The crossing number ${\mbox {cr}}(G)$ of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is the smallest number of edge crossings over all drawings of $G$ in the plane. For any $k\ge 1$, the $k$-planar crossing number of $G$, ${\mbox {cr}}_k(G)$, is defined as the minimum of ${\mbox {cr}}(G_1)+{\mbox {cr}}(G_2)+\ldots+{\mbox {cr}}(G_{k})$ over all graphs $G_1, G_2,\ldots, G_{k}$ with $\cup_{i=1}^{k}G_i=G$. Pach et al. [\emph{Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications} {\bf 68} 2--6, (2018)] showed that for every $k\ge 1$, we have ${\mbox {cr}}_k(G)\le \left(\frac{2}{k^2}-\frac1{k^3}\right){\mbox {cr}}(G)$ and that this bound does not remain true if we replace the constant $\frac{2}{k^2}-\frac1{k^3}$ by any number smaller than $\frac1{k^2}$. We improve the upper bound to $\frac{1}{k^2}(1+o(1))$ as $k\rightarrow \infty$. For the class of bipartite graphs, we show that the best constant is exactly $\frac{1}{k^2}$ for every $k$. The results extend to the rectilinear variant of the $k$-planar crossing number.
We derive a formula for the expected number of blocks of a given size from a non-crossing partition chosen uniformly at random. Moreover, we refine this result subject to the restriction of having a number of blocks given. Furthermore, we generalize to k-divisible partitions. In particular, we find that, asymptotically, the expected number of blocks of size t of a k-divisible non-crossing partition of nk elements chosen uniformly at random is (kn+1)/(k+1)^(t+1). Similar results are obtained for type B and type D k-divisible non-crossing partitions of Armstrong.
In this paper we present a complete characterization of the smallest sets that block all the simple spanning trees (SSTs) in a complete geometric graph. We also show that if a subgraph is a blocker for all SSTs of diameter at most 4, then it must block all simple spanning subgraphs, and in particular, all SSTs. For convex geometric graphs, we obtain an even stronger result: being a blocker for all SSTs of diameter at most 3 is already sufficient for blocking all simple spanning subgraphs.
We present a bijection between non-crossing partitions of the set $[2n+1]$ into $n+1$ blocks such that no block contains two consecutive integers, and the set of sequences $\{s_{i}\}_{1}^{n}$ such that $1 \leq s_{i} \leq i$, and if $s_{i}=j$, then $s_{i-r} \leq j-r$ for $1 \leq r \leq j-1$.
A partition on $[n]$ has a crossing if there exists $i\_1<i\_2<j\_1<j\_2$ such that $i\_1$ and $j\_1$ are in the same block, $i\_2$ and $j\_2$ are in the same block, but $i\_1$ and $i\_2$ are not in the same block. Recently, Chen et al. refined this classical notion by introducing $k$-crossings, for any integer $k$. In this new terminology, a classical crossing is a 2-crossing. The number of partitions of $[n]$ avoiding 2-crossings is well-known to be the $n$th Catalan number $C\_n={{2n}\choose n}/(n+1)$. This raises the question of counting $k$-noncrossing partitions for $k\ge 3$. We prove th…
We consider $m$-divisible non-crossing partitions of $\{1,2,\ldots,mn\}$ with the property that for some $t\leq n$ no block contains more than one of the first $t$ integers. We give a closed formula for the number of multi-chains of such non-crossing partitions with prescribed number of blocks. Building on this result, we compute Chapoton's $M$-triangle in this setting and conjecture a combinatorial interpretation for the $H$-triangle. This conjecture is proved for $m=1$.
