Further results on the maximum size of a hole in an incomplete t‐wise balanced design with specified minimum block size*

Kreher and Rees 3 proved that if h is the size of a hole in an incomplete balanced design of order υ and index λ having minimum block size , then, They showed that when t = 2 or 3, this bound is sharp infinitely often in that for each h ≥ t and each k ≥ t + 1, (t,h,k) ≠(3,3,4), there exists an ItBD meeting the bound. In this article, we show that this bound is sharp infinitely often for every t, viz., for each t ≥ 4 there exists a constant C_t > 0 such that whenever (h ? t)(k ? t ? 1) ≥ C_t there exists an ItBD meeting the bound for some λ = λ(t,h,k). We then describe an algorithm by which it appears that one can obtain a reasonable upper bound on C_t for any given value of t. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 256–281, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10014     

On c‐Bhaskar Rao designs with block size 4

Several new families of c‐Bhaskar Rao designs with block size 4 are constructed. The necessary conditions for the existence of a c‐BRD (υ,4,λ) are that: (1)λ_min=?λ/3 ≤ c ≤ λ and (2a) c≡λ (mod 2), if υ > 4 or (2b) c≡ λ (mod 4), if υ = 4 or (2c) c≠ λ ? 2, if υ = 5. It is proved that these conditions are necessary, and are sufficient for most pairs of c and λ; in particular, they are sufficient whenever λ?c ≠ 2 for c > 0 and whenever c ? λ_min≠ 2 for c < 0. For c < 0, the necessary conditions are sufficient for υ> 101; for the classic Bhaskar Rao designs, i.e., c = 0, we show the necessary conditions are sufficient with the possible exception of 0‐BRD (υ,4,2)'s for υ≡ 4 (mod 6). © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 361–386, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10009     

On the Harnack principle for strongly elliptic systems with nonsmooth coefficients

In this paper we prove the following theorem (for notation and definitions, see the paragraphs below): “Let Ω ⊆ ℝⁿ be a domain, m ∈ ℕ, and λ, q > 0. Then, there exists r (= r(λ, q)) > 1 such that for every 0 < p < q, whenever are weak solutions of a strongly elliptic system with m equations of ellipticity λ satisfying ∈ 𝒫_r a.e. and Ω′ ⊆ Ω subdomain, the following inequalities hold: where C (= C(n,m,λ,q,p,Ω,Ω′)) is a positive constant.” © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Zero distribution of solutions of complex linear differential equations determines growth of coefficients

It is shown that the exponent of convergence λ(f) of any solution f of with entire coefficients A₀(z), …, A_k?2(z), satisfies λ(f) ? λ ∈ [1, ∞) if and only if the coefficients A₀(z), …, A_k?2(z) are polynomials such that for j = 0, …, k ? 2. In the unit disc analogue of this result certain intersections of weighted Bergman spaces take the role of polynomials. The key idea in the proofs is W. J. Kim’s 1969 representation of coefficients in terms of ratios of linearly independent solutions. © 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim     

A generalization of a result of Tran Van Trung on t-designs

We prove that if there exists a t − (v, k, λ) design satisfying the inequality for some positive integer j (where m = min{j, v − k} and n = min {i, t}), then there exists a t − (v + j, k, λ ()) design. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Combin Designs 7: 107–112, 1999     

Super‐simple resolvable balanced incomplete block designs with block size 4 and index 2

The necessary conditions for the existence of a super‐simple resolvable balanced incomplete block design on v points with block size k = 4 and index λ = 2, are that v ≥ 16 and . These conditions are shown to be sufficient. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 15: 341–356, 2007     

The Eigenvalue Problem of Singular Ergodic Control

We consider the problem of finding a real number λ and a function u satisfying the PDE Here f is a convex, superlinear function. We prove that there is a unique λ* such that the above PDE has a viscosity solution u satisfying $\lim_{|x|\rightarrow \infty}u(x)/|x|=1$ . Moreover, we show that associated to λ* is a convex solution u* with D²u^*∈ $\font\open=msbm10 at 10pt\def\R{\hbox{\open R}}L^{\infty}(\R^N)$ and give two min‐max formulae for λ*. λ* has a probabilistic interpretation as being the least, long‐time averaged (ergodic) cost for a singular control problem involving f. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The kth Laplacian eigenvalue of a tree

