Notes on the combinatorial fundamentals of algebra
Darij Grinberg
备注:
1403 pages. v3 corrects typos and adds Exercises 6.65--6.69. Not a textbook; rather a repository of proofs I could cite. Posted here for easier referencing (and long-term archival). This project is tracked on https://github.com/darijgr/detnotes
This is a detailed survey -- with rigorous and self-contained proofs -- of some of the basics of elementary combinatorics and algebra, including the properties of finite sums, binomial coefficients, permutations and determinants. It is entirely expository (and written to a large extent as a repository for folklore proofs); no new results (and few, if any, new proofs) appear.
In this short note we present a set of interesting and useful properties of a one-parameter family of sequences including factorial and subfactorial, and their relations to the Gamma function and the incomplete Gamma function.
Given an infinite group $G$ and a subset $A$ of $G$ we let $Δ(A) = \{g \in G \,:\, |gA \cap A| =\infty\}$ (this is sometimes called the \emph{combinatorial derivation} of $A$). A subset $A$ of $G$ is called: \emph{large} if there exists a finite subset $F$ of $G$ such that $FA=G$; \emph{$Δ$-large} if $Δ(A)$ is large and \emph{small} if for every large subset $L$ of $G$, $(G \setminus A) \cap L$ is large. In this note we show that every non-small set is $Δ$-large, answering a question of Protasov.
We examine an identity originally stated in Ramanujan's ``lost notebook'' and first proven algebraically by Andrews and combinatorially by Kim. We give two independent combinatorial proofs and interpretations of this identity, which also extends an identity recently proven by Pak and Waarnar related to the product of partial theta functions: First, we give a direct combinatorial proof, using the involution principle, of a special case of the identity, and extend this into a direct combinatorial proof of the full identity as written. Second, we show that the identity can be rewritten, using min…
Stanley has studied a symmetric function generalization X_G of the chromatic polynomial of a graph G. The innocent-looking Stanley-Stembridge Poset Chain Conjecture states that the expansion of X_G in terms of elementary symmetric functions has nonnegative coefficients if G is a clawfree incomparability graph. Here we give a combinatorial interpretation of these coefficients by combining Gasharov's work on the conjecture with Egecioglu and Remmel's combinatorial interpretation of the inverse Kostka matrix. This gives a new proof of a partial nonnegativity result of Stanley. As an interesting b…
In view of Tucker's lemma (an equivalent combinatorial version of the Borsuk- Ulam theorem), the present authors (2013) introduced the kth altermatic number of a graph G as a tight lower bound for the chromatic number of G. In this note, we present a purely combinatorial proof for this result.
We present a local combinatorial formula for the Euler class of a $n$-dimen\-si\-onal PL spherical fiber bundle as a rational number $e_{\it CH}$ associated to a chain of $n+1$ abstract subdivisions of abstract $n$-spherical PL cell complexes. The number $e_{\it CH}$ is a combinatorial (or matrix) Hodge theory twisting cochain in Guy Hirsch's homology model of the bundle associated with PL combinatorics of the bundle.
The Hales-Jewett Theorem states that any $r$-colouring of $[m]^n$ contains a monochromatic combinatorial line if $n$ is large enough. Shelah's proof of the theorem implies that for $m = 3$ there always exists a monochromatic combinatorial lines whose set of active coordinates is the union of at most $r$ intervals. Conlon and Kamčev proved the existence of colourings for which it cannot be fewer than $r$ intervals if $r$ is odd. For $r = 2$ however, Leader and Räty showed that one can always find a monochromatic combinatorial line whose active coordinate set is a single interval. In this paper,…
Some mathematical theorems represent ideas that are discovered again and again in different forms. One such theorem is Hall's marriage theorem. This theorem is equivalent to several other theorems in combinatorics and optimization theory, in the sense that these results can easily be derived from each other. In this paper it is shown that this equivalence extends to a finite version of Strassen's theorem, a celebrated result on couplings of probability measures. Though this equivalence is known, probabilistic or combinatorial proofs of this fact are lacking. A novel combinatorial lemma will be…
This note is devoted to a combinatorial proof of a Schmidt type theorem due to Andrews and Paule. A four-variable refinement of Andrews and Paule's theorem is also obtained based on this combinatorial construction.
