Related papers: A few more Lonely Runners

We consider two dimensional random walks conditioned to stay in the positive quadrant. Assuming that the increments of the walk have finite second moments and that the drift vector is co-oriented with one of two axes, we construct positive…

The vicious random walker problem on a one dimensional lattice is considered. Many walkers take simultaneous steps on the lattice and the configurations in which two of them arrive at the same site are prohibited. It is known that the…

We present a computer-aided, yet fully rigorous, proof of Ira Gessel's tantalizingly simply-stated conjecture that the number of ways of walking $2n$ steps in the region $x+y \geq 0, y \geq 0$ of the square-lattice with unit steps in the…

Mason's Conjecture asserts that for an $m$--element rank $r$ matroid $\M$ the sequence $(I_k/\binom{m}{k}: 0\leq k\leq r)$ is logarithmically concave, in which $I_k$ is the number of independent $k$--sets of $\M$. A related conjecture in…

The union-closed sets conjecture, also known as Frankl's conjecture, is a well-studied problem with various formulations. In terms of lattices, the conjecture states that every finite lattice $L$ with more than one element contains a…

This paper is a supplement to a talk for mathematics teachers given at the 2016 LSU Mathematics Contest for High School Students. The paper covers more details and aspects than could be covered in the talk. We start with an interesting…

The monodromy conjecture is a mysterious open problem in singularity theory. Its original version relates arithmetic and topological/geometric properties of a multivariate polynomial $f$ over the integers, more precisely, poles of the…

We consider lattice walks in the plane starting at the origin, remaining in the first quadrant and made of West, South and North-East steps. In 1965, Germain Kreweras discovered a remarkably simple formula giving the number of these walks…

Fix integers $d \geq 2$ and $k\geq d-1$. Consider a random walk $X_0, X_1, \ldots$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ in which, given $X_0, X_1, \ldots, X_n$ ($n \geq k$), the next step $X_{n+1}$ is uniformly distributed on the unit ball centred at $X_n$,…

Linnik proved in the late 1950's the equidistribution of integer points on large spheres under a congruence condition. The congruence condition was lifted in 1988 by Duke (building on a break-through by Iwaniec) using completely different…

The Erd\H{o}s distance problem concerns the least number of distinct distances that can be determined by $N$ points in the plane. The integer lattice with $N$ points is known as \textit{near-optimal}, as it spans $\Theta(N/\sqrt{\log(N)})$…

We discuss conjectures related to the following two conjectures: (1) for each complex numbers x_1,...,x_n there exist rationals y_1,...,y_n \in [-2^{n-1},2^{n-1}] such that \forall i \in {1,...,n} (x_i=1 \Rightarrow y_i=1) \forall i,j,k \in…

We give a shorter proof of a slightly weaker version of a theorem of Nets Katz and the author. We prove that if a set of $L$ lines in $\mathbb{R}^3$ contains at most $L^{1/2}$ lines in any low degree algebraic surface, then the number of…

We consider random paths on a square lattice which take a left or a right turn at every vertex. The possible turns are taken with equal probability, except at a vertex which has been visited before. In such case the vertex is left via the…

We solve several open problems concerning integer points of polytopes arising in symplectic and algebraic geometry. In this direction we give the first proof of a broad case of Ewald's Conjecture (1988) concerning symmetric integral points…

In 1997, Erd\H{o}s asked whether for arbitrarily large $n$ there exists a set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ that determines $O(\frac{n}{\sqrt{\log n}})$ distinct distances while satisfying the local constraint that every 4-point subset…

A finite set $X$ in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space is called an $s$-distance set if the set of distances between any two distinct points of $X$ has size $s$. In 1977, Larman-Rogers-Seidel proved that if the cardinality of an…

Recently, Z. W. Sun put forward a series of conjectures on monotonicity of combinatorial sequences in the form of $\{z_n/z_{n-1}\}_{n=N}^\infty$ and $\{\sqrt[n+1]{z_{n+1}}/\sqrt[n]{z_n}\}_{n=N}^\infty$ for some positive integer $N$, where…

In this note we consider distinct distances determined by points in an integer lattice. We first consider Erdos's lower bound for the square lattice, recast in the setup of the so-called Elekes-Sharir framework \cite{ES11,GK11}, and show…

Let $M$ be a matroid without loops or coloops and let $T(M;x,y)$ be its Tutte polynomial. In 1999 Merino and Welsh conjectured that $$\max(T(M;2,0), T(M;0,2))\geq T(M;1,1)$$ holds for graphic matroids. Ten years later, Conde and Merino…