The $q$-binomial coefficients are q-analogues of the binomial coefficients, counting the number of $k$-dimensional subspaces in the $n$-dimensional vector space $\mathbb{F}^n_q$ over $\mathbb{F}_{q}$. In this paper, we define a Euclidean analogue of $q$-binomial coefficients as the number of $k$-dimensional subspaces which have an orthonormal basis in the quadratic space $(\mathbb{F}_{q}^{n},x_{1}^{2}+x_{2}^{2}+\cdots+x_{n}^{2})$ using a poset structure on these subspaces. We prove its various combinatorial properties comparing with those of $q$-binomial coefficients. In addition, we formulate the number of subspaces of other quadratic types and study some related properties.
We study combinatorics of billiard partitions which arose recently in the description of periodic trajectories of ellipsoidal billiards in d-dimensional Euclidean and pseudo-Euclidean spaces. Such partitions uniquely codify the sets of caustics, up to their types, which generate periodic trajectories. The period of a periodic trajectory is the largest part while the winding numbers are the remaining summands of the corresponding partition. In order to take into account the types of caustics as well, we introduce weighted partitions. We provide closed forms for the generating functions of these…
Finite metric spaces arise in many different contexts. Enormous bodies of data, scientific, commercial and others can often be viewed as large metric spaces. It turns out that the metric of graphs reveals a lot of interesting information. Metric spaces also come up in many recent advances in the theory of algorithms. Finally, finite submetrics of classical geometric objects such as normed spaces or manifolds reflect many important properties of the underlying structure. In this paper we review some of the recent advances in this area.
We investigate the combinatorial interplay between automorphisms and opposition in (primarily finite) generalised polygons. We provide restrictions on the fixed element structures of automorphisms of a generalised polygon mapping no chamber to an opposite chamber. Furthermore, we give a complete classification of automorphisms of finite generalised polygons which map at least one point and at least one line to an opposite, but map no chamber to an opposite chamber. Finally, we show that no automorphism of a finite thick generalised polygon maps all chambers to opposite chambers, except possibl…
We describe the canonical correspondence between set of all finite metric spaces and set of special symmetric convex polytopes, and formulate the problem about classification of the metric spaces in terms of combinatorial structure of those polytopes.
We study constructively the relations between the finite cases of Dickson's lemma. Although there are many constructive proofs of them, the novel aspect of our proofs is the extraction of a corresponding bound. We provide some new one-step unprovability results i.e., results of the form "a finite case of Dickson's lemma does not prove in one step a stronger case of it". Moreover, we study the infinite cases of Dickson's lemma from the point of view of constructive reverse mathematics. We work within Bishop's informal system of constructive mathematics BISH.
We study some combinatorial properties of partial wreath $k$-th power of the semigroup $\mathcal{IS}_d$. In particular, we calculate its order, the number of idempotents and the number of D-classes.
The study of many problems in additive combinatorics, such as Szemerédi's theorem on arithmetic progressions, is made easier by first studying models for the problem in F_p^n for some fixed small prime p. We give a number of examples of finite field models of this type, which allows us to introduce some of the central ideas in additive combinatorics relatively cleanly. We also give an indication of how the intuition gained from the study of finite field models can be helpful for addressing the original questions.
The Voronoi conjecture on parallelohedra claims that for every convex polytope $P$ that tiles Euclidean $d$-dimensional space with translations there exists a $d$-dimensional lattice such that $P$ and the Voronoi polytope of this lattice are affinely equivalent. The Voronoi conjecture is still open for the general case but it is known that some combinatorial restriction for the face structure of $P$ ensure that the Voronoi conjecture holds for $P$. In this paper we prove that if $P$ is the Voronoi polytope of one of the dual root lattices $\mathsf{D}_d^*$, $\mathsf{E}_6^*$, $\mathsf{E}_7^*$ or…
An element of a Coxeter group $W$ is fully commutative if any two of its reduced decompositions are related by a series of transpositions of adjacent commuting generators. In the present work, we focus on fully commutative involutions, which are characterized in terms of Viennot's heaps. By encoding the latter by Dyck-type lattice walks, we enumerate fully commutative involutions according to their length, for all classical finite and affine Coxeter groups. In the finite cases, we also find explicit expressions for their generating functions with respect to the major index. Finally in affine t…
We provide a gentle introduction, aimed at non-experts, to Borel combinatorics that studies definable graphs on topological spaces. This is an emerging field on the borderline between combinatorics and descriptive set theory with deep connections to many other areas. After giving some background material, we present in careful detail some basic tools and results on the existence of Borel satisfying assignments: Borel versions of greedy algorithms and augmenting procedures, local rules, Borel transversals, etc. Also, we present the construction of Andrew Marks of acyclic Borel graphs for which …
We compute the number of $\mathcal{X}$-variables (also called coefficients) of a cluster algebra of finite type when the underlying semifield is the universal semifield. For classical types, these numbers arise from a bijection between coefficients and quadrilaterals (with a choice of diagonal) appearing in triangulations of certain marked surfaces. We conjecture that similar results hold for cluster algebras from arbitrary marked surfaces, and obtain corollaries regarding the structure of finite type cluster algebras of geometric type.
