组合数学

We prove a Sidorenko-type inequality for directed trees: for every oriented tree $T$ on $k$ vertices and every finite directed graph $G$, the homomorphism count hom$(T,G)$ is bounded above by the maximum of the two pure star counts…

M\'oricz and Nagy introduced the problem of maximizing the number of $r$-element subsets with rational sums in an $n$-element set of irrational numbers, and showed that it is equivalent to an extremal zero-sum problem. They determined the…

This article explores a new type of optimal covering of a complete graph by small cliques of different sizes, namely the minimum covering with minimum excess. In particular, the minimum size of a covering by triples and quadruples with…

An ordered variant of the well-known set theory concept of shattering was introduced by Anstee, R\'onyai, and Sali. In this paper, we prove several new results related to order shattering. Given a family $\mathcal F$ of subsets of $[n]$, we…

A $t$-tone $k$-coloring of a graph $G$ assigns a set of $t$ distinct colors from $\{1, \dots, k\}$ to each vertex so that vertices at distance $d$ share fewer than $d$ common colors. The $t$-tone chromatic number of $G$ is the minimum $k$…

Orientable sequences, periodic sequences in which any $n$-tuple appears at most once in either direction, were introduced in the early 1990s for use in certain position location applications; constructions and upper bounds on the period for…

A polyform is a planar figure formed by gluing congruent regular polygons along entire edges. We study polyforms in hyperbolic ${p,q}$-tessellations and the extremal problem of minimizing the number of tiles needed to realize exactly $h$…

We prove a conjecture of K\"uhn, Osthus, Townsend and Zhao \cite{kuhn2017structure} stating that almost every $C_k$-free oriented graph on $n$ vertices has $\Theta(n)$ backwards edges in a transitive-optimal ordering. The same holds for…

In 1959, Erd\H{o}s and Gallai showed that every $2$-connected graph $G$ contains a cycle of length at least $\frac{2|E(G)|}{|V(G)|-1}$. This result was subsequently extended to weighted graphs by Bondy and Fan in 1991. A natural local…

Let $\mathcal{G}=\{G_1, G_2, \ldots , G_{kn}\}$ be a family of balanced bipartite graphs on the same vertex set $[2n]$. A rainbow $k$-factor of $\mathcal{G}$ is defined as a $k$-factor such that any two distinct edges come from different…

Given a set P of points on the plane, a polygon with vertices in P is said to be empty if it contains no element of P in its interior. We show that every set of n points in general position on the plane determines at least…

In this paper, we employ the Wilf-Zeilberger (WZ) method to prove a supercongruence conjecture posed by Z.-W. Sun: for any prime $p$, \begin{align*} \sum_{k=0}^{\frac{p-3}{2}}\frac{92k^2+61k+9}{(2k+1)64^k}{2k \choose k}{3k \choose k}{4k…

Graph colorings have been of interest to mathematicians for a long time, but relatively recently, social scientists have also found them to be interesting tools for studying group behavior. In the last 20 years, scientists have begun to…

In 2019, P. Higgins formulated [1] a question about bipartite graphs (see Conjecture 1 below); this question arises in the study of regular finite semigroups. F. V. Petrov formulated [2] another combinatorial conjecture (Conjecture 3);…

We find that partisan mis\`ere quotients can have any finite cardinality other than 3, answering a question of Allen. This contrasts with impartial mis\`ere quotients, which must have even cardinality.

We show that for non-zero integers $a$ and $b$ there is a natural number $N < \exp(r^{2+o_{a,b;r\rightarrow \infty}(1)})$ such that in any $r$-colouring of $\{1,\dots,N\}$ there are $x,y,z$, all in the same colour class, such that…

A graph is $\mathrm{ISK}_4$-free if it contains no induced subdivision of $K_4$. L\'ev\^eque et al. [\emph{J. Combin. Theory Ser. B} \textbf{102} (2012) 924--947] conjectured that all $\mathrm{ISK}_4$-free graphs are 4-colorable. Chen et…

This is the first paper that provides a systematic treatment of the $r$-dimensional PTE problem in additive number theory, abbreviated by PTE$_r$, through its connection with combinatorial design theory, the branch of combinatorial…

Let $G$ be a graph of order $n$ and $P(G,x)$ be the chromatic polynomial of $G$. Dong, Ge, Gong, Ning, Ouyang, and Tay (J. Graph Theory 96(2021) 343) conjectured that $\frac{d^k}{dx^k} \bigl( \ln[(-1)^n P(G, x)] \bigr) < 0$ holds for all $k…

We classify rotary (orientably-regular) maps whose underlying graphs are multicycles. For the multicycle $\mathrm{C}_n^{(\lambda)}$ of length $n$ and edge-multiplicity $\lambda$, we determine all rotary embeddings for $n\geqslant 3$ and…