Related papers: New lower bounds for $t$-coverings

Let ${\cal F}$ be a set of blocks of a $t$-set $X$. $(X,{\cal F})$ is called $(w,r)$-cover-free family ($(w,r)-$CFF) provided that, the intersection of any $w$ blocks in ${\cal F}$ is not contained in the union of any other $r$ blocks in…

We prove a lower bound theorem for the number of $k$-faces ($1\le k\le d-2$) in a $d$-dimensional polytope $P$ (or $d$-polytope) with up to $3d-1$ vertices. Previous lower bound theorems for $d$-polytopes with few vertices concern those…

A $3$-$(v,\{4,6\},1)$ design is a configuration of $v$ points and a collection of $4$- and $6$-element subsets called blocks, that jointly contain every 3-element subset exactly once. Using an exhaustive computer search on $v\leq 28$ points…

Victoir (2004) developed a method to construct cubature formulae with various combinatorial objects. Motivated by this, we generalize Victoir's method with one more combinatorial object, called regular t-wise balanced designs. Many cubature…

In 1987, Kalai proved that stacked spheres of dimension $d\geq 3$ are characterised by the fact that they attain equality in Barnette's celebrated Lower Bound Theorem. This result does not extend to dimension $d=2$. In this article, we give…

A covering array CA(N; t; k; v) is an N x k array on v symbols such that every N x t subarray contains as a row each t-tuple over the v symbols at least once. The minimum N for which a CA(N; t; k; v) exists is called the covering array…

A Ryser design $\mathcal{D}$ on $v$ points is a collection of $v$ proper subsets (called blocks) of a point-set with $v$ points satisfying (i) every two blocks intersect each other in $\lambda$ points for a fixed $\lambda < v$ (ii) there…

A graph $A$ is "apex" if $A-z$ is planar for some vertex $z\in V(A)$. Eppstein [Algorithmica, 2000] showed that for a minor-closed class $\mathcal{G}$, the graphs in $\mathcal{G}$ with bounded radius have bounded treewidth if and only if…

Let $P$ be a convex $d$-polytope and $0 \leq k \leq d-1$. In 2023, this author proved the following inequalities, resolving a question of B\'ar\'any: \[ \frac{f_k(P)}{f_0(P)} \geq \frac{1}{2}\biggl[{\lceil \frac{d}{2} \rceil \choose k} +…

It was shown in 1989 by Delandtsheer and Doyen that, for a $2$-design with $v$ points and block size $k$, a block-transitive group of automorphisms can be point-imprimitive (that is, leave invariant a nontrivial partition of the point set)…

Combinatorial designs have been studied for nearly 200 years. Fifty years ago, Cameron, Delsarte, and Ray-Chaudhury started investigating their q-analogs, also known as subspace designs or designs over finite fields. Designs can be defined…

Let $\mathcal{C}$ be a class of graphs that is closed under taking subgraphs. We prove that if for some fixed $0<\delta\le 1$, every $n$-vertex graph of $\mathcal{C}$ has a balanced separator of order $O(n^{1-\delta})$, then any depth-$k$…

We prove blow-up structure theorems for graphs excluding a tree or an apex-tree as a minor. First, we show that for every $t$-vertex tree $T$ with $t\geq 3$ and radius $h$, and every graph $G$ excluding $T$ as a minor, there exists a graph…

Let lambda_s(n) denote the maximum length of a Davenport-Schinzel sequence of order s on n symbols. For s=3 it is known that lambda_3(n) = Theta(n alpha(n)) (Hart and Sharir, 1986). For general s>=4 there are almost-tight upper and lower…

Cilleruelo conjectured that for an irreducible polynomial $f \in \mathbb{Z}[X]$ of degree $d \geq 2$, denoting $$L_f(N)=\mathrm{lcm}(f(1),f(2),\ldots f(N))$$ one has $$\log L_f(n)\sim(d-1)N\log N.$$ He proved it in the case $d=2$ but it…

In 1916, Schur introduced the Ramsey number $r(3;m)$, which is the minimum integer $n$ such that for any $m$-coloring of the edges of the complete graph $K_n$, there is a monochromatic copy of $K_3$. He showed that $r(3;m) \leq O(m!)$, and…

We study the problem of determining the minimum number $f(n,k,d)$ of affine subspaces of codimension $d$ that are required to cover all points of $\mathbb{F}_2^n\setminus \{\vec{0}\}$ at least $k$ times while covering the origin at most…

Given an integer $k\ge3$ and a group $G$ of odd order, if there exists a $2$-$(v,k,1)$-design and if $v$ is sufficiently large, then there is such a design whose automorphism group has a subgroup isomorphic to $G$. A weaker result is proved…

We give a basis for the space V spanned by the lowest degree part \hat{s}_\lambda of the expansion of the Schur symmetric functions s_\lambda in terms of power sums, where we define the degree of the power sum p_i to be 1. In particular,…

Given a lower envelope in the form of an arbitrary sequence $u$, let $LSP(u, d)$ denote the maximum length of any subsequence of $u$ that can be realized as the lower envelope of a set of polynomials of degree at most $d$. Let $sp(m, d)$…