This paper studies a problem of Erdös concerning lattice cubes. Given an $N \times N \times N$ lattice cube, we want to find the maximum number of vertices one can select so that no eight corners of a rectangular box are chosen simultaneously. Erdös conjectured that it has a sharp upper bound, which is $O(N^{11/4})$, but no example that large has been found yet. We start approaching this question for small $N$ using the method of exhaustion, and we find that there is not necessarily a unique maximal set of vertices (counting all possible symmetries). Next, we study an equivalent two-dimensional version of this problem looking for patterns that might be useful for generalizing to the three-dimensional case. Since an $n \times n$ grid is also an $n \times n$ matrix, we rephrase and generalize the original question to: what is the minimum number $α(k,n)$ of vertices one can put in an $n \times n$ matrix with entries 0 and 1, such that every $k \times k$ minor contains at least one entry of 1, for $1 \leq k \leq n$? We discover some interesting formulas and asymptotic patterns that shed new light on the question.
A \emph{chain} in the unit $n$-cube is a set $C\subset [0,1]^n$ such that for every $\mathbf{x}=(x_1,\ldots,x_n)$ and $\mathbf{y}=(y_1,\ldots,y_n)$ in $C$ we either have $x_i\le y_i$ for all $i\in [n]$, or $x_i\ge y_i$ for all $i\in [n]$. We show that the $1$-dimensional Hausdorff measure of a chain in the unit $n$-cube is at most $n$, and that the bound is sharp. Given this result, we consider the problem of maximising the $n$-dimensional Lebesgue measure of a measurable set $A\subset [0,1]^n$ subject to the constraint that it satisfies $\mathcal{H}^1(A\cap C) \le κ$ for all chains $C\subset …
In the Boolean lattice, Sperner's, Erdős's, Kleitman's and Samotij's theorems state that families that do not contain many chains must have a very specific layered structure. We show that if instead of $\mathbb{Z}_2^n$ we work in $\mathbb{Z}_{2^n}$, several analogous statements hold if one replaces the word $k$-chain by projective cube of dimension $2^{k-1}$. We say that $B_d$ is a projective cube of dimension $d$ if there are numbers $a_1, a_2, \ldots, a_d$ such that $$B_d = \left\{\sum_{i\in I} a_i \bigg\rvert \emptyset \neq I\subseteq [d]\right\}.$$ As an analog of Sperner's and Erdős's the…
We introduce the theory of div point sets, which aims to provide a framework to study the combinatoric nature of any set of points in general position on an Euclidean plane. We then show that proving the unsatisfiability of some first-order logic formulae concerning some sets of multisets of uniform cardinality over boolean variables would prove the Erdös-Szekeres conjecture, which states that for any set of 2^(n-2)+1 points in general position, there exists n points forming a convex polygon, where n is greater than or equal to 3.
More than 50 years ago, Erd\H os asked the following question: what is the maximum size of a family $\mathcal F$ of $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set if it has no $s+1$ pairwise disjoint sets? This question attracted a lot of attention recently, in particular, due to its connection to various combinatorial, probabilistic and theoretical computer science problems. Improving the previous best bound due to the first author, we prove that $|\mathcal F|\le {n\choose k}-{n-s\choose k}$, provided $n\ge \frac 53sk -\frac 23 s$ and $s$ is sufficiently large. We derive several corollaries concer…
An edge-coloring of a complete graph with a set of colors $C$ is called completely balanced if any vertex is incident to the same number of edges of each color from $C$. Erdős and Tuza asked in $1993$ whether for any graph $F$ on $\ell$ edges and any completely balanced coloring of any sufficiently large complete graph using $\ell$ colors contains a rainbow copy of $F$. This question was restated by Erdős in his list of ``Some of my favourite problems on cycles and colourings''. We answer this question in the negative for most cliques $F=K_q$ by giving explicit constructions of respective comp…
We consider some coloring issues related to the famous Erd\H {o}s Discrepancy Problem. A set of the form $A_{s,k}=\{s,2s,\dots,ks\}$, with $s,k\in \mathbb{N}$, is called a \emph{homogeneous arithmetic progression}. We prove that for every fixed $k$ there exists a $2$-coloring of $\mathbb N$ such that every set $A_{s,k}$ is \emph{perfectly balanced} (the numbers of red and blue elements in the set $A_{s,k}$ differ by at most one). This prompts reflection on various restricted versions of Erd\H {o}s' problem, obtained by imposing diverse confinements on parameters $s,k$. In a slightly different …
The main aim of this paper is to bridge two directions of research generalizing asymptotic density zero sets. This enables to transfer results concerning one direction to the other one. Consider a function $g\colonω\to [0,\infty)$ such that $\lim_{n\to\infty}g(n)=\infty$ and $\frac{n}{g(n)}$ does not converge to $0$. Then the family $\mathcal{Z}_g=\{A\subseteqω:\ \lim_{n\to\infty}\frac{\text{card}(A\cap n)}{g(n)}=0\}$ is an ideal called simple density ideal (or ideal associated to upper density of weight $g$). We compare this class of ideals with Erdős-Ulam ideals. In particular, we show that …
The study of problems concerning subdivisions of graphs has a rich history in extremal combinatorics. Confirming a conjecture of Burr and Erdős, Alon proved in 1994 that subdivided graphs have linear Ramsey numbers. Later, Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov showed that every $n$-vertex graph with at least $\varepsilon n^2$ edges contains a $1$-subdivision of the complete graph on $c_{\varepsilon}\sqrt{n}$ vertices, resolving another old conjecture of Erdős. In this paper we consider the directed analogue of these problems and show that every tournament on at least $(2+o(1))k^2$ vertices contains th…
The problem of determining the Turán number of $C_4$ is a well studied problem that dates back to a paper of Erdös from 1938. It is known that Sidon sets can be used to construct $C_4$-free graphs. If $\A$ is a Sidon set in the abelian group $X$, the sum graph $G_{X, \A}$ with vertex set $X$ and edges set $E=\{\{x, y\}:x\neq y, x+y\in \A\}$ is $C_4$-free. Using the sum graph of a Sidon set of type Singer we verify a conjecture of Erdös and Simonovits concerning the number of copies of $C_4$ in a graph with $ex(q^2+q+1, C_4)+1$ edges. Further, we give a sufficient condition for the sum graph of…
The problem "Given a Boolean function $f$ of $n$ variables by its truth table vector. Find (if exists) a vector $α\in \{0,1\}^n$ of maximal (or minimal) weight, such that $f(α)= 1$." is considered here. It is closely related to the problem of fast computing the algebraic degree of Boolean functions. It is an important cryptographic parameter used in the design of S-boxes in modern block ciphers, PRNGs in stream ciphers, at Reed-Muller codes, etc. To find effective solutions to this problem we explore the orders of the vectors of the $n$-dimensional Boolean cube $\{0,1\}^n$ in accordance with t…
