This is an expanded version of the Notices of the AMS column with the same title. The text is unchanged, but we added acknowledgements and a large number of endnotes which provide the context and the references.
Let M and N be Orlicz functions. We establish some combinatorial inequalities and show that the product spaces l^n_M(l^n_N) are uniformly isomorphic to subspaces of L_1 if M and N are "separated" by a function t^r, 1<r<2.
In 1981, Stanley applied the Aleksandrov-Fenchel inequalities to prove a logarithmic concavity theorem for regular matroids. Using ideas from electrical network theory we prove a generalization of this for the wider class of matroids with the ``half-plane property''. Then we explore a nest of inequalities for weighted basis-generating polynomials that are related to these ideas. As a first result from this investigation we find that every matroid of rank three or corank three satisfies a condition only slightly weaker than the conclusion of Stanley's theorem.
Using calculus we show how to prove some combinatorial inequalities of the type log-concavity or log-convexity. It is shown by this method that binomial coefficients and Stirling numbers of the first and second kinds are log-concave, and that Motzkin numbers and secondary structure numbers of rank 1 are log-convex. In fact, we prove via calculus a much stronger result that a natural continuous ``patchwork'' (i.e. corresponding dynamical systems) of Motzkin numbers and secondary structures recursions are increasing functions. We indicate how to prove asymptotically the log-convexity for general…
We consider the number of the $6$-regular partitions of $n$, $b_6(n)$, and give infinite families of congruences modulo $3$ (in arithmetic progression) for $b_6(n)$. We also consider the number of the partitions of $n$ into distinct parts not congruent to $\pm 2$ modulo $6$, $Q_2(n)$, and investigate connections between $b_6(n)$ and $Q_2(n)$ providing new combinatorial interpretations for these partition functions. In this context, we discover new infinite families of linear inequalities involving Euler's partition function $p(n)$. Infinite families of linear inequalities involving the $6$-reg…
In this paper, we derive some new combinatorial inequalities by applying well known real analytic results like Hölder's inequality, Young's inequality, and Minkowiski's inequality to the recursively defined sequence $f_n$ of functions \begin{align*} f_0(x) & = χ_{(-1/2, 1/2)} (x), \nonumber f_{n+1}(x) & = f_n(x+1/2)+ f_n(x-1/2), n \in \mathbb{N}\,\cup \,\{0\}. \end{align*} Towards this goal, we derive the closed form of the aforementioned sequence $ (f_n)_{n\in \mathbb{N}\,\cup \,\{0\}}$ of functions and show that it is a sequence of simple functions that are linear combinations of characteris…
Small ball inequalities have been extensively studied in the setting of Gaussian processes and associated Banach or Hilbert spaces. In this paper, we focus on studying small ball probabilities for sums or differences of independent, identically distributed random elements taking values in very general sets. Depending on the setting--abelian or nonabelian groups, or vector spaces, or Banach spaces--we provide a collection of inequalities relating different small ball probabilities that are sharp in many cases of interest. We prove these distribution-free probabilistic inequalities by showing th…
We give a combinatorial extension of the classical inequalities of Maclaurin about symmetric functions of several variables. We discuss two problems - one analytical and another combinatorial - and show that they are in some sense equaivalent. These results complete and extend earlier results of Motzkin and Straus, Khadzhiivanov, Sos and Straus, Fisher and Ryan, and Petingi and Rodriguez.
We establish combinatorial versions of various classical systolic inequalities. For a smooth triangulation of a closed smooth manifold, the minimal number of edges in a homotopically non-trivial loop contained in the $1$-skeleton gives an integer called the combinatorial systole. The number of top-dimensional simplices in the triangulation gives another integer called the combinatorial volume. We show that a class of smooth manifolds satisfies a systolic inequality for all Riemannian metrics if and only if it satisfies a corresponding combinatorial systolic inequality for all smooth triangulat…
This paper is about hyperbolic properties on planar graphs. First, we study the relations among various kinds of strong isoperimetric inequalities on planar graphs and their duals. In particular, we show that a planar graph satisfies a strong isoperimetric inequality if and only if its dual has the same property, if the graph satisfies some minor regularity conditions and we choose an appropriate notion of strong isoperimetric inequalities. Second, we consider planar graphs where negative combinatorial curvatures dominate, and use the outcomes of the first part to strengthen the results of Hig…
How much cutting is needed to simplify the topology of a surface? We provide bounds for several instances of this question, for the minimum length of topologically non-trivial closed curves, pants decompositions, and cut graphs with a given combinatorial map in triangulated combinatorial surfaces (or their dual cross-metric counterpart). Our work builds upon Riemannian systolic inequalities, which bound the minimum length of non-trivial closed curves in terms of the genus and the area of the surface. We first describe a systematic way to translate Riemannian systolic inequalities to a discrete…
We consider log-convex sequences that satisfy an additional constraint imposed on their rate of growth. We call such sequences log-balanced. It is shown that all such sequences satisfy a pair of double inequalities. Sufficient conditions for log-balancedness are given for the case when the sequence satisfies a two- (or more-) term linear recurrence. It is shown that many combinatorially interesting sequences belong to this class, and, as a consequence, that the above-mentioned double inequalities are valid for all of them.
