Motivated by Pittel's study of minimally intersecting set partitions, we investigate minimally intersecting set partitions of type B. We find a formula for the number of minimally intersecting r-tuples of $B_n$-partitions, as well as a formula for the number of minimally intersecting r-tuples of $B_n$-partitions without zero-block. As a consequence, it follows the formula of Benoumhani for the Dowling number in analogy to Dobinski's formula.
Let $S_{g}$ denote the closed orientable surface of genus $g$. We construct exponentially many mapping class group orbits of pairs of simple closed curves which fill $S_{g}$ and intersect minimally, by showing that such orbits are in correspondence with the solutions of a certain permutation equation in the symmetric group. Next, we demonstrate that minimally intersecting filling pairs are combinatorially optimal, in the sense that there are many simple closed curves intersecting the pair exactly once. We conclude by initiating the study of a topological Morse function $\mathcal{F}_{g}$ over t…
We give a canonical partition of shifted intersecting set systems, from which one can obtain unified and elementary proofs of the Erdős-Ko-Rado and Hilton-Milner Theorem, as well as a characterization of maximal shifted $k$-uniform intersecting set systems over $[n]$.
If $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ and $n$ are positive integers such that $n = a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$, then the sum $a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$ is said to be a \emph{partition of $n$} of \emph{length $k$}, and $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ are said to be the \emph{parts} of the partition. Two partitions that differ only in the order of their parts are considered to be the same. We say that two partitions \emph{intersect} if they have at least one common part. We call a set $A$ of partitions \emph{intersecting} if any two partitions in $A$ intersect. Let $P_{n,k}$ be the set of all partitions of $n$ of length $k$. We…
Let $n$ be a non-negative integer and $A=\{a_1,\ldots,a_k\}$ be a multi-set with $k$ not necessarily distinct members, where $a_1\leqslant\ldots\leqslant a_k$. We denote by $Δ(n,A)$ the number of ways to partition $n$ as the form $a_1x_1+\ldots+a_kx_k$, where $x_i$'s are distinct positive integers and $x_i< x_{i+1}$ whenever $a_i=a_{i+1}$. We give a recursive formula for $Δ(n,A)$ and some explicit formulas for some special cases. Using this notion we solve the non-intersecting circles problem which asks to evaluate the number of ways to draw $n$ non-intersecting circles in a plane regardless t…
A $(k,\ell)$-partition is a set partition which has $\ell$ blocks each of size $k$. Two uniform set partitions $P$ and $Q$ are said to be partially $t$-intersecting if there exist blocks $P_{i}$ in $P$ and $Q_{j}$ in $Q$ such that $\left| P_{i} \cap Q_{j} \right|\geq t$. In this paper we prove a version of the Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem for partially $2$-intersecting $(k,\ell)$-partitions. In particular, we show for $\ell$ sufficiently large, the set of all $(k,\ell)$-partitions in which a block contains a fixed pair is the largest set of 2-partially intersecting $(k,\ell)$-partitions. For for $k=3…
A $k\ell$-subset partition, or $(k,\ell)$-subpartition, is a $k\ell$-subset of an $n$-set that is partitioned into $\ell$ distinct classes, each of size $k$. Two $(k,\ell)$-subpartitions are said to $t$-intersect if they have at least $t$ classes in common. In this paper, we prove an Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem for intersecting families of $(k,\ell)$-subpartitions. We show that for $n \geq k\ell$, $\ell \geq 2$ and $k \geq 3$, the largest $1$-intersecting family contains at most $\frac{1}{(\ell-1)!}\binom{n-k}{k}\binom{n-2k}{k}\cdots\binom{n-(\ell-1)k}{k}$ $(k,\ell)$-subpartitions, and that this bou…
In this paper we consider some results on intersection between rays and a given family of convex, compact sets. These results are similar to the center point theorem, and Tverberg's theorem on partitions of a point set.
