Related papers: On transversal numbers of intersecting straight li…
In this paper we study a question related to the classical Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado theorem, which states that any family of $k$-element subsets of the set $[n] = \{1,\ldots,n\}$ in which any two sets intersect, has cardinality at most…
In this paper, claims by Lemmens and Seidel in 1973 about equiangular sets of lines with angle $1/5$ are proved by carefully analyzing pillar decompositions, with the aid of the uniqueness of two-graphs on $276$ vertices. The Neumann…
A clique transversal in a graph is a set of vertices intersecting all maximal cliques. The problem of determining the minimum size of a clique transversal has received considerable attention in the literature. In this paper, we initiate the…
A family of subsets of $[n]$ is intersecting if every pair of its sets intersects. Determining the structure of large intersecting families is a central problem in extremal combinatorics. Frankl-Kupavskii and Balogh-Das-Liu-Sharifzadeh-Tran…
We address the problem of computing bounds for the self-intersection number (the minimum number of self-intersection points) of members of a free homotopy class of curves in the doubly-punctured plane as a function of their combinatorial…
Ryser's Conjecture states that for any $r$-partite $r$-uniform hypergraph the vertex cover number is at most $r-1$ times the matching number. This conjecture is only known to be true for $r\leq 3$. For intersecting hypergraphs, Ryser's…
An $\epsilon$-distance-uniform graph is one in which from every vertex, all but an $\epsilon$-fraction of the remaining vertices are at some fixed distance $d$, called the critical distance. We consider the maximum possible value of $d$ in…
We give a natural sufficient condition for an intersection graph of compact convex sets in R^d to have a balanced separator of sublinear size. This condition generalizes several previous results on sublinear separators in intersection…
The crossing number of a graph is the minimum number of edge crossings that a graph can have when drawn in the plane. Determining this number, known as the Crossing Number problem, is a celebrated problem in combinatorial optimization. It…
A line L is a transversal to a family F of convex objects in R^d if it intersects every member of F. In this paper we show that for every integer d>2 there exists a family of 2d-1 pairwise disjoint unit balls in R^d with the property that…
Motivated by an open problem from graph drawing, we study several partitioning problems for line and hyperplane arrangements. We prove a ham-sandwich cut theorem: given two sets of n lines in R^2, there is a line l such that in both line…
A set of sets is called a family. Two families $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$ of sets are said to be cross-intersecting if each member of $\mathcal{A}$ intersects each member of $\mathcal{B}$. For any two integers $n$ and $k$ with $1 \leq…
We prove that the set of directions of lines intersecting three disjoint balls in $R^3$ in a given order is a strictly convex subset of $S^2$. We then generalize this result to $n$ disjoint balls in $R^d$. As a consequence, we can improve…
Given S_1, a finite set of points in the plane, we define a sequence of point sets S_i as follows: With S_i already determined, let L_i be the set of all the line segments connecting pairs of points of the union of S_1,...,S_i, and let…
We establish that the intersection number between the horizontal foliations of any two finite-area holomorphic quadratic differentials on an arbitrary Riemann surface is finite. Our main result shows that the intersection number is jointly…
Let $\mathcal{H}=(V,\mathcal{E})$ be an $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices and fix a positive integer $k$ such that $1\le k\le r$. A $k$-\emph{matching} of $\mathcal{H}$ is a collection of edges $\mathcal{M}\subset \mathcal{E}$ such…
We study the maximum number of straight-line segments connecting $n$ points in convex position in the plane, so that each segment intersects at most $k$ others. This question can also be framed as the maximum number of edges of an outer…
An ordered $r$-uniform matching of size $n$ is a collection of $n$ pairwise disjoint $r$-subsets of a linearly ordered set of $rn$ vertices. For $n=2$, such a matching is called an $r$-pattern, as it represents one of $\tfrac12\binom{2r}r$…
Fix $r \ge 2$ and a collection of $r$-uniform hypergraphs $\cH$. What is the minimum number of edges in an $\cH$-free $r$-uniform hypergraph with chromatic number greater than $k$. We investigate this question for various $\cH$. Our results…
Following a combinatorial observation made by one of us recently in relation to a problem in quantum information [Nakata et al., Phys. Rev. X 7:021006 (2017)], we study what are the possible intersection cardinalities of a $k$-dimensional…