The Polynomial Freiman-Ruzsa conjecture is one of the central open problems in additive combinatorics. If true, it would give tight quantitative bounds relating combinatorial and algebraic notions of approximate subgroups. In this note, we restrict our attention to subsets of Euclidean space. In this regime, the original conjecture considers approximate algebraic subgroups as the set of lattice points in a convex body. Green asked in 2007 whether this can be simplified to a generalized arithmetic progression, while not losing more than a polynomial factor in the underlying parameters. We give …
We study the Erdos distance problem over finite Euclidean and non-Euclidean spaces. Our main tools are graphs associated to finite Euclidean and non-Euclidean spaces that are considered in Bannai-Shimabukuro-Tanaka (2004, 2007). These graphs are shown to be asymptotically Ramanujan graphs. The advantage of using these graphs is twofold. First, we can derive new lower bounds on the Erdos distance problems with explicit constants. Second, we can construct many explicit tough Ramsey graphs R(3,k).
Squaregraphs were originally defined as finite plane graphs in which all inner faces are quadrilaterals (i.e., 4-cycles) and all inner vertices (i.e., the vertices not incident with the outer face) have degrees larger than three. The planar dual of a finite squaregraph is determined by a triangle-free chord diagram of the unit disk, which could alternatively be viewed as a triangle-free line arrangement in the hyperbolic plane. This representation carries over to infinite plane graphs with finite vertex degrees in which the balls are finite squaregraphs. Algebraically, finite squaregraphs are …
In this paper we study the kaleidoscopic pseudo-randomness of finite Euclidean graphs using probabilistic methods. Roughly speaking, we show that sufficiently large subsets of d-dimensional vector spaces over finite fields contain every possible finite configurations.
This paper surveys and develops links between polynomial invariants of finite groups, factorization theory of Krull domains, and product-one sequences over finite groups. The goal is to gain a better understanding of the multiplicative ideal theory of invariant rings, and connections between the Noether number and the Davenport constants of finite groups.
We extend properties of the weak order on finite Coxeter groups to Weyl groupoids admitting a finite root system. In particular, we determine the topological structure of intervals with respect to weak order, and show that the set of morphisms with fixed target object forms an ortho-complemented meet semilattice. We define the Coxeter complex of a Weyl groupoid with finite root system and show that it coincides with the triangulation of a sphere cut out by a simplicial hyperplane arrangement. As a consequence, one obtains an algebraic interpretation of many hyperplane arrangements that are not…
We study the distribution of singular and unimodular matrices in sumsets in matrix rings over finite fields. We apply these results to estimate the largest prime divisor of the determinants in sumsets in matrix rings over the integers.
Introduced by Kawanaka in order to find the unipotent representations of finite groups of Lie type, generalized Gelfand--Graev characters have remained somewhat mysterious. Even in the case of the finite general linear groups, the combinatorics of their decompositions has not been worked out. This paper re-interprets Kawanaka's definition in type $A$ in a way that gives far more flexibility in computations. We use these alternate constructions to show how to obtain generalized Gelfand--Graev representations directly from the maximal unipotent subgroups. We also explicitly decompose the corresp…
Occam's Razor tells us to pick the simplest model that fits our observations. In order to make sense of his process mathematically, we interpret it in the context of posets of functions. Our approach leads to some unusual new combinatorial problems concerning functions between finite sets. The same ideas are used to define a nicely behaved and apparently unknown analogue of the rank of a group. We also make a construction that associates with each group an infinite sequence of numbers called its fusion sequence. The first term in this sequence is determined by the rank of the group and we prov…
The Laver tables are finite combinatorial objects with a simple elementary definition, which were introduced by R. Laver from considerations of logic and set theory. Although these objects exhibit some fascinating properties, they seem to have escaped notice from the combinatorics community. My aim is to give a short introduction to this topic, presenting the definition and main properties and stating a few open problems, which should arouse the interest of combinatorialists.
