Related papers: On the structure of dense triangle-free binary mat…

Suppose that $M$ is a compact, connected three-manifold with boundary. We show that if the universal cover has infinitely many boundary components then $M$ has an ideal triangulation which is essential: no edge can be homotoped into the…

In graph theory, the Szemer\'edi regularity lemma gives a decomposition of the indicator function for any graph $G$ into a structured component, a uniform part, and a small error. This result, in conjunction with a counting lemma that…

Let $EX[M_1\dots, M_k]$ denote the class of binary matroids with no minors isomorphic to $M_1, \dots, M_k$. In this paper we give a decomposition theorem for $EX[S_{10}, S_{10}^*]$, where $S_{10}$ is a certain 10-element rank-4 matroid. As…

It is well known that a graph with $m$ edges can be made triangle-free by removing (slightly less than) $m/2$ edges. On the other hand, there are many classes of graphs which are hard to make triangle-free in the sense that it is necessary…

This paper considers the global geometry of general low-rank minimization problems via the Burer-Monterio factorization approach. For the rank-$1$ case, we prove that there is no spurious second-order critical point for both symmetric and…

We investigate the existence of heavy columns in binary matrices with distinct rows. A column of an m x n binary matrix is called heavy if the number of ones in it is at least m/2. We introduce two recursive algorithms, A1 and A2, that…

A matroid is sticky if any two of its extensions by disjoint sets can be glued together along the common restriction (that is, they have an amalgam). The sticky matroid conjecture asserts that a matroid is sticky if and only if it is…

In the matroid intersection problem, we are given two matroids $\mathcal{M}_1 = (V, \mathcal{I}_1)$ and $\mathcal{M}_2 = (V, \mathcal{I}_2)$ defined on the same ground set $V$ of $n$ elements, and the objective is to find a common…

For a closed orientable connected 3-manifold $M$, its complexity $\boldsymbol{T}(M)$ is defined to be the minimal number of tetrahedra in its triangulations. Under the assumption that $M$ is prime (but not necessarily atoroidal), we…

In earlier work, we characterized the class of matroids with no $M(C_4)$ as an induced minor and the class of matroids with no member of $\{M(C_4),M(K_4)\}$ as an induced minor. In this paper, for every two matroids in…

Let $a,b$ be positive integers with $a\ge b$. A graph $G$ is $(a,b)$-choosable if, for every assignment of lists $L(v)$ of size $a$ to the vertices of $G$, there exists a choice of subsets $C(v)\subseteq L(v)$ with $|C(v)|=b$ for each $v$…

We show that every k-dichromatic vertex-critical digraph on at most 2k-2 vertices has a disconnected complement. This answers a question of Bang-Jensen et al., and generalises a classical theorem of Gallai on undirected vertex-critical…

We prove that in a simple matroid, the maximal number of joints that can be formed by L lines is o(L^2) and Omega(L^{2 - epsilon}) for any epsilon > 0.

A super-minimally $k$-connected matroid is a $k$-connected matroid having no proper $k$-connected restriction of size at least $2k-2$. This extends the corresponding concept for graphs. For $k=2$ and $k=3$, we determine the maximum size of…

We study the combinatorial, algebraic and geometric properties of the free product operation on matroids. After giving cryptomorphic definitions of free product in terms of independent sets, bases, circuits, closure, flats and rank…

Let C_1 and C_2 be skew circuits in a binary matroid having circumference c. For any positive integer k there is a constant a_k such that if min { |A| ; C_1 \subset A \subset E-A} > a_k, then |C_1| + |C_2| < 2c -k.

Kneser-Haken Finiteness asserts that for each compact 3-manifold M there is an integer c(M) such that any collection of k>c(M) closed, essential, 2-sided surfaces in M must contain parallel elements. We show here that if M is closed then…

For each odd integer $p > 1$, we construct infinitely many pairwise non-diffeomorphic irreducible smooth structures on a definite 4-manifold with infinite fundamental group whose abelianization is $\Z/2p\Z\times \Z/2\Z$.

Given an $m\times n$ binary matrix $M$ with $|M|=p\cdot mn$ (where $|M|$ denotes the number of 1 entries), define the discrepancy of $M$ as $\mbox{disc}(M)=\displaystyle\max_{X\subset [m], Y\subset [n]}\big||M[X\times Y]|-p|X|\cdot…

We show that the rotationally symmetric free boundary minimal catenoid in the unit ball in $\Bbb{R}^3$ has Morse index equal to $4$.