For a fixed $r$, let $f_r(n)$ denote the minimum number of complete $r$-partite $r$-graphs needed to partition the complete $r$-graph on $n$ vertices. The Graham-Pollak theorem asserts that $f_2(n)=n-1$. An easy construction shows that $f_r(n) \leq (1+o(1))\binom{n}{\lfloor r/2 \rfloor}$, and we write $c_r$ for the least number such that $f_r(n) \leq c_r (1+o(1))\binom{n}{\lfloor r/2 \rfloor}$. It was known that $c_r < 1$ for each even $r \geq 4$, but this was not known for any odd value of $r$. In this short note, we prove that $c_{295}<1$. Our method also shows that $c_r \rightarrow 0$, answ…
Let $f_r(n)$ represent the minimum number of complete $r$-partite $r$-graphs required to partition the edge set of the complete $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices. The Graham-Pollak theorem states that $f_2(n)=n-1$. An upper bound of $(1+o(1)){n \choose \lfloor{\frac{r}{2}}\rfloor}$ was known. Recently this was improved to $\frac{14}{15}(1+o(1)){n \choose \lfloor{\frac{r}{2}}\rfloor}$ for even $r \geq 4$. A bound of $\bigg[\frac{r}{2}(\frac{14}{15})^{\frac{r}{4}}+o(1)\bigg](1+o(1)){n \choose \lfloor{\frac{r}{2}}\rfloor}$ was also proved recently. The smallest odd $r$ for which $c_r < 1$ th…
R. L. Graham and H. O. Pollak observed that the sequence $$u_1=1,\qquad u_{n+1}=\lfloor \sqrt{2} (u_n+1/2)\rfloor, \quad n\geq 1,$$ has the curious property that the sequence of numbers $(u_{2n+1}-2u_{2n-1})_{n\geq 1}$ denotes the binary digits of $\sqrt{2}$. We present an extension of Graham--Pollak's sequence which allows to get -- in a fancy way -- the binary digits of $759250125\sqrt{2}$ and other numbers.