A characterization of the natural embedding of the split Cayley hexagon in by intersection numbers

In this paper, we prove that a set of q⁵+q⁴+q³+q²+q+1 lines of with the properties that (1) every point of is incident with either 0 or q+1 elements of , (2) every plane of is incident with either 0, 1 or q+1 elements of , (3) every solid of is incident with either 0, 1, q+1 or 2q+1 elements of , and (4) every hyperplane of is incident with at most q³+3q²+3q members of , is necessarily the set of lines of a regularly embedded split Cayley generalized hexagon in .     

Imprimitive symmetric graphs with cyclic blocks

Let Γ be a graph admitting an arc-transitive subgroup G of automorphisms that leaves invariant a vertex partition with parts of size v≥3. In this paper we study such graphs where: for connected by some edge of Γ, exactly two vertices of B lie on no edge with a vertex of C; and as C runs over all parts of connected to B these vertex pairs (ignoring multiplicities) form a cycle. We prove that this occurs if and only if v=3 or 4, and moreover we give three geometric or group theoretic constructions of infinite families of such graphs.     

Uniqueness of certain association schemes

We prove the uniqueness of the two association schemes which appear in recent work of Henry Cohn and others in connection with their study of universally optimal spherical codes in Euclidean spaces: one is the class 4 association scheme with 40 vertices in and the other one is the class 3 association scheme with 64 vertices in . We prove the uniqueness mainly by geometric considerations with some computational help.     

Removing even crossings on surfaces

In this paper we investigate how certain results related to the Hanani–Tutte theorem can be extended from the plane to surfaces. We give a simple topological proof that the weak Hanani–Tutte theorem is true on arbitrary surfaces, both orientable and non-orientable. We apply these results and the proof techniques to obtain new and old results about generalized thrackles, including that every bipartite generalized thrackle on a surface S can be embedded on S. We also extend to arbitrary surfaces a result of Pach and Tóth that allows the redrawing of a graph so as to remove all crossings with even edges. From this we can conclude that , the crossing number of a graph G on surface S, is bounded by , where is the odd crossing number of G on surface S. Finally, we prove that whenever , for any surface S.     

Perfect packings with complete graphs minus an edge

Let denote the graph obtained from K_r by deleting one edge. We show that for every integer r≥4 there exists an integer n₀=n₀(r) such that every graph G whose order n≥n₀ is divisible by r and whose minimum degree is at least contains a perfect -packing, i.e. a collection of disjoint copies of which covers all vertices of G. Here is the critical chromatic number of . The bound on the minimum degree is best possible and confirms a conjecture of Kawarabayashi for large n.     

Chromatic Turán problems and a new upper bound for the Turán density of

We consider a new type of extremal hypergraph problem: given an r-graph and an integer k≥2 determine the maximum number of edges in an -free, k-colourable r-graph on n vertices.Our motivation for studying such problems is that it allows us to give a new upper bound for an old Turán problem. We show that a 3-graph in which any four points span at most two edges has density less than , improving previous bounds of due to de Caen [D. de Caen, Extension of a theorem of Moon and Moser on complete subgraphs, Ars Combin. 16 (1983) 5–10], and due to Mubayi [D. Mubayi, On hypergraphs with every four points spanning at most two triples, Electron. J. Combin. 10 (10) (2003)].     

Semifields of order with left nucleus and center

In [G. Marino, O. Polverino, R. Trombetti, On -linear sets of PG(3,q³) and semifields, J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 114 (5) (2007) 769–788] it has been proven that there exist six non-isotopic families (i=0,…,5) of semifields of order q⁶ with left nucleus and center , according to the different geometric configurations of the associated -linear sets. In this paper we first prove that any semifield of order q⁶ with left nucleus , right and middle nuclei and center is isotopic to a cyclic semifield. Then, we focus on the family by proving that it can be partitioned into three further non-isotopic families: , , and we show that any semifield of order q⁶ with left nucleus , right and middle nuclei and center belongs to the family .     