In a recent work [2] with Datta, we introduced the mu vector (with respect to a given field) of simplicial complexes and used it to study tightness and lower bounds. In this paper, we modify the definition of mu vectors. With the new definition, most results of [2] become correct without the hypothesis of 2-neighbourliness. In particular, the combinatorial Morse inequalities of [2] are now true of all simplicial complexes. As an application, we prove the following generalized lower bound theorem (GLBT) for connected locally tame combinatorial manifolds. If $M$ is such a manifold of dimension $…
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…
Combinatorial properties of holographic entropy inequalities
Brandeis University(布兰迪斯大学);Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques(高等科学研究所);University of California, Davis(加州大学戴维斯分校);Technion - Israel Institute of Technology(以色列理工学院)
In graph theory there are intimate connections between the expansion properties of a graph and the spectrum of its Laplacian. In this paper we define a notion of combinatorial expansion for simplicial complexes of general dimension, and prove that similar connections exist between the combinatorial expansion of a complex, and the spectrum of the high dimensional Laplacian defined by Eckmann. In particular, we present a Cheeger-type inequality, and a high-dimensional Expander Mixing Lemma. As a corollary, using the work of Pach, we obtain a connection between spectral properties of complexes an…
Inspired by the classical Riemannian systolic inequality of Gromov we present a combinatorial analogue providing a lower bound on the number of vertices of a simplicial complex in terms of its edge-path systole. Similarly to the Riemannian case, where the inequality holds under a topological assumption of "essentiality", our proofs rely on a combinatorial analogue of that assumption. Under a stronger assumption, expressed in terms of cohomology cup-length, we improve our results quantitatively. We also illustrate our methods in the continuous setting, generalizing and improving quantitatively …
We give a combinatorial proof of the result of Kahn, Kalai, and Linial, which states that every balanced boolean function on the $n$-dimensional boolean cube has a variable with influence of at least Omega(\frac{log n}{n}). The methods of the proof are then used to recover additional isoperimetric results for the cube, with improved constants. We also state some conjectures about optimal constants and discuss their possible implications
The study of ordering polytopes has been essential to the solution of various challenging combinatorial optimization problems. For instance, the incorporation of facet defining inequalities (FDIs) from these polytopes in branch-and-cut approaches represents among the most effective solution methodologies known to date for some of these problems. The weak order polytope, defined as the convex hull of the characteristic vectors of all binary orders on $n$ alternatives that are reflexive, transitive, and complete, has been particularly important for tackling problems in computational social choic…
From a combinatorial perspective, we establish three inequalities on coefficients of $R$- and Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials for crystallographic Coxeter groups: (1) Nonnegativity of $(q-1)$-coefficients of $R$-polynomials, (2) a new criterion of rational singularities of Bruhat intervals by sum of quadratic coefficients of $R$-polynomials, (3) existence of a certain strict inequality (coefficientwise) of Kazhdan-Lusztig polynomials. Our main idea is to understand Deodhar's inequality in a connection with a sum of $R$-polynomials and edges of Bruhat graphs.
In order to provide a unified combinatorial interpretation of congruences modulo $5$ for 2-colored partition functions, Garvan introduced a bicrank statistic in terms of weighted vector partitions. In this paper, we obtain some inequalities between the bicrank counts $M^{*}(r,m,n)$ for $m=2$, $3$ and $4$ via their asymptotic formulas and some $q$-series techniques. These inequalities are parallel to Andrews and Lewis' results on the rank and crank counts for ordinary partitions.
Combinatorial Bounds for List Recovery via Discrete Brascamp--Lieb Inequalities
University of California, Berkeley(加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校);Department of EECS, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor(密歇根大学安娜堡分校电气与计算机工程系);Department of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology(麻省理工学院数学系);Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley and Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton(加州大学伯克利分校西蒙斯理论计算研究所和普林斯顿高等研究院)
In this paper, we provide a combinatorial/numerical method to establish new hypercontractivity estimates in group von Neumann algebras. We will illustrate our method with free groups, triangular groups and finite cyclic groups, for which we shall obtain optimal time hypercontractive $L_2 \to L_q$ inequalities with respect to the Markov process given by the word length and with $q$ an even integer. Interpolation and differentiation also yield general $L_p \to L_q$ hypercontrativity for $1 < p \le q < \infty$ via logarithmic Sobolev inequalities. Our method admits further applications to other d…
Many problems in combinatorial linear algebra require upper bounds on the number of solutions to an underdetermined system of linear equations $Ax = b$, where the coordinates of the vector $x$ are restricted to take values in some small subset (e.g. $\{\pm 1\}$) of the underlying field. The classical ways of bounding this quantity are to use either a rank bound observation due to Odlyzko or a vector anti-concentration inequality due to Halász. The former gives a stronger conclusion except when the number of equations is significantly smaller than the number of variables; even in such situation…