The Erdős Matching Conjecture and concentration inequalities

The Erdős-Gyárfás function $f(n, 4, 5) = \frac 56 n + o(n)$ -- so Gyárfás was right

A $(4, 5)$-coloring of $K_n$ is an edge-coloring of $K_n$ where every $4$-clique spans at least five colors. We show that there exist $(4, 5)$-colorings of $K_n$ using $\frac 56 n + o(n)$ colors. This settles a disagreement between Erdős and Gyárfás reported in their 1997 paper. Our construction uses a randomized process which we analyze using the so-called differential equation method to establish dynamic concentration. In particular, our coloring process uses random triangle removal, a process first introduced by Bollobás and Erdős, and analyzed by Bohman, Frieze and Lubetzky.

Stein's method for concentration inequalities

We introduce a version of Stein's method for proving concentration and moment inequalities in problems with dependence. Simple illustrative examples from combinatorics, physics, and mathematical statistics are provided.

Non-concentration of the chromatic number of a random graph

We show that the chromatic number of $G_{n, \frac 12}$ is not concentrated on fewer than $n^{\frac 14 - \varepsilon}$ consecutive values. This addresses a longstanding question raised by Erdős and several other authors.

Two new Probability inequalities and Concentration Results

Concentration results and probabilistic analysis for combinatorial problems like the TSP, MWST, graph coloring have received much attention, but generally, for i.i.d. samples (i.i.d. points in the unit square for the TSP, for example). Here, we prove two probability inequalities which generalize and strengthen Martingale inequalities. The inequalities provide the tools to deal with more general heavy-tailed and inhomogeneous distributions for combinatorial problems. We prove a wide range of applications - in addition to the TSP, MWST, graph coloring, we also prove more general results than kno…

Random walk hitting times and effective resistance in sparsely connected Erdős-Rényi random graphs

We prove expectation and concentration results for the following random variables on an Erdős-Rényi random graph $\mathcal{G}\left(n,p\right)$ in the sparsely connected regime $\log n + \log\log \log n \leq np < n^{1/10}$: effective resistances, random walk hitting and commute times, the Kirchoff index, cover cost, random target times, the mean hitting time and Kemeny's constant. For the effective resistance between two vertices our concentration result extends further to $np\geq c\log n, \; c>0$. To achieve these results, we show that a strong connectedness property holds with high probabilit…

Tree/Endofunction Bijections and Concentration Inequalities

We demonstrate a method for proving precise concentration inequalities in uniformly random trees on $n$ vertices, where $n\geq1$ is a fixed positive integer. The method uses a bijection between mappings $f\colon\{1,\ldots,n\}\to\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and doubly rooted trees on $n$ vertices. The main application is a concentration inequality for the number of vertices connected to an independent set in a uniformly random tree, which is then used to prove partial unimodality of its independent set sequence. So, we give probabilistic arguments for inequalities that often use combinatorial arguments.

Extension results for boolean maps and a class of systems of linear inequalities

In this paper we introduce the notion of {\it core} for two specific classes of boolean maps on finite involution posets (which are a generalization of the boolean lattices) and we prove some extension results for such families of boolean maps. Through the properties of the core, we provide a complete characterization of such maps. The main purpose of such abstract results is their application to the study of the compatibility of a particular class of systems of linear inequalities related to a conjecture of Manickam, Miklös and Singhi (\cite{ManSin88}, \cite{ManMik87}), still unsolved and tha…

Optimal Littlewood-Offord inequalities in groups

We prove several Littlewood-Offord type inequalities for arbitrary groups. In groups having elements of finite order the worst case scenario is provided by the simple random walk on a certain cyclic subgroup. The inequalities we obtain are optimal if the underlying group contains an element of certain order. It turns out that for torsion-free groups Erdős's bound still holds. Our results strengthen and generalize some very recent results by Tiep and Vu.

去随机化自由概率中的矩阵集中不等式

Derandomizing Matrix Concentration Inequalities from Free Probability

本文利用自由概率理论设计多项式时间确定性算法，解决矩阵Spencer问题和构造近拉马努金图，并展示自由概率概念在数学分析和高效计算中的应用。

Concentration inequalities for non-Lipschitz functions with bounded derivatives of higher order

Building on the inequalities for homogeneous tetrahedral polynomials in independent Gaussian variables due to R. Latała we provide a concentration inequality for non-necessarily Lipschitz functions $f\colon \R^n \to \R$ with bounded derivatives of higher orders, which hold when the underlying measure satisfies a family of Sobolev type inequalities $\|g- \E g\|_p \le C(p)\|\nabla g\|_p.$ Such Sobolev type inequalities hold, e.g., if the underlying measure satisfies the log-Sobolev inequality (in which case $C(p) \le C\sqrt{p}$) or the Poincaré inequality (then $C(p) \le Cp$). Our concentration …