amdeberhan, Andrews and Ballantine concerning a double Lambert series (J. Combin. Theory Series A 221 (2026), Paper No. 106154). More precisely, they conjectured that \[ [q^{N2^a}] \sum_{m,k\geq 1} \frac{q^{mk2^a}}{(1+q^{k2^{a-1}})(1-q^{2m-1})} =\sigma_1(N), \] where $\sigma_1(N)$ is the sum of all the positive divisors of $N$. We provide two proofs of this conjecture. One of the approach leads us to derive a new representation of quasi-modular forms $E_2(q)$.

We study a coincidence between two enumerations governed by the same product formula, reminiscent of the Robbins numbers: the unweighted enumeration of twenty-vertex configurations on quadrangular domains with fixed west boundary, and the weighted enumeration of Gelfand–Tsetlin patterns avoiding three equal entries in a row. This coincidence naturally raises the question of whether there is a combinatorial explanation relating these two enumerations. In this paper, we provide such an explanation by constructing a probabilistic bijection between twenty-vertex configurations on quadrangular domains and Gelfand–Tsetlin patterns avoiding three equal entries in a row. Under this probabilistic bijection, the west boundary of a twenty-vertex configuration corresponds to the bottom row of Gelfand–Tsetlin patterns; in particular, the fixed boundary case corresponds to Gelfand–Tsetlin patterns with bottom row~$(1, 2, \ldots, n)$. Combining this correspondence with an enumeration formula of Fischer and Schreier-Aigner for Gelfand–Tsetlin patterns avoiding three equal entries in a row with bounded entries, we obtain an enumeration formula for twenty-vertex configurations with a free west boundary.

Galluccio–Loebl and Tesler showed that the perfect-matching polynomial of a graph embedded in an orientable surface of genus $g$ can be written as a linear combination of at most $4^g$ Pfaffians. We show that, in general, exponentially many Pfaffians are necessary. More precisely, for every $g\ge1$, there exists a graph of orientable genus at most $g$ whose perfect-matching polynomial requires at least $(8/3)^g$ Pfaffians in any such linear representation. In particular, for every even integer $n\ge6$, there is a graph on $n$ vertices with Pfaffian number at least $(8/3)^{\lfloor n/6\rfloor}$. Moreover, the lower bound is witnessed even by cubic bipartite matching-covered graphs. We prove this by showing that expressing the permanent of an $n\times n$ matrix of distinct variables as a linear combination of determinants obtained by changing signs of its entries requires exponentially many determinants. As a consequence, we improve a recent linear lower bound on the Pfaffian number due to Junchaya, Miranda, and Lucchesi to an exponential lower bound.

We construct a hypersimplicial subdivision of the $r$-dilation of the $i$-th hypersimplex of dimension $d$ that provides a geometric proof of the Brenti–Welker identity.

In this paper, we show that the treewidth of the $n \times n$ toroidal grid is $2n-1$ for all $n \ge 5$. This closes the gap between the previously known upper bound of $2n-1$ (Ellis and Warren, DAM 2008) and the lower bound of $2n-2$ (Kiyomi, Okamoto, and Otachi, DAM 2016). To establish the matching lower bound, we construct a bramble of maximum order by utilizing maximum components obtained after removing $2n-1$ vertices. Our construction relies on the vertex-isoperimetric properties of the infinite grid to establish tight lower bounds on neighborhood sizes, combined with a careful analysis of balls of radius $n/2-1$ and their boundaries to overcome structural obstructions when $n$ is even.

The domination problem is a well-studied problem in graph theory. In this paper, we study two natural variants: the hop domination problem and the $2$-step domination problem. Let $G$ be a graph with vertex set $V$ and edge set $E$. For a graph $G$, a subset $S \subseteq V(G)$ is called an hop dominating set if every vertex not in $S$ lies at distance of exactly $2$ from at least one vertex in $S$. For $v\in V(G)$, let $N(v,2)$ denote the set of vertices in $V(G)$ that are at distance exactly $2$ from $v$. For a graph $G$, a subset $S \subseteq V(G)$ is called an \emph{$2$-step dominating set} if every vertex $v\in V(G)$ lies at a distance of exactly $2$ from at least one vertex in $S$. The Hop Domination (HD) problem and the \textsc{$2$-Step Domination} ($2$SD) problems ask whether a graph contains a hop domination set or a $2$-step domination set of size at most $k$, respectively. We study the computational complexity of these problems, and show that both are NP-complete, even when restricted to $d$-regular graphs for every $d\geq 3$, claw-free graphs and also unit disk graphs.

In this paper, we investigate the Schur positivity of modified Hall–Littlewood polynomials indexed by two-column partitions under the action of the $\nabla$ operator. Specifically, we resolve two conjectures posed by Bergeron, Garsia, Haiman, and Tesler in the two-column case. Furthermore, our approach demonstrates that these results can be extended to arbitrary powers $\nabla^k$ for all integers $k\geq 1$.