In this note we give an extended version of Combinatorial Nullstellensatz, with weaker assumption on nonvanishing monomial. We also present an application of our result in a situation where the original theorem does not seem to work.
In this note we present a method for obtaining a wide class of combinatorial identities. We give several examples, in particular, based on the Gamma and Beta functions. Some of them have already been considered by previously, and other are new.
In this brief note a straightforward combinatorial proof for an identity directly connecting rooted forests and unordered set partitions is provided. Furthermore, references that put this type of identity in the context of forest volumes and multinomial identities are given.
Given an infinite group $G$ and a subset $A$ of $G$ we let $Δ(A) = {g \in G : |gA \cap A| =\infty}$ (this is sometimes called the combinatorial derivation of $A$). A subset $A$ of $G$ is called large if there exists a finite subset $F$ of $G$ such that $FA=G$. We show that given a large set $X$, and a decomposition $X=A_1 \cup ... \cup A_n$, there must exist an $i$ such that $Δ(A_i)$ is large. This answers a question of Protasov. We also answer a number of related questions of Protasov.
In this note we present a combinatorial proof of an identity involving poly-Bernoulli numbers and Genocchi numbers. We introduce the combinatorial objects, $m-$barred Callan sequences and show that the identity holds in a more general manner.
We investigate the collapsibility of systolic finite simplicial complexes of arbitrary dimension. The main tool we use in the proof is discrete Morse theory. We shall consider a convex subcomplex of the complex and project any simplex of the complex onto a ball around this convex subcomplex. These projections will induce a convenient gradient matching on the complex. Besides we analyze the combinatorial structure of both CAT(0) and systolic locally finite simplicial complexes of arbitrary dimensions. We will show that both such complexes possess an arborescent structure. Along the way we make …
The purpose of this note is to explain that the combinatorial local log-concavity conjecture introduced by Gross, Mansour, Tucker and Wang (Eur. J. Comb. 52, 207-222, 2016) in fact follows from a result of Stanley (Eur. J. Comb. 32 (6), 937-943, 2011).
In this note we augment the poly-Bernoulli family with two new combinatorial objects. We derive formulas for the relatives of the poly-Bernoulli numbers using the appropriate variations of combinatorial interpretations. Our goal is to show connections between the different areas where poly-Bernoulli numbers and their relatives appear and give examples how the combinatorial methods can be used for deriving formulas between integer arrays.
Using some combinatorial techniques, in this note, it is proved that if $α\geq 0.28866$, then any digraph on $n$ vertices with minimum outdegree at least $αn$ contains a directed cycle of length at most 4.
The Gessel number $P(n,r)$ represents the number of lattice paths in a plane with unit horizontal and vertical steps from $(0,0)$ to $(n+r,n+r-1)$ that never touch any of the points from the set $\{(x,x)\in \mathbb{Z}^2: x \geq r\}$. In this paper, we use combinatorial arguments to derive a recurrence relation between $P(n,r)$ and $P(n-1,r+1)$. Also, we give a new proof for a well-known closed formula for $P(n,r)$. Moreover, a new combinatorial interpretation for the Gessel numbers is presented.
In a recent paper, Andrews and Merca investigated the number of even parts in all partitions of $n$ into distinct parts, which arise naturally from the Euler-Glaisher bijective proof. They obtained new combinatorial interpretations for this number by using generating functions. We obtain a new direct combinatorial proof in this note.
