Related papers: Minimal blocking sets in PG(n,2) and covering grou…

Given a continuum $X$ and an element $x \in X$, $\pi(x)$ is the smallest set that contains $x$ and does not block singletons, and $B(x)$ is the set of all elements blocked by ${x}$. We prove that for each $x \in X$, $B(x)$ is connected,…

A subset $C$ of an abelian group $G$ is a minimal additive complement to $W \subseteq G$ if $C + W = G$ and if $C' + W \neq G$ for any proper subset $C' \subset C$. In this paper, we study which sets of integers arise as minimal additive…

A signed graph is a graph with a function that assigns a label of positive or negative to each edge. The sign of a circle is the product of the signs of its edges; a graph is balanced if all of its circles are positive. A set of edges whose…

Minimal 1-saturating sets in the projective plane $PG(2,q)$ are considered. They correspond to covering codes which can be applied to many branches of combinatorics and information theory, as data compression, compression with distortion,…

A well known consequence of the Borsuk-Ulam theorem is that if the $d$-dimensional sphere $S^d$ is covered with less than $d+2$ open sets, then there is a set containing a pair of antipodal points. In this paper we provide lower and upper…

Let $d\ge4$ and $c\in(-d,d)$ be relatively prime integers. We show that for any sufficiently large integer $n$ (in particular $n>24310$ suffices for $4\le d\le 36$), the smallest prime $p\equiv c\pmod d$ with $p\ge(2dn-c)/(d-1)$ is the…

Let H = (H,V) be a hypergraph with edge set H and vertex set V. Then hypergraph H is invertible iff there exists a permutation pi of V such that for all E belongs to H(edges) intersection of(pi(E) and E)=0. H is invertibility critical if H…

A filling pair $(\alpha, \beta)$ of a surface $S_g$ is a pair of simple closed curves in minimal position such that the complement of $\alpha\cup\beta$ in $S_g$ is a disjoint union of topological disks. A filling pair is said to be…

Parent-identifying set system is a kind of combinatorial structures with applications to broadcast encryption. In this paper we investigate the maximum number of blocks $I_2(n,4)$ in a $2$-parent-identifying set system with ground set size…

A set of vertices $X\subseteq V(G)$ is a $d$-distance dominating set if for every $u\in V(G)\setminus X$ there exists $x\in X$ such that $d(u,x) \le d$, and $X$ is a $p$-packing if $d(u,v) \ge p+1$ for every different $u,v\in X$. The…

Given two sets $A$ and $B$ of integers, we consider the problem of finding a set $S \subseteq A$ of the smallest possible cardinality such the greatest common divisor of the elements of $S \cup B$ equals that of those of $A \cup B$. The…

A covering of a group is a finite set of proper subgroups whose union is the whole group. A covering is minimal if there is no covering of smaller cardinality, and it is nilpotent if all its members are nilpotent subgroups. We complete a…

Given two 3-uniform hypergraphs F and G, we say that G has an F-covering if we can cover V(G) by copies of F. The minimum codegree of G is the largest integer d such that every pair of vertices from V(G) is contained in at least d triples…

Let $q$ be a fixed odd prime. We show that a finite subset $B$ of integers, not containing any perfect $q^{th}$ power, contains a $q^{th}$ power modulo almost every prime if and only if $B$ corresponds to a blocking set (with respect to…

In a 2022, Bartoli, Cossidente, Marino, and Pavese proved that in the projective space ${\rm PG}(3,q^3)$, one can find three $\mathbb F_q$-subgeometries such that the union of their point sets is a strong blocking set. This proves the…

A set of integers is sum-free if it contains no solution to the equation $x+y=z$. We study sum-free subsets of the set of integers $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$ for which the integer $2n+1$ cannot be represented as a sum of their elements. We prove…

For a hypergraph $H=(V,\mathcal E)$, a subfamily $\mathcal C\subseteq \mathcal E$ is called a cover of the hypergraph if $\bigcup\mathcal C=\bigcup\mathcal E$. A cover $\mathcal C$ is called minimal if each cover $\mathcal…

A resolving set for a graph $G$ is a set of vertices $Q = \{q_1, ..., q_k\}$ such that, for all $p\in V(G)$ the $k$-tuple $(d(p, q_1), ..., d(p, q_k ))$ uniquely determines $p$, where $d(p, q_i)$ is considered as the minimum length of a…

Let $G$ be a simple graph with $2n$ vertices and a perfect matching. The forcing number $f(G,M)$ of a perfect matching $M$ of $G$ is the smallest cardinality of a subset of $M$ that is contained in no other perfect matching of $G$. Among…

Given a finite group $G$, we say that $G$ has weak normal covering number $\gamma_w(G)$ if $\gamma_w(G)$ is the smallest integer with $G$ admitting proper subgroups $H_1,\ldots,H_{\gamma_w(G)}$ such that each element of $G$ has a conjugate…