A family of permutations A \subset S_n is said to be intersecting if any two permutations in A agree at some point, i.e. for any σ, π\in A, there is some i such that σ(i)=π(i). Deza and Frankl showed that for such a family, |A| <= (n-1)!. Cameron and Ku showed that if equality holds then A = {σ\in S_{n}: σ(i)=j} for some i and j. They conjectured a `stability' version of this result, namely that there exists a constant c < 1 such that if A \subset S_{n} is an intersecting family of size at least c(n-1)!, then there exist i and j such that every permutation in A maps i to j (we call such a family `centred'). They also made the stronger `Hilton-Milner' type conjecture that for n \geq 6, if A \subset S_{n} is a non-centred intersecting family, then A cannot be larger than the family C = {σ\in S_{n}: σ(1)=1, σ(i)=i \textrm{for some} i > 2} \cup {(12)}, which has size (1-1/e+o(1))(n-1)!.
We prove the stability conjecture, and also the Hilton-Milner type conjecture for n sufficiently large. Our proof makes use of the classical representation theory of S_{n}. One of our key tools will be an extremal result on cross-intersecting families of permutations, namely that for n \geq 4, if A,B \subset S_{n} are cross-intersecting, then |A||B| \leq ((n-1)!)^{2}. This was a conjecture of Leader; it was recently proved for n sufficiently large by Friedgut, Pilpel and the author.
This paper takes a significant step towards confirming a long-standing and far-reaching conjecture of Peter J. Cameron and Cheryl E. Praeger. They conjectured in 1993 that there are no non-trivial block-transitive 6-designs. We prove that the Cameron-Praeger conjecture is true for the important case of non-trivial Steiner 6-designs, i.e. for 6-$(v,k,λ)$ designs with $λ=1$, except possibly when the group is $P\GammaL(2,p^e)$ with $p=2$ or 3, and $e$ is an odd prime power.
One of the oldest outstanding problems in dynamical algebraic combinatorics is the following conjecture of P. Cameron and D. Fon-Der-Flaass (1995). Consider a plane partition $P$ in an $a \times b \times c$ box ${\sf B}$. Let $Ψ(P)$ denote the smallest plane partition containing the minimal elements of ${\sf B} - P$. Then if $p= a+b+c-1$ is prime, Cameron and Fon-Der-Flaass conjectured that the cardinality of the $Ψ$-orbit of $P$ is always a multiple of $p$. This conjecture was established for $p \gg 0$ by Cameron and Fon-Der-Flaass (1995) and for slightly smaller values of $p$ in work of K. D…
A set A of integers is said to be sum-free if there are no solutions to the equation x + y = z with x,y and z all in A. Answering a question of Cameron and Erdos, we show that the number of sum-free subsets of {1,...,N} is O(2^(N/2)).
P.J.Cameron introduced the orbit algebra of a permutation group and conjectured that this algebra is an integral domain if and only if the group has no finite orbit. We prove that this conjecture holds and in fact that the age algebra of a relational structure $R$ is an integral domain if and only if $R$ is age-inexhaustible. We deduce these results from a combinatorial lemma asserting that if a product of two non-zero elements of a set algebra is zero then there is a finite common tranversal of their supports. The proof is built on Ramsey theorem and the integrity of a shuffle algebra.