The following thesis contains results on the combinatorial representation theory of the finite Hecke algebra $H_n(q)$. In Chapter 2 simple combinatorial descriptions are given which determine when a Specht module corresponding to a partition $λ$ is irreducible. This is done by extending the results of James and Mathas. These descriptions depend on the crystal of the basic representation of the affine Lie algebra $\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}_\ell}$. In Chapter 3 these results are extended to determine which irreducible modules have a realization as a Specht module. To do this, a new condition of irr…
A remarkable result at the intersection of number theory and group theory states that the order of a finite group $G$ (denoted $|G|$) is divisible by the dimension $d_R$ of any irreducible complex representation of $G$. We show that the integer ratios ${ |G|^2 / d_R^2 } $ are combinatorially constructible using finite algorithms which take as input the amplitudes of combinatoric topological strings ($G$-CTST) of finite groups based on 2D Dijkgraaf-Witten topological field theories ($G$-TQFT2). The ratios are also shown to be eigenvalues of handle creation operators in $G$-TQFT2/$G$-CTST. These…
In statistical physics, the challenging combinatorial enumeration of the configurations of a system subject to hard constraints (microcanonical ensemble) is mapped to a mathematically easier calculation where the constraints are softened (canonical ensemble). However, the mapping is exact only when the size of the system is infinite and if the property of ensemble equivalence (EE), i.e. the asymptotic identity of canonical and microcanonical large deviations, holds. For finite systems, or when EE breaks down, statistical physics is currently believed to provide no answer to the combinatorial p…
Arithmetic combinatorics is often concerned with the problem of bounding the behaviour of arbitrary finite sets in a group or ring with respect to arithmetic operations such as addition or multiplication. Similarly, combinatorial geometry is often concerned with the problem of bounding the behaviour of arbitrary finite collections of geometric objects such as points, lines, or circles with respect to geometric operations such as incidence or distance. Given the presence of arbitrary finite sets in these problems, the methods used to attack these problems have primarily been combinatorial in na…
For every finite Coxeter group $Γ$, each positive braids in the corresponding braid group admits a unique decomposition as a finite sequence of elements of $Γ$, the so-called Garside-normal form.The study of the associated adjacency matrix $Adj(Γ)$ allows to count the number of Garside-normal form of a given length.In this paper we prove that the characteristic polynomial of $Adj(B_n)$ divides the one of $Adj(B_{n+1})$. The key point is the use of a Hopf algebra based on signed permutations. A similar result was already known for the type $A$. We observe that this does not hold for type $D$. T…
We study the space of all tilings which can be obtained using the Robinson tiles (this is a two-dimensional subshift of finite type). We prove that it has a unique minimal subshift, and describe it by means of a substitution. This description allows to compute its cohomology groups, and prove that it is a model set.
The Weil representation of the symplectic group associated to a finite abelian group of odd order is shown to have a multiplicity-free decomposition. When the abelian group is p-primary, the irreducible representations occurring in the Weil representation are parametrized by a partially ordered set which is independent of p. As p varies, the dimension of the irreducible representation corresponding to each parameter is shown to be a polynomial in p which is calculated explicitly. The commuting algebra of the Weil representation has a basis indexed by another partially ordered set which is inde…
We adapt methods coming from additive combinatorics in groups to the study of linear span in associative unital algebras. In particular, we establish for these algebras analogues of Diderrich-Kneser's and Hamidoune's theorems on sumsets and Tao's theorem on sets of small doubling. In passing we classify the finite-dimensional algebras over infinite fields with finitely many subalgebras. These algebras play a crucial role in our linear version of Diderrich-Kneser's theorem. We also explain how the original theorems for groups we linearize can be easily deduced from our results applied to group …
The category of matchings between finite sets extends to the category of cobordisms of signed sets. A chain of cobordisms that starts and ends with unsigned sets A and B yields a matching from A to B. This is a convenient way to package the involution principle of Garsia and Milne, which reveals itself to have little to do with involutions.