Generalized incidence theorems, homogeneous forms and sum–product estimates in finite fields

In recent years, sum–product estimates in Euclidean space and finite fields have received great attention. They can often be interpreted in terms of Erdős type incidence problems involving the distribution of distances, dot products, areas, and so on, which have been studied quite extensively by way of combinatorial and Fourier analytic techniques. We use both kinds of techniques to obtain sharp or near-sharp results on the distribution of volumes (as examples of d-linear homogeneous forms) determined by sufficiently large subsets of vector spaces over finite fields and the associated arithmetic expressions. Arithmetic–combinatorial techniques turn out to be optimal for dimension d≥4 to this end, while for d=3 they have failed to provide us with a result that follows from the analysis of exponential sums. To obtain the latter result we prove a relatively straightforward function version of an incidence results for points and planes previously established in [D. Hart, A. Iosevich, Sums and products in finite fields: An integral geometric viewpoint, in: Radon Transforms, Geometry, and Wavelets, Contemp. Math. 464 (2008); D. Hart, A. Iosevich, D. Koh, M. Rudnev, Averages over hyperplanes, sum–product theory in vector spaces over finite fields and the Erdős–Falconer distance conjecture, arXiv:math/0711.4427, preprint 2007].More specifically, we prove that if E=A××A is a product set in , d≥4, the d-dimensional vector space over a finite field , such that the size |E| of E exceeds (i.e. the size of the generating set A exceeds ) then the set of volumes of d-dimensional parallelepipeds determined by E covers . This result is sharp as can be seen by taking , a prime sub-field of its quadratic extension , with q=p². For in three dimensions, however, we are able to establish the same result only if (i.e., , for some C; in fact, the bound can be justified for a slightly wider class of “Cartesian product-like” sets), and this uses Fourier methods. Yet we do prove a weaker near-optimal result in three dimensions: that the set of volumes generated by a product set E=A×A×A covers a positive proportion of if (so ). Besides, without any assumptions on the structure of E, we show that in three dimensions the set of volumes covers a positive proportion of if |E|≥Cq², which is again sharp up to the constant C, as taking E to be a 2-plane through the origin shows.     

Lattices generated by orbits of subspaces under finite singular pseudo-symplectic groups I

Let be the (2ν+1+l)-dimensional vector space over the finite field . In the paper we assume that is a finite field of characteristic 2, and the singular pseudo-symplectic groups of degree 2ν+1+l over . Let be any orbit of subspaces under . Denote by the set of subspaces which are intersections of subspaces in and the intersection of the empty set of subspaces of is assumed to be . By ordering by ordinary or reverse inclusion, two lattices are obtained. This paper studies the inclusion relations between different lattices, a characterization of subspaces contained in a given lattice , and the characteristic polynomial of .     

On the division of space by topological hyperplanes

A topological hyperplane is a subspace of (or a homeomorph of it) that is topologically equivalent to an ordinary straight hyperplane. An arrangement of topological hyperplanes in is a finite set such that for any nonvoid intersection Y of topological hyperplanes in and any that intersects but does not contain Y, the intersection is a topological hyperplane in Y. (We also assume a technical condition on pairwise intersections.) If every two intersecting topological hyperplanes cross each other, the arrangement is said to be transsective. The number of regions formed by an arrangement of topological hyperplanes has the same formula as for arrangements of ordinary affine hyperplanes, provided that every region is a cell. Hoping to explain this geometrically, we ask whether parts of the topological hyperplanes in any arrangement can be reassembled into a transsective arrangement of topological hyperplanes with the same regions. That is always possible if the dimension is two but not in higher dimensions. We also ask whether all transsective topological hyperplane arrangements correspond to oriented matroids; they need not (because parallelism may not be an equivalence relation), but we can characterize those that do if the dimension is two. In higher dimensions this problem is open. Another open question is to characterize the intersection semilattices of topological hyperplane arrangements; a third is to prove that the regions of an arrangement of topological hyperplanes are necessarily cells; a fourth is whether the technical pairwise condition is necessary.     

On ternary Kloosterman sums modulo 12

Let K(a) denote the Kloosterman sum on . It is easy to see that for all . We completely characterize those for which , and . The simplicity of the characterization allows us to count the number of the belonging to each of these three classes. As a byproduct we offer an alternative proof for a new class of quasi-perfect ternary linear codes recently presented by Danev and Dodunekov.     

Tracing a single user

Let g(n,r) be the maximum possible cardinality of a family of subsets of {1,2,…,n} so that given a union of at most r members of , one can identify at least one of these members. The study of this function is motivated by questions in molecular biology. We show that , thus solving a problem of Csűrös and Ruszinkó.     

