Related papers: At most 10 cylinders mutually touch: a Ramsey-theo…
Let $\lambda(G)$ be the maximum number of subgroups in an irredundant covering of the finite group $G$. We prove that if $G$ is a group with $\lambda(G) \leqslant 6$, then $G$ is supersolvable. We also describe the structure of the groups…
We prove that the number of tangencies between the members of two families, each of which consists of $n$ pairwise disjoint curves, can be as large as $\Omega(n^{4/3})$. We show that from a conjecture about forbidden $0$-$1$ matrices it…
The cube graph Q_n is the skeleton of the n-dimensional cube. It is an n-regular graph on 2^n vertices. The Ramsey number r(Q_n, K_s) is the minimum N such that every graph of order N contains the cube graph Q_n or an independent set of…
Denote by $R(G_1, G_2, G_3)$ the minimum integer $N$ such that any three-colouring of the edges of the complete graph on $N$ vertices contains a monochromatic copy of a graph $G_i$ coloured with colour $i$ for some $i\in{1,2,3}$. In a…
In how many ways can $n$ queens be placed on an $n \times n$ chessboard so that no two queens attack each other? This is the famous $n$-queens problem. Let $Q(n)$ denote the number of such configurations, and let $T(n)$ be the number of…
We describe a new non-constructive technique to show that squares are avoidable by an infinite word even if we force some letters from the alphabet to appear at certain occurrences. We show that as long as forced positions are at distance…
In the late 90's, Tom Wolff introduced the circle tangency counting problem in his expository article on the Kakeya conjecture. For collections of well-spaced circles, we break the $N^{3/2}$-barrier, proving that a set of $N$ well-spaced…
We find an exact formula for the number of directed 5-cycles in a tournament in terms of its edge score sequence. We use this formula to find both upper and lower bounds on the number of 5-cycles in any $n$-tournament. In particular, we…
In this note, we determine the maximum number of edges of a $k$-uniform hypergraph, $k\ge 3$, with a unique perfect matching. This settles a conjecture proposed by Snevily.
We prove that almost any pair of real numbers a,b, satisfies the following inhomogeneous uniform version of Littlewood's conjecture: (*) forall x,y in R, liminf_{|n|\to\infty} |n|<na - x> <nb - y> = 0, where <-> denotes the distance from…
In this paper we study collections of mutually nearly orthogonal Latin squares ($\text{MNOLS}$), which come from a modification of the orthogonal condition for mutually orthogonal Latin squares. In particular, we find the maximum $\mu$ such…
It was conjectured by Edoukou in 2008 that a non-degenerate Hermitian threefold in $\mathbb{P}^4 (\mathbb{F}_{q^2})$ has at most $d(q^5+q^2) + q^3 + 1$ points in common with a threefold of degree $d$ defined over $\mathbb{F}_{q^2}$. He…
In this paper1 , we use the coding developed by R. Bowen and C. Series to compute the number of self-intersections of a closed geodesic on a pair of pants. We give lower and upper bounds on the number of self-intersections of a closed…
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…
The problem of twelve spheres is to understand, as a function of $r \in (0,r_{max}(12)]$, the configuration space of $12$ non-overlapping equal spheres of radius $r$ touching a central unit sphere. It considers to what extent, and in what…
A famous result of D. Walkup states that the only rectangles that may be tiled by the T-tetromino are those in which both sides are a multiple of four. In this paper we examine the rest of the rectangles, asking how many T-tetrominos may be…
We find the Ramsey number of a cycle vs. a complete graph when the order of the cycle is at least 4 times as large as the order of the complete graph. This partially confirms a conjecture of Erd\H{o}s, Faudree, Rousseau, and Schelp made in…
We prove by example that the number of elastic collisions of $n$ balls of equal mass and equal size in $d$-dimensional space can be greater than $n^3/27$ for $n\geq 3$ and $d\geq 2$. The previously known lower bound was of order $n^2$.
A pair of odd primes is said to be symmetric if each prime is congruent to one modulo their difference. A theorem from 1996 by Fletcher, Lindgren, and the third author provides an upper bound on the number of primes up to x that belong to a…
The Koebe circle packing theorem states that every finite planar graph can be realized as the nerve of a packing of (non-congruent) circles in R^3. We investigate the average kissing number of finite packings of non-congruent spheres in R^3…