In Section 6 of the paper “Fraïssé's Conjecture and big Ramsey degrees of structures admitting finite monomorphic decomposition”, we applied the methods developed in earlier sections to show that a certain reduct of the generic permutation has finite big Ramsey degrees. Unfortunately, this reduct was incorrectly identified as the generic partial order. We are grateful to Jan Hubička for bringing this error to our attention. In this note we correct the statements that rely on this misidentification and demonstrate that the reduct in question is in fact the generic 2-dimensional partial order. We emphasize that the arguments presented in Section 6 remain valid, with the sole exception of the Claim in the proof of Theorem 6.4, whose role was to (incorrectly) identify the reduct of the generic permutation as the generic partial order. This correction has an unexpected positive consequence. Rather than reproving a well-known result whose existing proof is already notably elegant, this note demonstrates that our general framework can be used to establish that a previously unexplored class of generic relational structures has finite big Ramsey degrees. This observation opens a potentially new direction for further research in the thriving area of big Ramsey combinatorics. In the addendum, we combine a recent result by Oudrar and Pouzet with our analysis of finite big Ramsey degrees for structures admitting finite monomorphic decomposition to characterize the existence of finite Big Ramsey degrees for all countable relational structures whose language has a linear order and age has polynomial growth.

Let $r,\ell\geq2$ be integers. Given $r$-graphs $G$ and $F_1,\dots,F_\ell$, we write $G\to(F_1,\dots,F_\ell)$ if every $\ell$-edge-coloring of $G$ yields a monochromatic copy of $F_i$ in the $i$th color for some $1\leq i\leq\ell$, otherwise we write $G\not\to(F_1,\dots,F_\ell)$. The Ramsey number $R(F_1,\dots,F_\ell)$ is the minimum number of vertices in an $r$-graph $G$ satisfying $G\to(F_1,\dots,F_\ell)$. In this note we prove that for any integers $t_1\geq\dots\geq t_\ell>r$, there exists an $r$-graph $G$ such that $G\not\to(K^{(r)}_{t_1},\dots,K^{(r)}_{t_\ell})$ but $G\to(K^{(r)}_s,K^{(r)}_{t_\ell-1})$, where $s=R(K^{(r)}_{t_1},\dots,K^{(r)}_{t_\ell})-1$. This extends recent work by Mendonça, Miralaei, and Mota, who established the statement for $r=2$.

Voloshyn introduced rational Weyl group elements in connection with rational normal forms on complex reductive groups and conjectured that their number in type $D_r$, for odd $r$, is $2^r-1$. We prove a stronger structural statement. For every odd integer $r\geq 5$, the rational elements of $W(D_r)$ are precisely the longest element $w_0$ and two explicitly described signed cyclic elements $c_I,d_I$ for each non-empty subset $I\subseteq\{1,\ldots,r-1\}$. Consequently, the rationality graph $\Gamma(D_r)$ is obtained by gluing two explicitly labelled subset-toggle graphs at $w_0$; it has $2^r-1$ vertices, and its only vertices of valency one are $c_{\{1\}}$ and $d_{\{1\}}$. The proof combines a two-level acyclic description of the root-poset graphs $\Gamma_{c_I}$ with a rigidity theorem for simple left multiplications of the signed cyclic family. A self-contained simply-laced reflection-preservation lemma and a terminal-layer argument provide the descent step, while every forbidden one-step move from the family is excluded by an explicit loop or two-cycle.

Let $n,$ $d,$ and $r$ be integers such that $0 \leq r \leq d \leq n,$ and let $P \subset \mathbb R^n$ be a $d$-dimensional convex lattice polytope. In this article, we prove that the ratio of the $r$-dimensional volume of a normal-sized miniature of $P$ to that of $P$ is given by $1:\binom{d+r+1}{r},$ which generalizes the author's previous results on the volumes of the unit hypercube and lattice simplices in the case where $r = d = n.$ This theorem is proven by establishing that the number of horizontal miniatures of $P$ with resolution $t$ is a polynomial of degree $d+1$ in $t$ whose leading coefficient is $\mathrm{vol}\,P/(d+1),$ which is derived from Ehrhart theory.

We introduce the extra slow Tamari lattices, a new family of lattices defined on faithfully balanced tableaux. These tableaux arise naturally from the representation theory of type \( A \) quivers, and our construction extends the classical Tamari lattice and the slow Tamari lattice. We explicitly describe meets and joins in the extra slow Tamari lattices, and then prove that they are lattices. We then show that they are semidistributive, trim, polygonal, and congruence uniform. Their join-irreducible elements are described in terms of a three-color analogue of the positive roots of type \( A \), which leads to descriptions of their spines and congruence lattices. We also obtain several enumerative results for the extra slow Tamari lattices and their associated structures. Finally, we derive new structural and enumerative results for the slow Tamari lattices.