The article 'A "regular" pentagonal tiling of the plane' by P. L. Bowers and K. Stephenson defines a conformal pentagonal tiling. This is a tiling of the plane with remarkable combinatorial and geometric properties. However, it doesn't have finite local complexity in any usual sense, and therefore we cannot study it with the usual tiling theory. The appeal of the tiling is that all the tiles are conformally regular pentagons. But conformal maps are not allowable under finite local complexity. On the other hand, the tiling can be described completely by its combinatorial data, which rather auto…
The combinatorial theory of species developed by Joyal provides a foundation for enumerative combinatorics of objects constructed from finite sets. In this paper we develop an analogous theory for the enumerative combinatorics of objects constructed from vector spaces over finite fields. Examples of these objects include subspaces, flags of subspaces, direct sum decompositions, and linear maps or matrices of various types. The unifying concept is that of a q-species, defined to be a functor from the category of finite dimensional vector spaces over a finite field with to the category of finite…
We construct algebras from rhombohedral tilings of Euclidean space obtained as projections of certain cubical complexes. We show that these `Cubist algebras' satisfy strong homological properties, such as Koszulity and quasi-heredity, reflecting the combinatorics of the tilings. We construct derived equivalences between Cubist algebras associated to local mutations in tilings. We recover as a special case the Rhombal algebras of Michael Peach and make a precise connection to weight 2 blocks of symmetric groups.
We introduce a general class of regular weight functions on finite abelian groups, and study the combinatorics, the duality theory, and the metric properties of codes endowed with such functions. The weights are obtained by composing a suitable support map with the rank function of a graded lattice satisfying certain regularity properties. A regular weight on a group canonically induces a regular weight on the character group, and invertible MacWilliams identities always hold for such a pair of weights. Moreover, the Krawtchouk coefficients of the corresponding MacWilliams transformation have …
In the course of classifying the homogeneous permutations, Cameron introduced the viewpoint of permutations as structures in a language of two linear orders, and this structural viewpoint is taken up here. The majority of this thesis is concerned with Cameron's problem of classifying the homogeneous structures in a language of finitely many linear orders, which we call finite-dimensional permutation structures. Towards this problem, we present a construction that we conjecture produces all such structures. Some evidence for this conjecture is given, including the classification of the homogene…
For integers $e,\ell\geq 2$, the level $\ell$ Fock space has an $\mathfrak{sl}_\infty$-crystal structure arising from the action of a Heisenberg algebra, intertwining the $\widehat{\mathfrak{sl}_e}$-crystal. The vertices of these crystals are charged $\ell$-partitions. We give the combinatorial rule for computing the arrows anywhere in the $\mathfrak{sl}_\infty$-crystal. This allows us to pinpoint the location of any charged $\ell$-partition. As an application, we compute the support of the spherical representation of a cyclotomic rational Cherednik algebra, and in particular, the set of param…
We study two versions of the asymmetric exclusion process (ASEP) -- an ASEP on a semi-infinite lattice with an open left boundary, and an ASEP on a finite lattice with open left and right boundaries -- and we demonstrate a surprising relationship between their stationary measures. The semi-infinite ASEP was first studied by Liggett and then Grosskinsky, while the finite ASEP had been introduced earlier by Spitzer and Macdonald-Gibbs-Pipkin. We show that the finite correlation functions involving the first L sites for the stationary measures on the semi-infinite ASEP can be obtained as a nonphy…
Consider generalizations of the boundary singularities B_n of the functions on the real line to the case where the boundary consists of a finite number of l points. These singularities B_n^l could also arise in higher dimensional case, when the boundary is an immersed hypersurface. We obtain a particular recurrent equation on the numbers of connected components of very nice M-morsification spaces of the multiboundary singularities B_n^l. This helps us to express the numbers K_n^l (for l=2,3,4...) by Bernoulli-Euler numbers. We also find the corresponding generating functions.
We consider unitary graphs attached to Z_d^n using an analogue of the Euclidean distance. These graphs are shown to be integral when n is odd or the dimension d is even.
