Related papers: Combinations without specified separations

How large can a family \cal A \subset \cal P [n] be if it does not contain A,B with |A\setminus B| = 1? Our aim in this paper is to show that any such family has size at most \frac{2+o(1)}{n} \binom {n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor }. This is tight…

We consider tilings $(\mathcal{Q},\Phi)$ of $\mathbb{R}^d$ where $\mathcal{Q}$ is the $d$-dimensional unit cube and the set of translations $\Phi$ is constrained to lie in a pre-determined lattice $A \mathbb{Z}^d$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We…

Consider a family $\mathcal{F}$ of $k$-subsets of an ambient $(k^2-k+1)$-set such that no pair of $k$-subsets in $\mathcal{F}$ intersects in exactly one element. In this short note we show that the maximal size of such $\mathcal{F}$ is…

Many examples of nonpositively curved closed manifolds arise as blow-ups of projective hyperplane arrangements. If the hyperplane arrangement is associated to a finite reflection group W, and the blow-up locus is W-invariant, then the…

Suppose L and M are full-rank lattices in Euclidean space, such that vol(L) < vol(M). Answering a question of Han and Wang from 2001, we show how to construct a bounded measurable set F (we can even take F to be a finite union of polytopes)…

We study compositions whose parts are colored by subsequences of the Fibonacci numbers. We give explicit bijections between Fibonacci colored compositions and several combinatorial objects, including certain restricted ternary and…

We construct a sieve that enumerates rational ``imbalances'' of the form $(p-q)/(p+q)$ for integers $p\ge2$ and $1\le q<p$, ordered lexicographically by $(p,q)$. Each imbalance is reduced to lowest terms, and we record the sequence of…

We generalize overpartitions to (k,j)-colored partitions: k-colored partitions in which each part size may have at most j colors. We find numerous congruences and other symmetries. We use a wide array of tools to prove our theorems:…

Let $\mathcal A=\{A_1,\ldots,A_n\}$ be a family of sets in the plane. For $0 \leq i < n$, denote by $f_i$ the number of subsets $\sigma$ of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ of cardinality $i+1$ that satisfy $\bigcap_{i \in \sigma} A_i \neq \emptyset$. Let…

Hypermaps were introduced as an algebraic tool for the representation of embeddings of graphs on an orientable surface. Recently a bijection was given between hypermaps and indecomposable permutations; this sheds new light on the subject by…

Conjunctive queries select and are expected to return certain tuples from a relational database. We study the potentially easier problem of counting all selected tuples, rather than enumerating them. In particular, we are interested in the…

A difference matrix over a group is a discrete structure that is intimately related to many other combinatorial designs, including mutually orthogonal Latin squares, orthogonal arrays, and transversal designs. Interest in constructing…

Given the collection of all $m\times n$ rectangular grids which have a fixed number $1\leq r\leq mn$ of blocked cells, we explicitly describe a proper subset of the collection which is guaranteed to contain at least one grid from each…

We present a novel framework for studying combinatorial identities through the geometric lens of subset distributions in q-valued cubes. By analyzing how elements of arbitrary subsets are distributed among the faces of the cube E_q^n, we…

We find exact and asymptotic formulas for the number of pairs $(p,q)$ of $N$-cycles such that the all cycles of the product $p\cdot q$ have lengths from a given integer set. We then apply these results to prove a surprisingly high lower…

By constructing suitable nonnegative exponential sums we give upper bounds on the cardinality of any set $B_q$ in cyclic groups $\ZZ_q$ such that the difference set $B_q-B_q$ avoids cubic residues modulo $q$.

An overlap representation is an assignment of sets to the vertices of a graph in such a way that two vertices are adjacent if and only if the sets assigned to them overlap. The overlap number of a graph is the minimum number of elements…

The ability to design and synthesize ever more complicated colloidal particles opens the possibility of self-assembling a zoo of complex structures, including those with one or more self-limited length scales. An undesirable feature of…

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…

For two posets $P$ and $Q$, we say $Q$ is $P$-free if there does not exist any order-preserving injection from $P$ to $Q$. The speical case for $Q$ being the Boolean lattice $B_n$ is well-studied, and the optiamal value is denoted as…