We study two new parameters for finite posets motivated by the problem of efficiently determining the set of successors of a given element. A plane map of a poset $P=(X,\leq)$ is an injective mapping of $X$ into the Cartesian plane $\mathbb{R}^2$. Given two different points $a$ and $b$ in the plane, we say that $b$ dominates $a$ if $a<b$ coordinatewise. We say that an element $x$ of $P$ is tight in a plane map $\mu$ if the following holds: $x<y$ in $P$ if and only if $\mu(y)$ dominates $\mu(x)$. Note that, by definition, every 2-dimensional poset admits a map such that every element of the poset is tight. For any poset $P$, we define the mapability of $P$, $\mathrm{dmap}(P)$, to be the maximum number of elements that are tight in a single map, and we define the atlas thickness of $P$, $\mathrm{at}(P)$, to be the size of the smallest collection of maps such that every element is tight in at least one map of the collection. We relate these parameters to the classical notions of dimension and width: for every poset $P$, we show that $\mathrm{dim}(P) \le 2\mathrm{at}(P) \le \mathrm{width}(P)+1$. On the other hand, there exists a sequence of posets $(P_n)_{n \ge 1}$ such that the atlas thickness of $P_n$ is doubly exponential in the dimension of $P_n$. On the computational side, we prove that it is NP-complete, for a given poset $P$, to compute the mapability of $P$ and to decide whether $\mathrm{at}(P) \le 2$. In contrast to the latter, we show that computing the mapability of a poset is fixed-parameter tractable with respect to the natural parameter.

For a weighted tree, the Lin–Lu–Yau Ricci curvature admits an explicit formula in terms of the edge weights. Consequently, the constant-curvature equation is equivalent to an eigenvalue problem for an edge-indexed Ricci matrix $R_T$. Building on the spectral characterization of discrete Einstein metrics on trees, we classify all finite trees whose discrete Einstein metric has positive curvature, equivalently all trees satisfying $\lambda_{\max}(R_T)<0$. For caterpillars with spine order $m\ge 12$, this occurs precisely for the endpoint families $T_m(a,0,\ldots,0,b)$ with $1\le a,b\le 3$ and $(a,b)\ne(3,3)$. The remaining cases $3\le m\le 11$ are settled by an exact finite verification using rational characteristic polynomials and Sturm root counts. We also determine the zero level set $\lambda_{\max}(R_T)=0$: among caterpillars, it consists of the stable family $(3,0,\ldots,0,3)$ together with nine exceptional short-spine caterpillars, while $S_3^2$ is the unique non-caterpillar zero example.

We consider an infinite graph with the vertex set $\mathbb{Z}^2$ and edges connecting the vertices iff the Euclidean distance between the respective points is an integer, and the points do not lie on the same horizontal or vertical. Equivalently, there must exist a Pythagorean triangle with the hypotenuse corresponding to the graph edge and the legs parallel to the axes. We prove that the diameter of this graph is $3$, but surprisingly it appears that the nodes at the maximal (graph) distance of $3$ apart seem to be only those that are geometrically very close to each other. It also appears that the paths of length $2$ connecting geometrically close nodes may need to go through geometrically very distant points. We prove a general relation that generates infinite series of length-$2$ paths, and present the results of our computer experiments. We conclude the paper with a general conjecture about the length-$2$ and length-$3$ paths. We have posed this conjecture to several of the current leading AI models. Remarkably, none of them managed to make any significant progress in proving it.

For an oriented graph $G$, the oriented discrepancy problem concerns the existence of a spanning subgraph of $G$ with a large imbalance between its forward and backward edge orientations. Freschi and Lo proved the Dirac-type Hamilton cycle result in oriented graphs, and asked for an analogue for powers of Hamilton cycles under a minimum-degree condition. We show that, for sufficiently large $n$, every oriented graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with minimum degree $\delta(G)\geq 2n/3$ contains the square of a Hamilton cycle $H$ with $\sigma_{\max}(H)$ guaranteed to exceed a function depending on $\delta(G)$ and $n$.

Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in the plane, and let $\mathcal C$ be a collection of $n$ simple $k$-intersecting curves, meaning that every two distinct curves of $\mathcal C$ meet in at most $k$ points. A classical theorem of Pach and Sharir from 1998 gives the upper bound $I(P,\mathcal C)=O_k(n^{(3k+1)/(2k+1)})$. We prove that this bound can be improved when one excludes a complete local incidence pattern. More precisely, for any fixed integers $s>k+1\ge 2$, if there do not exist $s$ points of $P$ such that every $(k+1)$-tuple among them is contained in a distinct curve of $\mathcal C$, then $I(P,\mathcal C)=o(n^{(3k+1)/(2k+1)})$. In the special case of pseudo-segments, this extends Solymosi's theorem on dense point-line arrangements to dense arrangements of pseudo-segments.