Let G be a group of permutations of a denumerable set E. The profile of G is the function phi which counts, for each n, the number phi(n) of orbits of G acting on the n-subsets of E. Counting functions arising this way, and their associated generating series, form a rich yet apparently strongly constrained class. In particular, Cameron conjectured in the late seventies that, whenever the profile phi(n) is bounded by a polynomial -- we say that G is P-oligomorphic --, it is asymptotically equivalent to a polynomial. In 1985, Macpherson further asked whether the orbit algebra of G -- a graded co…
In this paper we study sum-free subsets of the set $\{1,...,n\}$, that is, subsets of the first $n$ positive integers which contain no solution to the equation $x + y = z$. Cameron and Erdős conjectured in 1990 that the number of such sets is $O(2^{n/2})$. This conjecture was confirmed by Green and, independently, by Sapozhenko. Here we prove a refined version of their theorem, by showing that the number of sum-free subsets of $[n]$ of size $m$ is $2^{O(n/m)} {\lceil n/2 \rceil \choose m}$, for every $1 \le m \le \lceil n/2 \rceil$. For $m \ge \sqrt{n}$, this result is sharp up to the constant…
Let $P$ be a graded poset of rank $r$ and let $\mathbf{c}$ be a $c$-element chain. For an order ideal $I$ of $P \times \mathbf{c}$, its rowmotion $ψ(I)$ is the smallest ideal containing the minimal elements of the complementary filter of $I$. The map $ψ$ defines invertible dynamics on the set of ideals. We say that $P$ has NRP ("not relatively prime") rowmotion if no $ψ$-orbit has cardinality relatively prime to $r+c+1$. In work with R. Patrias (2020), we proved a 1995 conjecture of P. Cameron and D. Fon-Der-Flaass by establishing NRP rowmotion for the product $P = \mathbf{a} \times \mathbf{b}…
We propose a generalisation of the Cameron-Erdos conjecture for sum-free sets to arbitrary non-translation invariant linear equations over Z in three or more variables and, using well-known methods from graph theory, prove a weak form of the conjecture for a class of equations where the structure of the maximum-size sets avoiding solutions to the equation has been previously obtained.
In this paper, we describe a new infinite family of $\frac{q^{2}-1}{2}$-tight sets in the hyperbolic quadrics $\mathcal{Q}^{+}(5,q)$, for $q \equiv 5 \mbox{ or } 9 \bmod{12}$. Under the Klein correspondence, these correspond to Cameron--Liebler line classes of ${\rm PG}(3,q)$ having parameter $\frac{q^{2}-1}{2}$. This is the second known infinite family of nontrivial Cameron--Liebler line classes, the first family having been described by Bruen and Drudge with parameter $\frac{q^{2}+1}{2}$ in ${\rm PG}(3,q)$ for all odd $q$. The study of Cameron--Liebler line classes is closely related to the …
In 1965, Paul Erdős asked about the largest family $Y$ of $k$-sets in $\{ 1, \ldots, n \}$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint sets. This problem is commonly known as the Erdős Matching Conjecture. We investigate the $q$-analog of this question, that is we want to determine the size of a largest family $Y$ of $k$-spaces in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint $k$-spaces. Here we call two subspaces disjoint if they intersect trivially. Our main result is, slightly simplified, that if $16 s \leq \min\{ q^{\frac{n-k}{4}},$ $q^{\frac{n-2k+1}{3}…
Let S(n) be the symmetric group on n points. A subset S of S(n) is intersecting if for any pair of permutations π, σin S there is a point i in {1,...,n} such that π(i)=σ(i). Deza and Frankl \cite{MR0439648} proved that if S a subset of S(n) is intersecting then |S| \leq (n-1)!. Further, Cameron and Ku \cite{MR2009400} show that the only sets that meet this bound are the cosets of a stabilizer of a point. In this paper we give a very different proof of this same result.
We consider the permutation group algebra defined by Cameron and show that if the permutation group has no finite orbits, then no homogeneous element of degree one is a zero-divisor of the algebra. We proceed to make a conjecture which would show that the algebra is an integral domain if, in addition, the group is oligomorphic. We go on to show that this conjecture is true in certain special cases, including those of the form H Wr S and H Wr A, and show that in the oligormorphic case, the algebras corresponding to these special groups are polynomial algebras. In the H Wr A case, the algebra is…
We prove the Strengthened Hanna Neumann Conjecture, in its common graph theoretic formulation. Our original approach to this conjecture used cohomology of sheaves on graphs, although here we give a short combinatorial proof that we found in a succession of simplifications of the cohomological approach. Our proof is inductive, and requires Tardos' previous result settling the rank two case of the conjecture.
In this article, we give an elementary combinatorial proof of a conjecture about the determination of automorphism group of the power graph of finite cyclic groups, proposed by Doostabadi, Erfanian and Jafarzadeh in 2013.
