Related papers: A conjecture on the Crazy Knight's Tour Problem
The problem of modifying a given graph to satisfy certain properties has been one of the central topics in parameterized tractability study. In this paper, we study the cycle contraction problem, which makes a graph into a cycle by edge…
The Akbari-Cameron-Khosrovshahi (ACK) conjecture, which appears to be unresolved, states that for any simple graph $G$ with at least one edge, there exists a nonzero {$\{0,1\}$}-vector in the row space of its adjacency matrix that is not a…
An orientation $D$ of a graph $G=(V,E)$ is a digraph obtained from $G$ by replacing each edge by exactly one of the two possible arcs with the same end vertices. For each $v \in V(G)$, the indegree of $v$ in $D$, denoted by $d^-_D(v)$, is…
We approach the cycle double cover conjecture by looking for a circular 2-cell embedding of cubic graphs on an arbitrary surface. It is easy to see that if such an embedding exists, we can get to it from an arbitrary starting 2-cell…
Heffter arrays are combinatorial structures used to construct orthogonal cyclic cycle decompositions and biembeddings of complete graphs onto surfaces. A Heffter array $H(m,n;h,k)$ is an $m \times n$ partially filled array with distinct…
The recently suggested KNTZ trick completed the lasting search for exclusive Racah matrices $\bar S$ and $S$ for all rectangular representations and has a potential to help in the non-rectangular case as well. This was the last lacking…
In this article we determine five previously unknown covering array numbers (CANs). We do so using properties of so called balanced covering arrays together with a computational result for these. The balance properties allow us to…
It has been a challenge to make seven straight round cylinders mutually touch before our now 10-year old discovery [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 015505 (2004)] of configurations of seven mutually touching infinitely long round cylinders (then…
In a projective plane over a finite field, complete $(k,n)$-arcs with few characters are rare but interesting objects with several applications to finite geometry and coding theory. Since almost all known examples are large, the…
When trying to find approximate solutions for the Traveling Salesman Problem with heuristic optimization algorithms, small moves called Lin-$k$-Opts are often used. In our paper, we provide exact formulas for the numbers of possible tours…
An annulus is, informally, a ring-shaped region, often described by two concentric circles. The maximum-width empty annulus problem asks to find an annulus of a certain shape with the maximum possible width that avoids a given set of $n$…
The Dinitz conjecture states that, for each $n$ and for every collection of $n$-element sets $S_{ij}$, an $n\times n$ partial latin square can be found with the $(i,j)$\<th entry taken from $S_{ij}$. The analogous statement for $(n-1)\times…
We introduce symplectic billiards for pairs of possibly non-convex polygons. After establishing basic properties, we give several criteria on pairs of polygons for the symplectic billiard map to be fully periodic, i.e. $\textit{every}$…
Nivat's conjecture is a long-standing open combinatorial problem. It concerns two-dimensional configurations, that is, maps $\mathbb Z^2 \rightarrow \mathcal A$ where $\mathcal A$ is a finite set of symbols. Such configurations are often…
Meyniel's conjecture is one of the deepest open problems on the cop number of a graph. It states that for a connected graph $G$ of order $n,$ $c(G) = O(\sqrt{n}).$ While largely ignored for over 20 years, the conjecture is receiving…
A special class of Jordan algebras over a field $F$ of characteristic zero is considered. Such an algebra consists of an $r$-dimensional subspace of the vector space of all square matrices of a fixed order $n$ over $F$. It contains the…
Ramsey-Tur\'{a}n type problems were initiated by Erd\H{o}s and S\'{o}s in 1969. Given integers $p, q\ge2$, a graph $G$ is $(K_p,K_q)$-free if there exists a red/blue edge coloring of $G$ such that it contains neither a red $K_p$ nor a blue…
Let $\mathbb{K}$ be a non-Archimedean (complete) valued field satisfying \begin{align*} \left|\sum_{j=1}^{n}\lambda_j^2\right|=\max_{1\leq j \leq n}|\lambda_j|^2, \quad \forall \lambda_j \in \mathbb{K}, 1\leq j \leq n, \forall n \in…
The Canadian traveler problem (CTP) is the problem of traversing a given graph, where some of the edges may be blocked - a state which is revealed only upon reaching an incident vertex. Originally stated by Papadimitriou and Yannakakis…
In 1977 P.Yang asked whether there exist complete immersed complex submanifolds g : M^k --> C^N with bounded image. A positive answer is known for holomorphic curves (k=1) and partial answers are known for the case when k>1. The principal…