We study the distribution of several statistics of large non-crossing partitions. First, we prove the Gaussian limit theorem for the number of blocks of a given fixed size. In contrast to the properties of usual set partitions, we show that the number of blocks of different sizes are negatively correlated, even for large partitions. In addition, we show that the sizes of blocks in a given large non-crossing partition are distributed according to a geometric distribution and not Poisson, as in the case of usual set partitions. Next, we show that the size of the largest block concentrates at $\l…
Storyline visualizations help visualize encounters of the characters in a story over time. Each character is represented by an x-monotone curve that goes from left to right. A meeting is represented by having the characters that participate in the meeting run close together for some time. In order to keep the visual complexity low, rather than just minimizing pairwise crossings of curves, we propose to count block crossings, that is, pairs of intersecting bundles of lines. Our main results are as follows. We show that minimizing the number of block crossings is NP-hard, and we develop, for mee…
We introduce and study the model of simply generated non-crossing partitions, which are, roughly speaking, chosen at random according to a sequence of weights. This framework encompasses the particular case of uniform non-crossing partitions with constraints on their block sizes. Our main tool is a bijection between non-crossing partitions and plane trees, which maps such simply generated non-crossing partitions into simply generated trees so that blocks of size $k$ are in correspondence with vertices of outdegree $k$. This allows us to obtain limit theorems concerning the block structure of s…
Let $π$ and $λ$ be two set partitions with the same number of blocks. Assume $π$ is a partition of $[n]$. For any integer $l, m \geq 0$, let $\mathcal{T}(π, l)$ be the set of partitions of $[n+l]$ whose restrictions to the last $n$ elements are isomorphic to $π$, and $\mathcal{T}(π, l, m)$ the subset of $\mathcal{T}(π,l)$ consisting of those partitions with exactly $m$ blocks. Similarly define $\mathcal{T}(λ, l)$ and $\mathcal{T}(λ, l,m)$. We prove that if the statistic $cr$ ($ne$), the number of crossings (nestings) of two edges, coincides on the sets $\mathcal{T}(π, l)$ and $\mathcal{T}(λ, l…
We present results on the enumeration of crossings and nestings for matchings and set partitions. Using a bijection between partitions and vacillating tableaux, we show that if we fix the sets of minimal block elements and maximal block elements, the crossing number and the nesting number of partitions have a symmetric joint distribution. It follows that the crossing numbers and the nesting numbers are distributed symmetrically over all partitions of $[n]$, as well as over all matchings on $[2n]$. As a corollary, the number of $k$-noncrossing partitions is equal to the number of $k$-nonnesting…
We study the asymptotic distribution of the two following combinatorial parameters: the number of arc crossings in the linear representation, ${\mathrm cr^{(\ell)}$, and the number of chord crossings in the circular representation, ${\mathrm cr^{(c)}$, of a random set partition. We prove that, for $k\leq n/(2\,\log n)$ (resp., ${k=o(\sqrt{n})}$), the distribution of the parameter ${\mathrm cr^{(\ell)}$ (resp., ${\mathrm cr^{(c)}$) taken over partitions of $[n]:=\{1,2,...,n\}$ into $k$ blocks is, after standardization, asymptotically Gaussian as $n$ tends to infinity. We give exact and asymptot…
We introduce a statistic $\pmaj$ on partitions of $[n]=\{1,2,..., n\}$, and show that it is equidistributed with the number of 2-crossings over partitions of $[n]$ with given sets of minimal block elements and maximal block elements. This generalizes the classical result of equidistribution for the permutation statistics inversion number and major index.
Bose proved the inequality $b\geq v+r-1$ for resolvable balanced incomplete block designs (RBIBDs) and Kageyama improved it for RBIBDs which are not affine resolvable. In this note we prove a new lower bound on the number of blocks $b$ that holds for all BIBDs. We further prove that for a significantly large number of BIBDs our bound is tighter than the bounds given by the inequalities of Bose and Kageyama.
This paper gives a construction of group divisible designs on the binary extension fields with block sizes 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, respectively, which is motivated from the decoding of binary quadratic residue codes. A conjecture is proposed for this construction of group divisible designs with larger block sizes.
We propose a procedure of constructing new block designs starting from a given one by looking at the intersections of its blocks with various sets and grouping those sets according to the structure of the intersections. We introduce a symmetric relationship of friendship between block designs built on a set $V$ and consider families of block designs where all designs are friends of each other, the so-called friendly families. We show that a friendly family admits a partial ordering. Furthermore, we exhibit a map from the power set of $V$, partially ordered by inclusion, to a friendly family of…
We present a new heuristic method for minimising crossings in a graph. The method is based upon repeatedly solving the so-called {\em star insertion problem} in the setting where the combinatorial embedding is fixed, and has several desirable characteristics for practical use. We introduce the method, discuss some aspects of algorithm design for our implementation, and provide some experimental results. The results indicate that our method compares well to existing methods, and also that it is suitable for dense instances.
A graph is pseudo-outerplanar if each of its blocks has an embedding in the plane so that the vertices lie on a fixed circle and the edges lie inside the disk of this circle with each of them crossing at most one another. It is proved that every pseudo-outerplanar graph with maximum degree Δ\geq 5 is totally (Δ+1)-choosable.
Given a finite irreducible Coxeter group $W$, a positive integer $d$, and types $T_1,T_2,...,T_d$ (in the sense of the classification of finite Coxeter groups), we compute the number of decompositions $c=\si_1\si_2 cdots\si_d$ of a Coxeter element $c$ of $W$, such that $\si_i$ is a Coxeter element in a subgroup of type $T_i$ in $W$, $i=1,2,...,d$, and such that the factorisation is "minimal" in the sense that the sum of the ranks of the $T_i$'s, $i=1,2,...,d$, equals the rank of $W$. For the exceptional types, these decomposition numbers have been computed by the first author. The type $A_n$ d…
The paper explores the correspondence between balanced incomplete block designs (BIBD) and certain linear CNF formulas by identifying the points of a block design with the clauses of the Boolean formula and blocks with Boolean variables. Parallel classes in BIBDs correspond to XSAT solutions in the corresponding formula. This correspondence allows for transfers of results from one field to the other. As a new result we deduce from known satisfiability theorems that the problem of finding a parallel class in a partially balanced incomplete block design is NP-complete.
