Related papers: Forbidding just one intersection for short integer…
For fixed integer $r\ge 2$, we call a pair $(m,f)$ of integers, $m\geq 1$, $0\leq f \leq \binom{m}{r}$, $absolutely$ $avoidable$ if there is $n_0$, such that for any pair of integers $(n,e)$ with $n>n_0$ and $0\leq e\leq \binom{n}{r}$ there…
In the matching interdiction problem, we are given an undirected graph with weights and interdiction costs on the edges and seek to remove a subset of the edges constrained to some budget, such that the weight of a maximum weight matching…
The maximum intersection problem for a matroid and a greedoid, given by polynomial-time oracles, is shown $NP$-hard by expressing the satisfiability of boolean formulas in 3-conjunctive normal form as such an intersection. The corresponding…
A polygon C is an intersecting polygon for a set O of objects in the plane if C intersects each object in O, where the polygon includes its interior. We study the problem of computing the minimum-perimeter intersecting polygon and the…
In this work, we treat subshifts, defined in terms of an alphabet $A$ and (usually infinite) forbidden list $F$, where the number of $n$-letter words in $F$ has "slow growth rate" in $n$. We show that such subshifts are well-behaved in…
Submodular function minimization (SFM) and matroid intersection are fundamental discrete optimization problems with applications in many fields. It is well known that both of these can be solved making $\mathrm{poly}(N)$ queries to a…
We show that there exists an infinite word over the alphabet {0, 1, 3, 4} containing no three consecutive blocks of the same size and the same sum. This answers an open problem of Pirillo and Varricchio from 1994.
We study the problems of finding a shortest synchronizing word and its length for a given prefix code. This is done in two different settings: when the code is defined by an arbitrary decoder recognizing its star and when the code is…
The palindromic fingerprint of a string $S[1\ldots n]$ is the set $PF(S) = \{(i,j)~|~ S[i\ldots j] \textit{ is a maximal }\\ \textit{palindrome substring of } S\}$. In this work, we consider the problem of string reconstruction from a…
Ahlswede and Khachatrian's diametric theorem is a weighted version of their complete intersection theorem, itself an extension of the $t$-intersecting Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado theorem. Their intersection theorem says that the maximum size of a…
We characterize the limiting behavior of partial sums of multiplicative functions $f:\mathbb{F}_q[t]\to S^1$. In contrast to the number field setting, the characterization depends crucially on whether the notion of discrepancy is defined…
This paper attacks the following problem. We are given a large number $N$ of rectangles in the plane, each with horizontal and vertical sides, and also a number $r<N$. The given list of $N$ rectangles may contain duplicates. The problem is…
Let $n > k > 1$ be integers, $[n] = \{1, \ldots, n\}$. Let $\mathcal F$ be a family of $k$-subsets of~$[n]$. The family $\mathcal F$ is called intersecting if $F \cap F' \neq \emptyset$ for all $F, F' \in \mathcal F$. It is called almost…
We examine the possibility of approximating Maximum Vertex-Disjoint Shortest Paths. In this problem, the input is an edge-weighted (directed or undirected) $n$-vertex graph $G$ along with $k$ terminal pairs…
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 $0 \leq k \leq n$, let ${[n] \choose \leq…
The Erd\H{o}s--Ginzburg--Ziv Problem is a classical extremal problem in discrete geometry. Given $m$ and $n$, the problem asks about the smallest number $s$ such that among any $s$ points in the integer lattice $\mathbb{Z}^n$ one can find…
Matroid is a generalization of many fundamental objects in combinatorial mathematics , and matroid intersection problem is a classical subject in combinatorial optimization . However , only the intersection of two matroids are well…
Let $n$ be a positive integer, let $0<p\leqslant p'\leqslant \frac{1}{2}$, and let $\ell \leqslant pn$ be a nonnegative integer. We prove that if $\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G}\subseteq \{0,1\}^n$ are two families whose cross intersections forbid…
For positive integers $n>k>t$ let $\binom{[n]}{k}$ denote the collection of all $k$-subsets of the standard $n$-element set $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$. Subsets of $\binom{[n]}{k}$ are called $k$-graphs. A $k$-graph $\mathcal{F}$ is called…
Matroid intersection is a classical optimization problem where, given two matroids over the same ground set, the goal is to find the largest common independent set. In this paper, we show that there exists a certain "sparsifer": a subset of…