Let λ_k(G) be the kth Laplacian eigenvalue of a graph G. It is shown that a tree T with n vertices has and that equality holds if and only if k < n, k|n and T is spanned by k vertex disjoint copies of , the star on vertices. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory     

Globally sparse vertex-ramsey graphs

For graphs G and F we write F → (G)¹_r if every r-coloring of the vertices of F results in a monochromatic copy of G. The global density m(F) of F is the maximum ratio of the number of edges to the number of vertices taken over all subgraphs of F. Let We show that The lower bound is achieved by complete graphs, whereas, for all r ≥ 2 and ? > 0, m_cr(S_k, r) > r - ? for sufficiently large k, where S_k is the star with k arms. In particular, we prove that      

Analytic aspects of the Toda system: I. A Moser‐Trudinger inequality

In this paper, we analyze solutions of the open Toda system and establish an optimal Moser‐Trudinger type inequality for this system. Let Σ be a closed surface with area 1 and K = (a_ij)_{N × N} the Cartan matrix for SU(N + 1), i.e., We show that has a lower bound in (H¹(Σ))^N if and only if This inequality is optimal. As a direct consequence, if M_j < for 4π for j = 1, 2, …, N, Φ_M has a minimizer u that satisfies © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Sharp estimates for solutions of multi‐bubbles in compact Riemann surfaces

In this paper, we consider a sequence of multibubble solutions u_k of the equation (0.1) where h is a C^2,β positive function in a compact Riemann surface M, and ρ_k is a constant satisfying lim_k→+∞ ρ_k = 8mπ for some positive integer m ≥ 1. We prove among other things that where p_k,j are centers of the bubbles of u_k and λ_k,j are the local maxima of u_k after adding a constant. This yields a uniform bound of solutions as ρ_k converges to 8mπ from below provided that . It generalizes a previous result, due to Ding, Jost, Li, and Wang [18] and Nolasco and Tarantello [31], hich says that any sequence of minimizers u_k is uniformly bounded if ρ_k > 8π and h satisfies for any maximum point p of the sum of 2 log h and the regular part of the Green function, where K is the Gaussian curvature of M. The analytic work of this paper is the first step toward computing the topological degree of ( 0.1 ), which was initiated by Li [24]. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Spectral techniques applied to sparse random graphs

We analyze the eigenvalue gap for the adjacency matrices of sparse random graphs. Let λ₁ ≥ … ≥ λ_n be the eigenvalues of an n‐vertex graph, and let λ = max[λ₂,|λ_n|]. Let c be a large enough constant. For graphs of average degree d = c log n it is well known that λ₁ ≥ d, and we show that . For d = c it is no longer true that , but we show that by removing a small number of vertices of highest degree in G, one gets a graph G′ for which . Our proofs are based on the techniques of Friedman Kahn and Szemeredi from STOC 1989, who proved similar results for regular graphs. Our results are useful for extending the analysis of certain heuristics to sparser instances of NP‐hard problems. We illustrate this by removing some unnecessary logarithmic factors in the density of k‐SAT formulas that are refuted by the algorithm of Goerdt and Krivelevich from STACS 2001. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2005     

Generalized Hopf bifurcation in Hilbert space

We consider a family of semilinear evolution equations in Hilbert space of the form with, in general, unbounded operators *A(λ), F(λ·) depending analytically on a real parameter λ. We assume that the origin is a stationary solution, i.e. F(λ,0) = 0, for all λ ε R and that the linearization (with respect to u) at the origin is given by du/dt + A(λ)u = 0. Our essential assumption is the following: A(λ) possesses one pair of simple complex conjugate eigenvalues μ(λ) = Re μ(λ) ± i Im μ(λ) such that Im μ(0) > 0 and for some m ε N or If m = 1 the curves of eigenvalues μ(λ) cross the imaginary axis transversally at ±i Im μ(0). In this case a unique branch of periodic solutions emanates from the origin at λ = 0 which is commonly called Hopf bifurcation. If μ(λ) and the imaginary axis are no longer transversal, i.e. m > 1, we call a bifurcation of periodic solutions, if it occurs, a generalized Hopf bifurcation. It is remarkable that up to m such branches may exist. Our approach gives the number of bifurcating solutions, their direction of bifurcation, and its asymptotic expansion. We regain the results of D. Flockerzi who established them in a completely different way for ordinary differential equations.     

