Dissection of a Triangle into Similar Triangles

We prove that the number of non-similar triangles T which can be dissected into two, three or five similar non-right triangles is equal to zero, one and nine, respectively. We find all these triangles. Moreover, every triangle can be dissected into n similar triangles whenever n = 4 or n ≥ 6. In the last section we allow dissections into right-triangles but we add another restriction. We prove that in any perfect, prime and simplicial dissection into at least three tiles, the tiles must have one of only three possible shapes.     

Hinged dissection of polyominoes and polyforms

A hinged dissection of a set of polygons S is a collection of polygonal pieces hinged together at vertices that can be rotated into any member of S. We present a hinged dissection of all edge-to-edge gluings of n congruent copies of a polygon P that join corresponding edges of P. This construction uses kn pieces, where k is the number of vertices of P. When P is a regular polygon, we show how to reduce the number of pieces to k/2(n−1). In particular, we consider polyominoes (made up of unit squares), polyiamonds (made up of equilateral triangles), and polyhexes (made up of regular hexagons). We also give a hinged dissection of all polyabolos (made up of right isosceles triangles), which do not fall under the general result mentioned above. Finally, we show that if P can be hinged into Q, then any edge-to-edge gluing of n congruent copies of P can be hinged into any edge-to-edge gluing of n congruent copies of Q.     

Combinatorial theorems on contractive mappings in power sets

We prove that to every positive integer n there exists a positive integer h such that the following holds: If S is a set of h elements and ƒ a mapping of the power set of S into such that ƒ(T)T for all T , then there exists a strictly increasing sequence T₁T_n of subsets of S such that one of the following three possibilities holds: (a) all sets ƒ(T_i), i= 1,…,n, are equal; (b) for all i=1,…, n, we have ƒ(T_i)=T_i; (c) T_i=ƒ(T_i+1) for all i= 1,…,n-1. This theorem generalizes theorems of the author, Rado, and Leeb. It has applications for subtrees in power sets.     

A Ramsey-type problem on right-angled triangles in space

It is proved that for any 3-coloring of R³ and for any right-angled triangle T, one can find a congruent copy of T, all of whose vertices are of the same color.     

Decomposition of some planar graphs into trees

We prove that each simple planar graph G whose all faces are quadrilaterals can be decomposed into two disjoint trees T_r and T_b such that V(T_r) = V(G − u) and V(T_b) = V(G − v) for any two non-adjacent vertices u and v of G.     

An enumeration of equilateral triangle dissections

We enumerate all dissections of an equilateral triangle into smaller equilateral triangles up to size 20, where each triangle has integer side lengths. A perfect dissection has no two triangles of the same side, counting up- and down-oriented triangles as different. We computationally prove Tutte’s conjecture that the smallest perfect dissection has size 15 and we find all perfect dissections up to size 20.     

Besicovitch triangles cover unit arcs

A long standing conjecture is that the Besicovitch triangle, i.e., an equilateral triangle with side is a worm-cover. We will show that indeed there exists a class of isosceles triangles, that includes the above equilateral triangle, where each triangle from the class is a worm-cover. These triangles are defined so that the shortest symmetric z-arc stretched from side to side and touching the base would have length one.      

Tilings of Convex Polygons with Congruent Triangles

By the spectrum of a polygon A we mean the set of triples (??,??,??) such that A can be dissected into congruent triangles of angles ??,??,??. We propose a technique for finding the spectrum of every convex polygon. Our method is based on the following classification. A tiling is called regular if there are two angles of the triangles, ?? and ?? such that at every vertex of the tiling the number of triangles having angle ?? equals the number of triangles having angle ??. Otherwise the tiling is irregular. We list all pairs (A,T) such that A is a convex polygon and T is a triangle that tiles A regularly. The list of triangles tiling A irregularly is always finite, and can be obtained, at least in principle, by considering the system of equations satisfied by the angles, examining the conjugate tilings, and comparing the sides and the area of the triangles to those of A. Using this method we characterize the convex polygons with infinite spectrum, and determine the spectrum of the regular triangle, the square, all rectangles, and the regular N-gons with N large enough.     

