Related papers: On the Combinatorics of Placing Balls into Ordered…

The following system of equations {x_1 \cdot x_1=x_2, x_2 \cdot x_2=x_3, 2^{2^{x_1}}=x_3, x_4 \cdot x_5=x_2, x_6 \cdot x_7=x_2} has exactly one solution in ({\mathbb N}\{0,1})^7, namely (2,4,16,2,2,2,2). Hypothesis 1 states that if a system…

Many combinatorial optimization problems such as the bin packing and multiple knapsack problems involve assigning a set of discrete objects to multiple containers. These problems can be used to model task and resource allocation problems in…

In this paper, we study the problem of splitting fairly bundles of items. We show that given $n$ bundles with $m$ kinds of items in them, it is possible to distribute the value of each kind of item fairly among $r$ persons by breaking apart…

We study three classes of combinatorial sums involving central binomial coefficients and harmonic numbers, odd harmonic numbers, and even indexed harmonic numbers, respectively. In each case we use summation by parts to derive recursive…

Imagine that there are two bins to which balls are added sequentially, and each incoming ball joins a bin with probability proportional to the p-th power of the number of balls already there. A general result says that if p>1/2, there…

We find the asymptotic total variation distance between two distributions on configurations of m balls in n labeled bins: in the first, each ball is placed in a bin uniformly at random; in the second, k balls are planted in an arbitrary but…

For every list of integers x_1, ..., x_m there is some j such that x_1 + ... + x_j - x_{j+1} - ... - x_m \approx 0. So the list can be nearly balanced and for this we only need one alternation between addition and subtraction. But what if…

In this note, we consider ordered partitions of integers such that each entry is no more than a fixed portion of the sum. We give a method for constructing all such compositions as well as both an explicit formula and a generating function…

In this paper we consider ordinal sums of combinatorial games where each summand is a number, not necessarily in canonical form. In doing so we give formulas for the value of an ordinal sum of numbers where the literal form of the base has…

We present filling as a new type of spatial subdivision problem that is related to covering and packing. Filling addresses the optimal placement of overlapping objects lying entirely inside an arbitrary shape so as to cover the most…

Let $n$ be a non-negative integer and $A=\{a_1,\ldots,a_k\}$ be a multi-set with $k$ not necessarily distinct members, where $a_1\leqslant\ldots\leqslant a_k$. We denote by $\Delta(n,A)$ the number of ways to partition $n$ as the form…

The problem of linear and circular permutations of n identical objects in m boxes, where a limit l is imposed on the number of objects in a box, is considered. In the linear case, where the boxes are arranged as a row, two methods of…

Given $n$ real numbers $0\leq x_1,...,x_n<1$ and a permutation~$\sigma$ of $\{1,...,n\}$, we can always find $\xbar_1,...,\xbar_n\in\{0,1\}$ so that the partial sums $\xbar_1+... +\xbar_k$ and $\xbar_{\sigma 1}+... +\xbar_{\sigma k}$ differ…

We study the long-term behavior of the two-thinning variant of the classical balls-and-bins model. In this model, an overseer is provided with uniform random allocation of $m$ balls into $n$ bins in an on-line fashion. For each ball, the…

We study the problem of cutting a length-$n$ string of positive real numbers into $k$ pieces so that every piece has sum at least $b$. The problem can also be phrased as transforming such a string into a new one by merging adjacent numbers.…

In this paper, we study the "sum composition problem" between two lists $A$ and $B$ of positive integers. We start by saying that $B$ is "sum composition" of $A$ when there exists an ordered $m$-partition $[A_1,\ldots,A_m]$ of $A$ where $m$…

Let $s(n)$ denote the sum of digits in the binary expansion of the integer $n$. Hare, Laishram and Stoll (2011) studied the number of odd integers such that $s(n)=s(n^2)=k$, for a given integer $k\geq 1$. The remaining cases that could not…

The Plurality problem - introduced by Aigner \cite{A2004} - has many variants. In this article we deal with the following version: suppose we are given $n$ balls, each of them colored by one of three colors. A \textit{plurality ball} is one…

What is the maximum number of holes that a polyomino with $n$ tiles can enclose? Call this number $f(n)$. We show that if $n_k = \left( 2^{2k+1} + 3 \cdot 2^{k+1}+4 \right) / 3$ and $h_k = \left( 2^{2k}-1 \right) /3$, then $f(n_k) = h_k$…

The optimal binning is the optimal discretization of a variable into bins given a discrete or continuous numeric target. We present a rigorous and extensible mathematical programming formulation for solving the optimal binning problem for a…