A famous conjecture of Ryser states that every $r$-partite hypergraph has vertex cover number at most $r - 1$ times the matching number. In recent years, hypergraphs meeting this conjectured bound, known as $r$-Ryser hypergraphs, have been studied extensively. It was recently proved by Haxell, Narins and Szabó that all $3$-Ryser hypergraphs with matching number $ν> 1$ are essentially obtained by taking $ν$ disjoint copies of intersecting $3$-Ryser hypergraphs. Abu-Khazneh showed that such a characterisation is false for $r = 4$ by giving a computer generated example of a $4$-Ryser hypergraph w…
A family $\mathcal{F}$ on ground set $[n]:=\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$ is maximal $k$-wise intersecting if every collection of at most $k$ sets in $\mathcal{F}$ has non-empty intersection, and no other set can be added to $\mathcal{F}$ while maintaining this property. In 1974, Erdős and Kleitman asked for the minimum size of a maximal $k$-wise intersecting family. We answer their question for $k=3$ and sufficiently large $n$. We show that the unique minimum family is obtained by partitioning the ground set $[n]$ into two sets $A$ and $B$ with almost equal sizes and taking the family consisting of all t…
A family $\mathcal{F}$ on ground set $\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$ is maximal $k$-wise intersecting if every collection of $k$ sets in $\mathcal{F}$ has non-empty intersection, and no other set can be added to $\mathcal{F}$ while maintaining this property. Erdős and Kleitman asked for the minimum size of a maximal $k$-wise intersecting family. Complementing earlier work of Hendrey, Lund, Tompkins and Tran, who answered this question for $k=3$ and large even $n$, we answer it for $k=3$ and large odd $n$. We show that the unique minimum family is obtained by partitioning the ground set into two sets $A$ a…
Let $G$ be a graph with $X\subseteq V(G)$ and let $l$ be an intersecting supermodular subadditive integer-valued function on subsets of $V(G)$. The graph $G$ is said to be $l$-partition-connected, if for every partition $P$ of $V(G)$, $e_G(P)\ge \sum_{A\in P} l(A)-l(V(G))$, where $e_G(P)$ denotes the number of edges of $G$ joining different parts of $P$. Let $λ\in [0,1]$ be a real number and let $η$ be a real function on $X$. In this paper, we show that if $G$ is $l$-partition-connected and for all $S\subseteq X$, $$Θ_l(G \setminus S) \le \sum_{v\in S} (η(v) -2l(v))+l(V(G))+l(S)-λ(e_G(S))+l(S)…
Let $X$ be an $n$-element set, where $n$ is even. We refute a conjecture of J. Gordon and Y. Teplitskaya, according to which, for every maximal intersecting family $\mathcal{F}$ of $\frac{n}2$-element subsets of $X$, one can partition $X$ into $\frac{n}2$ disjoint pairs in such a way that no matter how we pick one element from each of the first $\frac{n}2 - 1$ pairs, the set formed by them can always be completed to a member of $\mathcal{F}$ by adding an element of the last pair. The above problem is related to classical questions in extremal set theory. For any $t\ge 2$, we call a family of s…
We show that finding minimally intersecting $n$ paths from $s$ to $t$ in a directed graph or $n$ perfect matchings in a bipartite graph can be done in polynomial time. This holds more generally for unimodular set systems.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee(密尔沃基威斯康星大学);Missouri Western State University(密苏里西部州立大学);University of Delaware(特拉华大学);Rutgers University(罗格斯大学);University of Maryland, College Park(马里兰大学帕克分校)
Let $\mathcal{B}(n)$ denote the collection of all set partitions of $[n]$. Suppose $\mathcal{A} \subseteq \mathcal{B}(n)$ is a non-trivial $t$-intersecting family of set partitions i.e. any two members of $\A$ have at least $t$ blocks in common, but there is no fixed $t$ blocks of size one which belong to all of them. It is proved that for sufficiently large $n$ depending on $t$, \[ |\mathcal{A}| \le B_{n-t}-\tilde{B}_{n-t}-\tilde{B}_{n-t-1}+t \] where $B_{n}$ is the $n$-th Bell number and $\tilde{B}_{n}$ is the number of set partitions of $[n]$ without blocks of size one. Moreover, equality h…
An extremal graph for a given graph $H$ is a graph on $n$ vertices with maximum number of edges that does not contain $H$ as a subgraph. Let $s,t$ be integers and let $H_{s,t}$ be a graph consisting of $s$ triangles and $t$ cycles of odd lengths at least 5 which intersect in exactly one common vertex. Erdős et al. (1995) determined the extremal graphs for $H_{s,0}$. Recently, Hou et al. (2016) determined the extremal graphs for $H_{0,t}$, where the $t$ cycles have the same odd length $q$ with $q\ge 5$. In this paper, we further determine the extremal graphs for $H_{s,t}$ with $s\ge 0$ and $t\g…
