Related papers: Remarks on one combinatorial application of the Al…
The \emph{Stanley--Yan} (SY) \emph{inequality} gives the ultra-log-concavity for the numbers of bases of a matroid which have given sizes of intersections with $k$ fixed disjoint sets. The inequality was proved by Stanley (1981) for regular…
We survey some of the mechanisms used to prove that naturally defined sequences in combinatorics are log-concave. Among these mechanisms are Alexandrov's inequality for mixed discriminants, the Alexandrov Fenchel inequality for mixed…
Describing the equality conditions of the Alexandrov--Fenchel inequality has been a major open problem for decades. We prove that in the case of convex polytopes, this description is not in the polynomial hierarchy unless the polynomial…
We study combinatorial inequalities for various classes of set systems: matroids, polymatroids, poset antimatroids, and interval greedoids. We prove log-concavity inequalities for counting certain weighted feasible words, which generalize…
In 1999 Merino and Welsh conjectured that evaluations of the Tutte polynomial of a graph satisfy an inequality. In this short article we show that the conjecture generalized to matroids holds for the large class of all split matroids by…
Stanley's inequalities for partially ordered sets establish important log-concavity relations for sequences of linear extensions counts. Their extremals however, i.e., the equality cases of these inequalities, were until now poorly…
The Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality, a far-reaching generalization of the classical isoperimetric inequality to arbitrary mixed volumes, lies at the heart of convex geometry. The characterization of its extremal bodies is a long-standing open…
Fox's conjecture from 1962, that the absolute values of the coefficients of the Alexander polynomial of an alternating link are trapezoidal, has remained stubbornly open to this date. Recently Fox's conjecture was settled for all special…
We partition in classes the set of matroids of fixed dimension on a fixed vertex set. In each class we identify two special matroids, respectively with minimal and maximal h-vector in that class. Such extremal matroids also satisfy a…
This paper studies systems of polynomial equations that provide information about orientability of matroids. First, we study systems of linear equations over GF(2), originally alluded to by Bland and Jensen in their seminal paper on weak…
We settle three problems from the literature on stable and real zero polynomials and their connection to matroid theory. We disprove the weak real zero amalgamation conjecture by Schweighofer and the second author. We disprove a conjecture…
A characteristic polynomial is an important invariant in the field of hyperplane arrangement. For the Linial arrangement of any irreducible root system, Postnikov and Stanley conjectured that all roots of the characteristic polynomial have…
Let G be a finite connected graph. The Kirchhoff polynomial of G is a certain homogeneous polynomial whose degree is equal to the first betti number of G. These polynomials appear in the study of electrical circuits and in the evaluation of…
The Alexander polynomial (1928) is the first polynomial invariant of links devised to help distinguish links up to isotopy. Fox's conjecture (1962) -- stating that the absolute values of the coefficients of the Alexander polynomial for any…
The central question of knot theory is that of distinguishing links up to isotopy. The first polynomial invariant of links devised to help answer this question was the Alexander polynomial (1928). Almost a century after its introduction, it…
A 1965 result of Crapo shows that every elementary lift of a matroid $M$ can be constructed from a linear class of circuits of $M$. In a recent paper, Walsh generalized this construction by defining a rank-$k$ lift of a matroid $M$ given a…
In 1977 Stanley conjectured that the $h$-vector of a matroid independence complex is a pure $O$-sequence. In this paper we use lexicographic shellability for matroids to motivate a combinatorial strengthening of Stanley's conjecture. This…
We generalize the 1/3-2/3 conjecture from partially ordered sets to antimatroids: we conjecture that any antimatroid has a pair of elements x,y such that x has probability between 1/3 and 2/3 of appearing earlier than y in a uniformly…
An Ingletonian polymatroid satisfies, in addition to the polymatroid axioms, the inequalities of Ingleton (Combin. Math. Appln., 1971). These inequalities are required for a polymatroid to be representable. It is has been an open question…
For any lattice polytope $P$, we consider an associated polynomial $\bar{\delta}_{P}(t)$ and describe its decomposition into a sum of two polynomials satisfying certain symmetry conditions. As a consequence, we improve upon known…