Some basic mathematical tools such as convex sets, polytopes and combinatorial topology, are used quite heavily in applied fields such as geometric modeling, meshing, computer vision, medical imaging and robotics. This report may be viewed as a tutorial and a set of notes on convex sets, polytopes, polyhedra, combinatorial topology, Voronoi Diagrams and Delaunay Triangulations. It is intended for a broad audience of mathematically inclined readers. I have included a rather thorough treatment of the equivalence of V-polytopes and H-polytopes and also of the equivalence of V-polyhedra and H-poly…
These notes follow my articles [1, 6], and give some new important details. We propose here a new combinatorial method of encoding of measure spaces with measure preserving transformations, (or groups of transformations) in order to give new, mostly locally finite geometrical models for investigation of dynamical properties of these objects.
In his lost notebook, Ramanujan listed 5 identities related to the false theta function $$f(q)=\sum_{n=0}^\infty (-1)^nq^{n(n+1)/2}.$$ A new combinatorial interpretation and proof of one of these identities is given. The methods of the proof allow for new multivariate generalizations of this identity. Additionally, the same technique can be used to obtained a combinatorial interpretation of another one of the identities.
In this note, we provide bijective proofs of some identities involving the Bell number, as previously requested. Our arguments may be extended to yield a generalization in terms of complete Bell polynomials. We also provide a further interpretation for a related difference of Catalan numbers in terms of the inclusion-exclusion principle.
We present some corollaries to a symplectic primed shifted tableaux version of Tokuyama's identity expressed in terms of other combinatorial constructs, namely generalised $U$-turn alternating sign matrices and strict symplectic Gelfand-Tsetlin patterns.
In his recent work, Andrews revisited two-color partitions with certain restrictions on the differences between consecutive parts, and he established three theorems linking these two-color partitions with more familiar kinds of partitions. In this note, we provide bijective proofs as well as refinements of those three theorems of Andrews. Our refinements take into account the numbers of parts in each of the two colors.
Borodin et al figured out a gap of the paper published at J. Combinatorial Theory Ser. B (Vol.96 (2006) 958--963), and gave a new proof with the similar technique. The purpose of this note is to fix the gap by slightly revising the definition of special faces, and adding a few lines of explanation in the proofs (new added text are all in black font).
Brualdi and Ma found a connection between involutions of length $n$ with $k$ descents and symmetric $k\times k$ matrices with non-negative integer entries summing to $n$ and having no row or column of zeros. From their main theorem they derived two alternating sums by algebraic means and asked for combinatorial proofs. In this note we provide such demonstrations making use of the Robinson-Schensted-Knuth correspondence between symmetric matrices and semi-standard Young Tableau. Additionally, we restate the proof of Brualdi and Ma's main result with this perspective which shortens the argument.
This is an exposition of some recent developments related to the object in the title, particularly the combinatorial computation of the (genus 0) Gromov-Witten invariants of the flag manifold and the quadratic algebra approach. The notes are largely based on my joint papers with S.Gelfand, A.N.Kirillov, and A.Postnikov. This is by no means an exhaustive survey of the subject, but rather a casual introduction to its combinatorial aspects.
In Combinatorial Game Theory, the fundamental relation of game equivalence, denoted by $=$, is introduced early on and overrides the notion of set equality. We explore what happens if set equality is given its due before game equivalence is introduced.
In this note we generalize the convolution formula for the Tutte polynomial of Kook-Reiner-Stanton and Etienne-Las Vergnas to a more general setting that includes both arithmetic matroids and delta-matroids. As corollaries, we obtain new proofs of two positivity results for pseudo-arithmetic matroids and a combinatorial interpretation of the arithmetic Tutte polynomial at infinitely many points in terms of arithmetic flows and colorings. We also exhibit connections with a decomposition of Dahmen-Micchelli spaces and lattice point counting in zonotopes.
We give an elementary combinatorial proof of a special case of a result due to Bazlov and Ion concerning the Fourier coefficients of the Cherednik kernel. This can be used to give yet another proof of the classical fact that for a complex simple Lie algebra, the partition formed by its exponents is dual to that formed by the numbers of positive roots at each height.
These are (mostly) expository notes for lectures on affine Stanley symmetric functions given at the Fields Institute in 2010. We focus on the algebraic and combinatorial parts of the theory. The notes contain a number of exercises and open problems.