All trees are 1-embeddable and all except stars are 2-embeddable

A graph G with n vertices is said to be embeddable (in its complement) if there is an automorphism φ of K_n such that E(G) ∩ E(φ(G))=. It is known that all trees T with n (≥2) vertices and T K_1,n−1 are embeddable. We say that G is 1-embeddable if, for every edge e, there is an automorphism φ of K_n such that E(G) ∩ E(φ(G))={e};and that it is 2-embeddable if,for every pair e₁, e₂ of edges, there is an automorphism φ of K_n such that E(G) ∩ E(φ(G))={e₁, e₂}. We prove here that all trees with n (3) vertices are 1-embeddable; and that all trees T with n (4) vertices and T K_1,n−1 are 2-embeddable. In a certain sense, this result is sharp.     

Linear mappings which are rank-k nonincreasing, II

We prove the following result. Let F be an infinite field of characteristic other than two. Let k be a positive integer. Let S_n(F) denote the space of all n × n symmetric matrices with entries in F, and let T:S_n(F)→S_n(F) be a linear operator. Suppose that T is rank-k nonincreasing and its image contains a matrix with rank higher than K. Then, there exist λεF and PεF^n,n such that T(A)=λPAP^t for all AεS_n(F). λ can be chosen to be 1 if F is algebraically closed and ±1 if F=R, the real field.     

Strong equality of domination parameters in trees

We study the concept of strong equality of domination parameters. Let P₁ and P₂ be properties of vertex subsets of a graph, and assume that every subset of V(G) with property P₂ also has property P₁. Let ψ₁(G) and ψ₂(G), respectively, denote the minimum cardinalities of sets with properties P₁ and P₂, respectively. Then ψ₁(G)ψ₂(G). If ψ₁(G)=ψ₂(G) and every ψ₁(G)-set is also a ψ₂(G)-set, then we say ψ₁(G) strongly equals ψ₂(G), written ψ₁(G)≡ψ₂(G). We provide a constructive characterization of the trees T such that γ(T)≡i(T), where γ(T) and i(T) are the domination and independent domination numbers, respectively. A constructive characterization of the trees T for which γ(T)=γ_t(T), where γ_t(T) denotes the total domination number of T, is also presented.     

Impulsive effects on global existence of solutions for degenerate semilinear parabolic equations

Let q be a nonnegative real number, and λ and σ be positive constants. This article studies the following impulsive problem: for n = 1, 2, 3,…,

. The number λ^* is called the critical value if the problem has a unique global solution u for λ < λ^*, and the solution blows up in a finite time for λ > λ^*. For σ < 1, existence of a unique λ^* is established, and a criterion for the solution to decay to zero is studied. For σ > 1, existence of a unique λ^* and three criteria for the blow-up of the solution in a finite time are given respectively. It is also shown that there exists a unique T^* such that u exists globally for T> T^*, and u blows up in a finite time for T < T^*.     

Eigenvalues of the Laplacian of a graph

Let G be a finite undirected graph with no loops or multiple edges. We define the Laplacian matrix of G,Δ(G)by Δ_ij= degree of vertex i and Δ_ij-1 if there is an edge between vertex i and vertex j. In this paper we relate the structure of the graph G to the eigenvalues of A(G): in particular we prove that all the eigenvalues of Δ(G) are non-negative, less than or equal to the number of vertices, and less than or equal to twice the maximum vertex degree. Precise conditions for equality are given.     

