Related papers: A brief overview of the sock matching problem

The Springer numbers are defined in connection with the irreducible root systems of type $B_n$, which also arise as the generalized Euler and class numbers introduced by Shanks. Combinatorial interpretations of the Springer numbers have…

We consider shifts of a set $A\subseteq\mathbb{N}$ by elements from another set $B\subseteq\mathbb{N}$, and prove intersection properties according to the relative asymptotic size of $A$ and $B$. A consequence of our main theorem is the…

A family of disjoint pairs of finite sets $\mathcal{P}=\{(A_i,B_i)\mid i\in[m]\}$ is called a Bollob\'as system if $A_i\cap B_j\neq\emptyset$ for every $i\neq j$, and a skew Bollob\'as system if $A_i\cap B_j\neq\emptyset$ for every $i<j$.…

Pilz's conjecture states that for any finite set $A=\{a_1,a_2,\dots,a_k\}$ of positive integers and positive integer $n$ in the union of the sets $\{a_1,2a_1,\dots,na_1\},\dots, \{a_k,2a_k,\dots,na_k\}$ (considered as a multiset) at least…

Given an undirected graph, are there $k$ matchings whose union covers all of its nodes, that is, a matching-$k$-cover? A first, easy polynomial solution from matroid union is possible, as already observed by Wang, Song and Yuan…

For $k\geq i\geq 1$, let $B_{k,i}(n)$ denote the number of partitions of $n$ such that part 1 appears at most $i-1$ times, two consecutive integers l and $l+1$ appear at most $k-1$ times and if l and $l+1$ appear exactly $k-1$ times then…

We address three questions posed by Bibak \cite{KB20}, and generalize some results of Bibak, Lehmer and K G Ramanathan on solutions of linear congruences $\sum_{i=1}^k a_i x_i \equiv b \Mod{n}$. In particular, we obtain explicit expressions…

An election over a finite set of candidates is called single-crossing if, as we sweep through the list of voters from left to right, the relative order of every pair of candidates changes at most once. Such elections have many attractive…

This article studies the number of ways of selecting $k$ objects arranged in $p$ circles of sizes $n_1,\ldots,n_p$ such that no two selected ones have less than $s$ objects between them. If $n_i\geq sk+1$ for all $1\leq i \leq p$, this…

For any $n$ and $k$, we provide an explicit (that is, computable in polynomial time) example of integer $B_k$-sequence of size $n$ consisting of elements bounded by $n^{k+o(k)}$.

We consider the problem of finding the set of permutations $r_j$ of $\{1,\cdots , n\}$ such that $\sum_{i=1}^n \prod_{j=1}^k r_j(i)$ is maximized or minimized. While the set of permutations maximizing this value are easily determined,…

Simpson's Paradox is a well-known phenomenon in statistical science, where the relationship between the response variable $X$ and a certain explanatory factor of interest $A$ reverses when an additional factor $B_1$ is considered. This…

Let $v(n)$ be the minimum number of voters with transitive preferences which are needed to generate any strong preference pattern (ties not allowed) on $n$ candidates. Let $k=\lfloor \log_2 n\rfloor$. We show that $v(n)\le n-k$ if $n$ and…

Pattern matching is a fundamental process in almost every scientific domain. The problem involves finding the positions of a given pattern (usually of short length) in a reference stream of data (usually of large length). The matching can…

Matching is a method of the design of experiments. If we had an even number of patients and wanted to form pairs of patients such that their ages, for example, in each pair be as close as possible, we would use nonbipartite matching. Not…

We revisit the complexity of one of the most basic problems in pattern matching. In the k-mismatch problem we must compute the Hamming distance between a pattern of length m and every m-length substring of a text of length n, as long as…

In the study of a tantalizing symmetry on Catalan objects, B\'ona et al. introduced a family of polynomials $\{W_{n,k}(x)\}_{n\geq k\geq 0}$ defined by \begin{align*} W_{n,k}(x)=\sum_{m=0}^{k}w_{n,k,m}x^{m}, \end{align*} where $w_{n,k,m}$…

We consider the streaming complexity of a fundamental task in approximate pattern matching: the $k$-mismatch problem. It asks to compute Hamming distances between a pattern of length $n$ and all length-$n$ substrings of a text for which the…

Given a graph $G=(V,E)$ and for each vertex $v \in V$ a subset $B(v)$ of the set $\{0,1,\ldots, d_G(v)\}$ a $B$-matching of $G$ is any set $F \subseteq E$ such that $d_F(v) \in B(v)$ for each vertex $v$. The general matching problem asks…

We describe two BQP-complete problems concerning properties of sparse graphs having a certain symmetry. The graphs are specified by efficiently computable functions which output the adjacent vertices for each vertex. Let i and j be two…