English

Phase transitions in isoperimetric problems on the integers

Combinatorics 2026-01-15 v2

Abstract

Barber and Erde asked the following question: if BB generates Zd\mathbb Z^d as an additive group, then must the extremal sets for the vertex/edge-isoperimetric inequality on the Cayley graph Cay(Zd,B)\operatorname{Cay}(\mathbb Z^d,B) form a nested family? We answer this question negatively for both the vertex- and edge-isoperimetric inequalities, specifically in the case of d=1d=1. The key is to show that the structure of the cylinder Z×(Z/kZ)\mathbb Z\times(\mathbb Z/k\mathbb Z) can be mimicked in certain Cayley graphs on Z\mathbb Z, leading to a phase transition. We do, however, show that Barber--Erde's question for Cayley graphs on Z\mathbb Z has a positive answer if one is allowed to ignore finitely many sets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.14087,
  title  = {Phase transitions in isoperimetric problems on the integers},
  author = {Joseph Briggs and Chris Wells},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.14087},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

15 pages, 3 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:56:13.538Z