This work examines the problem of clique enumeration on a graph by exploiting its clique covers. The principle of inclusion/exclusion is applied to determine the number of cliques of size $r$ in the graph union of a set $\mathcal{C} = \{c_1, \ldots, c_m\}$ of $m$ cliques. This leads to a deeper examination of the sets involved and to an orbit partition, $Γ$, of the power set $\mathcal{P}(\mathcal{N}_{m})$ of $\mathcal{N}_{m} = \{1, \ldots, m\}$. Applied to the cliques, this partition gives insight into clique enumeration and yields new results on cliques within a clique cover, including expres…
A long standing conjecture of Richter and Thomassen states that the total number of intersection points between any $n$ simple closed Jordan curves in the plane, so that any pair of them intersect and no three curves pass through the same point, is at least $(1-o(1))n^2$. We confirm the above conjecture in several important cases, including the case (1) when all curves are convex, and (2) when the family of curves can be partitioned into two equal classes such that each curve from the first class is touching every curve from the second class. (Two curves are said to be touching if they have pr…
We define and study a special type of hypergraph. A $σ$-hypergraph $H= H(n,r,q$ $\mid$ $σ$), where $σ$ is a partition of $r$, is an $r$-uniform hypergraph having $nq$ vertices partitioned into $ n$ classes of $q$ vertices each. If the classes are denoted by $V_1$, $V_2$,...,$V_n$, then a subset $K$ of $V(H)$ of size $r$ is an edge if the partition of $r$ formed by the non-zero cardinalities $ \mid$ $K$ $\cap$ $V_i \mid$, $ 1 \leq i \leq n$, is $σ$. The non-empty intersections $K$ $\cap$ $V_i$ are called the parts of $K$, and $s(σ)$ denotes the number of parts. We consider various types of cycl…
Motivated by an approach to visualization of high dimensional statistical data given in Hurley and Oldford (2011), this work examines the clique structure of $J_n(m, m-1)$ Johnson graphs. Cliques and maximal cliques are characterized and proved to be of one of only two types. These types are characterized by features of the intersection and of the union of the subsets of [n] = {1, 2, ..., n} which define the vertices of the graph. Clique numbers and clique partition numbers follow. The results on Johnson graphs are connected to results on intersecting families of sets related to extremal set t…
The main focus of this thesis is a generalization of covering arrays, covering arrays on graphs. Two vectors v,w in Z_k^n are qualitatively independent if for all ordered pairs (a,b) in Z_k x Z_k there is a position i in the vectors where (a,b) = (v_i,w_i). A covering array is an array with the property that any pair of rows are qualitatively independent. A covering array on a graph is an array with a row for each vertex of the graph with the property that any two rows which correspond to adjacent vertices are qualitatively independent. The addition of a graph structure to covering arrays make…
Many interesting problems are obtained by attempting to generalize classical results on convexity in Euclidean spaces to other convexity spaces, in particular to convexity spaces on graphs. In this paper we consider $P_3$-convexity on graphs. A set $U$ of vertices in a graph $G$ is $P_3$-convex if every vertex not in $U$ has at most one neighbour in $U$. More specifically, we consider Radon numbers for $P_3$-convexity in trees. Tverberg's theorem states that every set of $(k-1)(d+1)-1$ points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ can be partitioned into $k$ sets with intersecting convex hulls. As a special case o…
Let $S$ be a 2-colored (red and blue) set of $n$ points in the plane. A subset $I$ of $S$ is an island if there exits a convex set $C$ such that $I=C\cap S$. The discrepancy of an island is the absolute value of the number of red minus the number of blue points it contains. A convex partition of $S$ is a partition of $S$ into islands with pairwise disjoint convex hulls. The discrepancy of a convex partition is the discrepancy of its island of minimum discrepancy. The coarseness of $S$ is the discrepancy of the convex partition of $S$ with maximum discrepancy. This concept was recently defined …
An explicit formula for Koornwinder moments and Rains' positivity conjecture
Sungkyunkwan University(成均馆大学);Ewha Womans University(梨花女子大学);Research Center for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Shandong University(山东大学数学与交叉科学研究中心);Yonsei University(延世大学)