In an influential 2008 paper, Baker proposed a number of conjectures relating the divisor theory of algebraic curves with an analogous combinatorial theory on finite graphs. In this note, we examine Baker's Brill--Noether existence conjecture for special divisors. For $g\leq 5$ and $ρ(g,r,d)$ non-negative, every graph of genus $g$ is shown to admit a divisor of rank $r$ and degree at most $d$. Moreover, the conjecture is shown to hold in rank $1$ for a number of families of highly connected combinatorial types of graphs of arbitrarily high genus. In the relevant genera, our arguments give the …
Seth (Mathematics Stack Exchange, http://math.stackexchange.com/q/1812699) posed a problem that is equivalent to the following: how many binary strings of length n have exactly k pairs of consecutive 0s and exactly m pairs of consecutive 1s, where the first and last bits are considered as being consecutive? In this paper, we provide a closed form solution which also solves a related problem with some interesting connections to other combinatorial sequences.
In this note, we find a combinatorial identity which is closely related to the multi-dimensional integral $γ_{m}$ in the study of divisor functions. As an application, we determine the finite dual of the group algebra of infinite dihedral group.
In work with A. Yong, the author introduced genomic tableaux to prove the first positive combinatorial rule for the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients in torus-equivariant $K$-theory of Grassmannians. We then studied the genomic Schur function $U_λ$, a generating function for such tableaux, showing that it is non-trivially a symmetric function, although generally not Schur-positive. Here we show that $U_λ$ is, however, positive in the basis of fundamental quasisymmetric functions. We give a positive combinatorial formula for this expansion in terms of gapless increasing tableaux; this is, more…
This note is based on the original proof of the shuffle conjecture by Carlsson and Mellit (arXiv:1508.06239, version 2), which seems to be too concise for the combinatorial community. James Haglund spent a semester to check through the proof line by line and took explicit note. Guoce Xin was asked by Adriano Garsia to elaborate the proof. The whole paper is thoroughly checked and filled in with details. Section 1 and the abstract of the original paper is included. Section 2 is rewritten for clarity. Other sections are filled with detailed proof and computation. We hope this note is accessible …
A theorem of Mina evaluates the determinant of a matrix with entries $D^j(f(x)^i)$. We note the important special case where the matrix entries are evaluated at $x=0$ and give a simple proof of it, and some applications. We then give a short proof of the general case.
In the context of generating functions for $P$-partitions, we revisit three flavors of quasisymmetric functions: Gessel's quasisymmetric functions, Chow's type B quasisymmetric functions, and Poirier's signed quasisymmetric functions. In each case we use the inner coproduct to give a combinatorial description (counting pairs of permutations) to the multiplication in: Solomon's type A descent algebra, Solomon's type B descent algebra, and the Mantaci-Reutenauer algebra, respectively. The presentation is brief and elementary, our main results coming as consequences of $P$-partition theorems alre…
We give a short, case-free and combinatorial proof of de Concini and Procesi's formula for the volume of the simplicial cone spanned by the simple roots of any finite root system. The argument presented here also extends their formula to include the non-crystallographic root systems.
The proof of Brouwer's fixed-point theorem based on Sperner's lemma is often presented as an elementary combinatorial alternative to advanced proofs based on algebraic topology. The goal of this note is to show that: (i) the combinatorial proof of Sperner's Lemma can be considered as a cochain-level version, written in the combinatorial language, of a standard cohomological argument; (ii) the standard deduction of Brouwer's theorem from Sperner's lemma is similar to the usual deduction of Brouwer's theorem from the no-retraction theorem and is closely related to the notion of a simplicial appr…
We present a short, self-contained, and purely combinatorial proof of Linnik's theorem: for any $\varepsilon > 0$ there exists a constant $C_\varepsilon$ such that for any $N$, there are at most $C_\varepsilon$ primes $p \leqslant N$ such that the least positive quadratic non-residue modulo $p$ exceeds $N^\varepsilon$.