Bounds on regeneration times and convergence rates for Markov chains

In many applications of Markov chains, and especially in Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithms, the rate of convergence of the chain is of critical importance. Most techniques to establish such rates require bounds on the distribution of the random regeneration time T that can be constructed, via splitting techniques, at times of return to a “small set” C satisfying a minorisation condition P(x,·)(·), xC. Typically, however, it is much easier to get bounds on the time τ_C of return to the small set itself, usually based on a geometric drift function , where . We develop a new relationship between T and τ_C, and this gives a bound on the tail of T, based on ,λ and b, which is a strict improvement on existing results. When evaluating rates of convergence we see that our bound usually gives considerable numerical improvement on previous expressions.     

Periodic solutions for N-body type dynamical systems

We prove the existence of infinitely many T-periodic solutions of any assigned period T for a class of dynamical systems which contains the N-body one. We also show a sub class for which such solutions are not of simultaneous collision.     

Configurations of inscribed equilateral triangles

This paper explores equilateral triangles XYZ with vertices on sidelines of a given triangle ABC such that one side of XYZ is parallel to the corresponding side of ABC. There are six such triangles. They have many interesting properties which we investigate using trilinear coordinates. Our results improve and add to the earlier results of Blas Herrera Gómez about these configurations. We obtain new characterizations of several central points of the triangles and identify interesting pairs of triangles that are homologic (or perspective) and orthologic. The recognition of the Darboux cubic of a triangle is also accomplished in these configurations. Triples of circles intersecting in a point and six points on a conic also appear.      

Icosahedra Constructed from Congruent Triangles

It is possible to construct a figure in three dimensions which is combinatorially equivalent to a regular icosahedron, and whose faces are all congruent but not equilateral. Such icosamonohedra can be convex or nonconvex, and can be deformed continuously. A scalene triangle can construct precisely zero, one, or two convex icosamonohedra, and each occurs. Demonstrated here are two explicit convex examples, the first of which is the unique such object constructed from scalene right triangles, proving a conjecture of Banchoff and Strauss. Received January 27, 1999, and in revised form February 18, 1999. Online publication May 16, 2000.     

Profile minimization on triangulated triangles

Given graph G=(V,E) on n vertices, the profile minimization problem is to find a one-to-one function f:V→{1,2,…,n} such that ∑_vV(G){f(v)−min_xN[v] f(x)} is as small as possible, where N[v]={v}{x: x is adjacent to v} is the closed neighborhood of v in G. The trangulated triangle T_l is the graph whose vertices are the triples of non-negative integers summing to l, with an edge connecting two triples if they agree in one coordinate and differ by 1 in the other two coordinates. This paper provides a polynomial time algorithm to solve the profile minimization problem for trangulated triangles T_l with side-length l.     

Hot spots conjecture for a class of acute triangles

We show that the hot spots conjecture of J. Rauch holds for acute triangles if one of the angles is not larger than \(\pi /6\). More precisely, we show that the second Neumann eigenfunction on those acute triangles has no maximum or minimum inside the domain. We first simplify the problem by showing that absence of critical points on two sides implies no critical points inside a triangle. This result applies to any acute triangle and might help prove the conjecture for arbitrary acute triangles. Then we show that there are no critical points on two sides assuming one small angle. We also establish simplicity for the smallest positive Neumann eigenvalue for all non-equilateral acute triangles. This result was already known for obtuse triangles, and it fails for the equilateral case.     

An elliptic K3 surface associated to Heron triangles

A rational triangle is a triangle with rational sides and rational area. A Heron triangle is a triangle with integral sides and integral area. In this article we will show that there exist infinitely many rational parametrizations, in terms of s, of rational triangles with perimeter 2s(s+1) and area s(s²−1). As a corollary, there exist arbitrarily many Heron triangles with all the same area and the same perimeter. The proof uses an elliptic K3 surface Y. Its Picard number is computed to be 18 after we prove that the Néron-Severi group of Y injects naturally into the Néron-Severi group of the reduction of Y at a prime of good reduction. We also give some constructions of elliptic surfaces and prove that under mild conditions a cubic surface in P³ can be given the structure of an elliptic surface by cutting it with the family of hyperplanes through a given line L. Some of these constructions were already known, but appear to have lacked proof in the literature until now.