Related papers: Design Theory and Some Non-simple Forbidden Config…

For integer $n>0$, let $f(n)$ be the number of rows of the largest all-0 or all-1 square submatrix of $M$, minimized over all $n\times n$ $0/1$-matrices $M$. Thus $f(n)= O(\log n)$. But let us fix a matrix $H$, and define $f_H(n)$ to be the…

One of the very first results about designs over finite fields, by S. Thomas, is the existence of a cyclic 2-$(n,3,7)$ design over $\mathbb{F}_{2}$ for every integer $n$ coprime with 6. Here, by means of difference methods, we reprove and…

We consider the problem of enumerating hypermatrices of format $2 \times (k + 1) \times k$ over a finite field that have nonzero hyperdeterminant and whose nonzero entries are restricted to a plane partition. We conjecture an attractive…

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…

A $d$-dimensional zero-one matrix $A$ avoids another $d$-dimensional zero-one matrix $P$ if no submatrix of $A$ can be transformed to $P$ by changing some ones to zeroes. Let $f(n,P,d)$ denote the maximum number of ones in a $d$-dimensional…

A two-dimensional configuration is a coloring of the infinite grid Z^2 with finitely many colors. For a finite subset D of Z^2, the D-patterns of a configuration are the colored patterns of shape D that appear in the configuration. The…

$ \newcommand{\schs}{\scriptstyle{\mathsf{S}}_1} $For all $n \ge 1$, we give an explicit construction of $m \times m$ matrices $A_1,\ldots,A_n$ with $m = 2^{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor}$ such that for any $d$ and $d \times d$ matrices…

We study a family of sorting match puzzles on grids, which we call permutation match puzzles. In this puzzle, each row and column of a $n \times n$ grid is labeled with an ordering constraint -- ascending (A) or descending (D) -- and the…

If $D$ is a partially filled-in $(0,1)$-matrix with a unique completion to a $(0,1)$-matrix $M$ (with prescribed row and column sums), we say that $D$ is a {\em defining set} for $M$. A {\em critical set} is a minimal defining set (the…

Let K be a (commutative) field with characteristic not 2, and V be a linear subspace of n by n matrices that have at most two eigenvalues in K (respectively, at most one non-zero eigenvalue in K). We prove that the dimension of V is less…

The 0-1 matrix A contains a 0-1 matrix M if some submatrix of A can be transformed into M by changing some ones to zeroes. If A does not contain M, then A avoids M. Let ex(n,M) be the maximum number of ones in an n x n 0-1 matrix that…

Pattern avoidance is a central topic in graph theory and combinatorics. Pattern avoidance in matrices has applications in computer science and engineering, such as robot motion planning and VLSI circuit design. A $d$-dimensional zero-one…

In this paper we consider the decomposition of positive semidefinite matrices as a sum of rank one matrices. We introduce and investigate the properties of various measures of optimality of such decompositions. For some classes of positive…

The paper deals with recursive constructions for simple 3-designs based on other 3-designs having $(1, \sigma)$-resolution. The concept of $(1, \sigma)$-resolution may be viewed as a generalization of the parallelism for designs. We show…

An $L$-matrix is a matrix whose off-diagonal entries belong to a set $L$, and whose diagonal is zero. Let $N(r,L)$ be the maximum size of a square $L$-matrix of rank at most $r$. Many applications of linear algebra in extremal combinatorics…

Let $ X $ be an $ m \times n $ matrix of distinct indeterminates over a field $ K $, where $ m \le n $. Set the polynomial ring $ K[X] := K[X_{ij} : 1 \le i \le m, 1 \le j \le n] $. Let $ 1 \le k < l \le n $ be such that $ l - k + 1 \ge m…

We introduce a sorting machine consisting of $k+1$ stacks in series: the first $k$ stacks can only contain elements in decreasing order from top to bottom, while the last one has the opposite restriction. This device generalizes \cite{SM},…

We bound the number of permutations with a fixed number $r$ of $321 \ominus p_0$ patterns by a constant times the number of permutations which avoid $321 \ominus p_0$. We use this new upper bound to show that the ordinary generating…

We present a uniform framework for constructing $3$-designs from $\mathrm{GL}_2(\mathbb F_q)$-invariant subspaces of $\mathbb F_q[X,Y]_k$, the space of homogeneous polynomials of degree $k$. Given such a subspace $W$, we associate a…

Given five positive integers $v, m,k,\lambda$ and $t$ where $v \geq k \geq t$ and $v \geq m \geq t,$ a $t$-$(v,k,m,\lambda)$ general covering design is a pair $(X,\mathcal{B})$ where $X$ is a set of $v$ elements (called points) and…