A note on conservative galaxies,Skolem systems,cyclic cycle decompositions,and Heffter arrays

The conservative number of a graph $G$ is the minimum positive integer $M$, such that $G$ admits an orientation and a labeling of its edges by distinct integers in $\{1,2,\dots ,M\}$, such that at each vertex of degree at least three, the sum of the labels on the in-coming edges is equal to the sum of the labels on the out-going edges. A graph is conservative if $M=\left|E\left(G\right)\right|$. It is worth noting that determining whether certain biregular graphs are conservative is equivalent to find integer Heffter arrays.In this work we show that the conservative number of a galaxy (a disjoint union of stars) of size $M$ is $M$ for $M\equiv 0$, $3(mod4)$, and $M+1$ otherwise. Consequently, given positive integers $m_1$, $m_2$, …, $m_n$ with $m_i\ge 3$ for $1\le i\le n$, we construct a cyclic $(m_1,m_2,\dots ,m_n)$-cycle system of infinitely many circulant graphs, generalizing a result of Bryant, Gavlas and Ling (2003). In particular, it allows us to construct a cyclic $(m_1,m_2,\dots ,m_n)$-cycle system of the complete graph $K_{2M+1}$, where $M={\sum }_{i=1}^n{m}_i$. Also, we prove necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of a cyclic $(m_1,m_2,\dots ,m_n)$-cycle system of $K_{2M+2}?F$, where $F$ is a 1-factor. Furthermore, we give a sufficient condition for a subset of ${\mathbb{Z}}_v?\left\{0\right\}$ to be sequenceable.     

Self-complementary magic squares of doubly even orders

A magic square $M$ in which the entries consist of consecutive integers from $1,2,\dots ,n^2$ is said to be self-complementary of order$n$ if the resulting square obtained from $M$ by replacing each entry $i$ by $n^2+1?i$ is equivalent to $M$ (under rotation or reflection). We present a new construction for self-complementary magic squares of order $n$ for each $n\ge 4$, where $n$ is a multiple of $4$.     

Asymptotically good quasi-cyclic codes of fractional index

Generalizing the quasi-cyclic codes of index $1\frac{1}{3}$ introduced by Fan et al., we study a more general class of quasi-cyclic codes of fractional index generated by pairs of polynomials. The parity check polynomial and encoder of these codes are obtained. The asymptotic behaviours of the rates and relative distances of this class of codes are studied by using a probabilistic method. We prove that, for any positive real number $\delta$ such that the asymptotic GV-bound at $\frac{k+l}{2}\delta$ is greater than $\frac{1}{2}$, the relative distance of the code is convergent to $\delta$, while the rate is convergent to $\frac{1}{k+l}$. As a result, quasi-cyclic codes of fractional index are asymptotically good.     

A sharp bound on the expected number of upcrossings of an L2-bounded Martingale

For a martingale $M$ starting at $x$ with final variance ${\sigma }^2$, and an interval $(a,b)$, let $\Delta =\frac{b?a}{\sigma }$ be the normalized length of the interval and let $\delta =\frac{|x?a|}{\sigma }$ be the normalized distance from the initial point to the lower endpoint of the interval. The expected number of upcrossings of $(a,b)$ by $M$ is at most $\frac{\sqrt{1+{\delta }^2}?\delta }{2\Delta }$ if ${\Delta }^2\le 1+{\delta }^2$ and at most $\frac{1}{1+{(\Delta +\delta )}^2}$ otherwise. Both bounds are sharp, attained by Standard Brownian Motion stopped at appropriate stopping times. Both bounds also attain the Doob upper bound on the expected number of upcrossings of $(a,b)$ for submartingales with the corresponding final distribution. Each of these two bounds is at most $\frac{\sigma }{2(b?a)}$, with equality in the first bound for $\delta =0$. The upper bound $\frac{\sigma }{2}$ on the length covered by $M$ during upcrossings of an interval restricts the possible variability of a martingale in terms of its final variance. This is in the same spirit as the Dubins & Schwarz sharp upper bound $\sigma$ on the expected maximum of $M$ above $x$, the Dubins & Schwarz sharp upper bound $\sigma \sqrt{2}$ on the expected maximal distance of $M$ from $x$, and the Dubins, Gilat & Meilijson sharp upper bound $\sigma \sqrt{3}$ on the expected diameter of $M$.     

Extremal product-one free sequences in Dihedral and Dicyclic Groups

Let $G$ be a finite group, written multiplicatively. The Davenport constant of $G$ is the smallest positive integer $D\left(G\right)$ such that every sequence of $G$ with $D\left(G\right)$ elements has a non-empty subsequence with product $1$. Let $D_{2n}$ be the Dihedral Group of order $2n$ and $Q_{4n}$ be the Dicyclic Group of order $4n$. Zhuang and Gao (2005) showed that $D\left(D_{2n}\right)=n+1$ and Bass (2007) showed that $D\left(Q_{4n}\right)=2n+1$. In this paper, we give explicit characterizations of all sequences $S$ of $G$ such that $\left|S\right|=D\left(G\right)?1$ and $S$ is free of subsequences whose product is 1, where $G$ is equal to $D_{2n}$ or $Q_{4n}$ for some $n$.