Inheritance of hyper-duality in imprimitive Bose–Mesner algebras

We prove the following result concerning the inheritance of hyper-duality by block and quotient Bose–Mesner algebras associated with a hyper-dual pair of imprimitive Bose–Mesner algebras. Let and denote Bose–Mesner algebras. Suppose there is a hyper-duality ψ from the subconstituent algebra of with respect to p to the subconstituent algebra of with respect to . Also suppose that is imprimitive with respect to a subset of Hadamard idempotents, so is dual imprimitive with respect to the subset of primitive idempotents, where is the formal duality associated with ψ. Let denote the block Bose–Mesner algebra of on the block containing p, and let denote the quotient Bose–Mesner algebra of with respect to . Then there is a hyper-duality from the subconstituent algebra of with respect to p to the subconstituent algebra of with respect to .     

Additive maps preserving the ascent and descent of operators

Let and be the algebras of all bounded linear operators on infinite dimensional complex Banach spaces X and Y, respectively. We characterize additive maps from onto preserving different quantities such as the nullity, the defect, the ascent, and the descent of operators.     

On the index of Siegel grids and its application to the tomography of quasicrystals

We give a characterization of when the index of Siegel grids is finite. As a main application, we solve a basic decomposition problem for the discrete tomography of quasicrystals that live on finitely generated -modules in some .     

Configurations in abelian categories. II. Ringel–Hall algebras

This is the second in a series on configurations in an abelian category . Given a finite poset (I,), an (I,)-configuration (σ,ι,π) is a finite collection of objects σ(J) and morphisms ι(J,K) or in satisfying some axioms, where J,KI. Configurations describe how an object X in decomposes into subobjects.The first paper defined configurations and studied moduli spaces of (I,)-configurations in , using the theory of Artin stacks. It showed well-behaved moduli stacks of objects and configurations in exist when is the abelian category coh(P) of coherent sheaves on a projective scheme P, or mod- of representations of a quiver Q.Write for the vector space of -valued constructible functions on the stack . Motivated by the idea of Ringel–Hall algebras, we define an associative multiplication * on using pushforwards and pullbacks along 1-morphisms between configuration moduli stacks, so that is a -algebra. We also study representations of , the Lie subalgebra of functions supported on indecomposables, and other algebraic structures on .Then we generalize all these ideas to stack functions , a universal generalization of constructible functions, containing more information. When Extⁱ(X,Y)=0 for all and i>1, or when for P a Calabi–Yau 3-fold, we construct (Lie) algebra morphisms from stack algebras to explicit algebras, which will be important in the sequels on invariants counting τ-semistable objects in .     

Approximation of Sobolev classes by polynomials and ridge functions

Let be the usual Sobolev class of functions on the unit ball in , and be the subclass of all radial functions in . We show that for the classes and , the orders of best approximation by polynomials in coincide. We also obtain exact orders of best approximation in of the classes by ridge functions and, as an immediate consequence, we obtain the same orders in for the usual Sobolev classes .     

Erdős–Ko–Rado theorems for permutations and set partitions

Let Sym([n]) denote the collection of all permutations of [n]={1,…,n}. Suppose is a family of permutations such that any two of its elements (when written in its cycle decomposition) have at least t cycles in common. We prove that for sufficiently large n, with equality if and only if is the stabilizer of t fixed points. Similarly, let denote the collection of all set partitions of [n] and suppose is a family of set partitions such that any two of its elements have at least t blocks in common. It is proved that, for sufficiently large n, with equality if and only if consists of all set partitions with t fixed singletons, where B_n is the nth Bell number.     

Random inscribing polytopes

For convex bodies K with boundary in , we explore random polytopes with vertices chosen along the boundary of K. In particular, we determine asymptotic properties of the volume of these random polytopes. We provide results concerning the variance and higher moments of this functional, as well as an analogous central limit theorem.     

On realistic terrains

We study worst-case complexities of visibility and distance structures on terrains under realistic assumptions on edge length ratios and the angles of the triangles, and a more general low-density assumption. We show that the visibility map of a point for a realistic terrain with n triangles has complexity . We also prove that the shortest path between two points p and q on a realistic terrain passes through triangles, and that the bisector of p and q has complexity . We use these results to show that the shortest path map for any point on a realistic terrain has complexity , and that the Voronoi diagram for any set of m points on a realistic terrain has complexity and . Our results immediately imply more efficient algorithms for computing the various structures on realistic terrains.