Ellis and the third author showed, verifying a conjecture of Frankl, that any $3$-wise intersecting family of subsets of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ admitting a transitive automorphism group has cardinality $o(2^n)$, while a construction of Frankl demonstrates that the same conclusion need not hold under the weaker constraint of being regular. Answering a question of Cameron, Frankl and Kantor from 1989, we show that the restriction of admitting a transitive automorphism group may be relaxed significantly: we prove that any $3$-wise intersecting family of subsets of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ that is regular and…
We prove a conjecture of Meszaros and Morales on the volume of a flow polytope. Independently from our work, Zeilberger sketched a proof of their conjecture. In fact, our proof is the same as Zeilberger's proof. The purpose of this note is to give a more detailed proof of the conjecture.
Cameron and Erdős raised the question of how many maximal sum-free sets there are in $\{1, \dots , n\}$, giving a lower bound of $2^{\lfloor n/4 \rfloor }$. In this paper we prove that there are in fact at most $2^{(1/4+o(1))n}$ maximal sum-free sets in $\{1, \dots , n\}$. Our proof makes use of container and removal lemmas of Green as well as a result of Deshouillers, Freiman, Sós and Temkin on the structure of sum-free sets.
We present a new proof of the Joints Theorem without taking derivatives. Then we generalize the proof to prove the Multijoints Conjecture and Carbery's generalization. All results are in any dimension over an arbitrary field.
A simple proof of Atanassov's Conjecture is presented. Atanassov's Conjecture is a generalization of Sperner's Lemma, a lemma which has been used to prove Brouwer's Fixed Point Theorem, among other fixed point theorems. The proof of Atanassov's Conjecture is based on the Brouwer Degree of maps and is extremely elementary. It is much simpler than the original proofs given for the conjecture and provides some insight into the nature of the conjecture. Furthermore, a generalization of the conjecture is presented and finally a new theorem, similar to the original Sperner Lemma, is proved.
The well-known Steinberg's conjecture asserts that any planar graph without 4- and 5-cycles is 3 colorable. In this note we have given a short algorithmic proof of this conjecture based on the spiral chains of planar graphs proposed in the proof of the four color theorem by the author in 2004.
We present a proof of determinant of special nonsymmetric Toeplitz matrices conjectured by Anđelić and Fonseca in \cite{andjelic2020some}. A proof is also demonstrated for a more general theorem. The two conjectures are therefore just two possible results, under two specific settings. Numerical examples validating the theorem are provided.
We give a proof of a conjecture of A. Lacasse in his doctoral thesis which has applications in machine learning algorithms. The proof relies on some interesting binomial sums identities introduced by Abel (1839), and on their generalization to the multinomial case by Hurwitz (1902).
Rosenfeld Conjectured in 1972 that there exists an integer K $\geq$ 8 such that any tournament of order n $\geq$ K contains any Hamiltonian oriented path. In 2000, Havet and Thomassé proved this conjecture for any tournament with exactly 3 exceptions. We give a simplified proof of this fact.
We give a new proof of a_4ϕ_3 summation due to G.E. Andrews and confirm another_4ϕ_3 summation conjectured by him recently. Some variations of these two_4ϕ_3 summations are also given.
We give a proof of Willcocks's Conjecture, stating that if $p - q$ and $p + q$ are relatively prime, then there exists a Hamiltonian tour of a $(p, q)$-leaper on a square chessboard of side $2(p + q)$. The conjecture was formulated by T. H. Willcocks in 1976 and has been an open problem since.
Padberg introduced a geometric notion of ranks for (mixed) integer rational polyhedrons and conjectured that the geometric rank of the matching polytope is one. In this work, we prove that this conjecture is true.
Kanade and Russell conjectured several Rogers-Ramanujan-type partition identities, some of which are related to level $2$ characters of the affine Lie algebra $A_9^{(2)}$. Many of these conjectures have been proved by Bringmann, Jennings-Shaffer and Mahlburg. We give new proofs of five conjectures first proved by those authors, as well as four others that have been open until now. Our proofs for the new cases use quadratic transformations for Askey-Wilson and Rogers polynomials. We also obtain some related results, including a new proof of a partition identity conjectured by Capparelli and fir…
Recently Dekking conjectured the form of the subword complexity function for the Fibonacci-Thue-Morse sequence. In this note we prove his conjecture by purely computational means, using the free software Walnut.