Upper bounds on the general covering number Cλ(v,k, t,m)

A collection of k‐subsets (called blocks) of a v‐set X (v) = {1, 2,…, v} (with elements called points) is called a t‐(v, k, m, λ) covering if for every m‐subset M of X (v) there is a subcollection of with such that every block K ∈ has at least t points in common with M. It is required that v ≥ k ≥ t and v ≥ m ≥ t. The minimum number of blocks in a t‐(v, k, m, λ) covering is denoted by C_λ(v, k, t, m). We present some constructions producing the best known upper bounds on C_λ(v, k, t, m) for k = 6, a parameter of interest to lottery players. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Nontrivial periodic solutions of a nonlinear beam equation

We consider the existence of a nontrivial solution of the following equation: where g is a nondecreasing function defined on R¹, satisfies g(O) = O, and some other additional conditions. Our results and methods are quite similar to those associated with recent work on the nonlinear wave equation [1]-[8]: .     

Covering pairs by quintuples with index λ  0 (mod 4)

A (v, k. λ) covering design of order v, block size k, and index λ is a collection of k-element subsets, called blocks, of a set V such that every 2-subset of V occurs in at least λ blocks. The covering problem is to determine the minimum number of blocks, α(v, k, λ), in a covering design. It is well known that $ \alpha \left({\nu,\kappa,\lambda } \right) \ge \left\lceil {\frac{\nu}{\kappa}\left\lceil {\frac{{\nu - 1}}{{\kappa - 1}}\lambda} \right\rceil} \right\rceil = \phi \left({\nu,\kappa,\lambda} \right) $, where [χ] is the smallest integer satisfying χ ≤ χ. It is shown here that α (v, 5, λ) = ?(v, 5, λ) + ? where λ ≡ 0 (mod 4) and e= 1 if λ (v?1)≡ 0(mod 4) and λv (v?1)/4 ≡ ?1 (mod 5) and e= 0 otherwise With the possible exception of (v,λ) = (28, 4). © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Spanning trees with many leaves

We show that if G is a simple connected graph with and , then G has a spanning tree with > t leaves, and this is best possible. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Graph Theory 37: 189–197, 2001     

Note on independent sets in steiner systems

A partial Steiner (n, k, l)-system or briefly (n, k, l)-system is a pair (V, S), where V is an n-set and S is a collection of k-subsets of V, such that every l-subset of V is contained in at most one k-subset of S. A subset X ? V is called independent if [X]^k ∩ S = 0. The size of the largest independent set in S is denoted by α(S). Define The purpose of this note is to prove that for every k, l, k > l holds, where c, d are positive constants depending on k and l only.     

Matrices and set intersections

The incidence matrix of a (υ, k, λ)-design is a (0, 1)-matrix A of order υ that satisfies the matrix equation AA^T=(k?λ)I+λJ, where A^T denotes the transpose of the matrix A, I is the identity matrix of order υ, J is the matrix of 1's of order υ, and υ, k, λ are integers such that 0<λ<k<υ?1. This matrix equation along with various modifications and generalizations has been extensively studied over many years. The theory presents an intriguing joining together of combinatorics, number theory, and matrix theory. We survey a portion of the recent literature. We discuss such varied topics as integral solutions, completion theorems, and λ-designs. We also discuss related topics such as Hadamard matrices and finite projective planes. Throughout the discussion we mention a number of basic problems that remain unsolved.     

Nearly uniform distribution of edges among k-subgraphs of a graph

We investigate the behavior of the function f = f(n, k, e) defined as the smallest integer with the following property: If in a graph on n vertices, the numbers of edges in any two induced subgraphs on k vertices differ by at most e, then the graph or its complement has at most f edges. One of the results states that . © 1929 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.