We present a short, digested, human-verified version of the recent OpenAI-generated counterexample to the Erdős unit distance conjecture, and a sequence of reflections on it. The argument relies crucially on ideas that may, at least in retrospect, be attributed to Ellenberg-Venkatesh, Golod-Shafarevich, and Hajir-Maire-Ramakrishna.

String C-groups are precisely the automorphism groups of abstract regular polytopes. A certain regular d-polytope C_d with an automorphism group of order 2^{2d-1}, discovered by Conder and shown to have the smallest number of flags among all regular d-polytopes of high ranks, also has the important extremal property to be the unique minimal d-polytope, with respect to combinatorial covering, among all finite regular d-polytopes with 2-power automorphism groups. In other words, the automorphism group of C_d is a quotient group of every finite string C-group of rank d and 2-power order; and every finite regular d-polytope with an automorphism groups of 2-power order covers C_d. The existence of a unique minimal element among string C-groups of 2-power order and given rank is remarkable in itself.

The study of ORR was inspired by Lázsló Babai in 1980 when he asked a question: Which [finite] groups admit an oriented graph as a DRR? And it has been solved by Joy Morris and Pablo Spiga through a series of papers in 2018. In this paper, we will extend the concept of ORR to $m$-partite oriented graphs for $m\geq 2$. We say that a finite group $G$ admits an \emph{$m$-partite oriented semiregular representation} ($m$-POSR) if there exists an $m$-partite oriented graph $\G$ such that its automorphism group is isomorphic to $G$ and acts semiregularly with the $m$ orbits giving the partition. Moreover, if $\G$ is regular, that is, each vertex has the same in- and out-valency, it can be viewed as the oriented version of an $m$-Haar graph of $G$ and we call $\G$ is an \emph{$m$-Haar oriented representation} ($m$-HOR) of $G$. Our main result is a complete classification of finite groups $G$ without $m$-HORs or $m$-POSRs for $m\geq 2$.

A Cayley (di)graph $\Cay(G,S)$ of a finite group $G$ is called CI if, for every Cayley (di)graph $\Cay(G,T)$ of $G$, $\Cay(G,S)\cong \Cay(G,T)$ implies that $S^{\sigma}=T$ for some $\sigma\in \Aut(G)$. The group $G$ is called an NDCI-group (resp. NCI-group) if every normal Cayley digraph (resp. graph) of $G$ is CI. It was shown that the generalized quaternion group $\Q_{4n}$ of order $4n$ ($n\geq 2$) is an NDCI-group if and only if either $n=2$ or $n$ is odd, but its NCI-group classification has been left as an open question. In this paper, we solve the question and prove that $\Q_{4n}$ is an NCI-group for every $n\geq 2$. A normal Cayley (di)graph of a group $G$ is called NNN if its automorphism group contains a non-normal regular subgroup isomorphic to $G$, and $G$ is called an NNND-group (resp. NNN-group) if it admits an NNN Cayley digraph (resp. graph). In this paper, we show that $\Q_{4n}$ is not an NNN-group for every $n\geq 2$, and is an NNND-group if and only if $n\geq 6$ and $n$ is even.

In recent work (Forum Math. Sigma, 2024), we established a correspondence between MAT-labeled graphs arising from hyperplane arrangements and regular vines from probability theory. In this paper, we extend this connection to Arrow's single-peaked domains in social choice theory. We show that MAT-labeled complete graphs, regular vines, and maximal Arrow's single-peaked domains arise from the same recursive combinatorial structure. Our main result gives an axiomatic characterization of these objects using the language of combinatorial species. At the heart of this characterization are two fundamental operations, called splitting and merging, together with natural compatibility conditions that uniquely determine the structures. As consequences, we obtain explicit correspondences between maximal Arrow's single-peaked domains, MAT-labeled complete graphs, and regular vines, thereby providing new combinatorial and axiomatic characterizations of these domains. We further show that regular vines are equivalent to $(n,3)$-extremal lattices from formal concept analysis, and that these lattices are in turn equivalent to extremal binary matrices with no triangles from combinatorial matrix theory. Consequently, these lattices and matrices also fit naturally into the same splitting-and-merging framework, providing further examples from different areas unified by our axiomatic characterization.

Let $G$ be a simple graph. We demonstrate a method for using $t$-admissible subgraphs of $G$ to determine the regularity of the $t$-th symbolic power of the cover ideal of $G$. As an application, we compute the regularity of powers of cover ideals of bipartite unicyclic graphs.