The elementary diagram of a trivial,weakly minimal structure is near model complete

We prove that if M is any model of a trivial, weakly minimal theory, then the elementary diagram T(M) eliminates quantifiers down to Boolean combinations of certain existential formulas. M. C. Laskowski has been partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0600217.     

“Setting” n-Opposition

Our aim is to show that translating the modal graphs of Moretti’s “n-opposition theory” (2004) into set theory by a suited device, through identifying logical modal formulas with appropriate subsets of a characteristic set, one can, in a constructive and exhaustive way, by means of a simple recurring combinatory, exhibit all so-called “logical bi-simplexes of dimension n” (or n-oppositional figures, that is the logical squares, logical hexagons, logical cubes, etc.) contained in the logic produced by any given modal graph (an exhaustiveness which was not possible before). In this paper we shall handle explicitly the classical case of the so-called 3(3)-modal graph (which is, among others, the one of S5), getting to a very elegant tetraicosahedronal geometrisation of this logic.      

Semifree actions of free groups

We study countable universes similar to a free action of a group G. It turns out that this is equivalent to the study of free semi-actions of G, with two universes being transformable iff one corresponding free semi-action can be obtained from the other by a finite alteration. In the case of a free group G (in finitely many or countably many generators), a classification is given. Research partially supported by a DAAD Doktorandenstipendium D/02/02345.     

Counting canonical partitions in the random graph

Joyce trees have concrete realizations as J-trees of sequences of 0’s and 1’s. Algorithms are given for computing the number of minimal height J-trees of d-ary sequences with n leaves and the number of them with minimal parent passing numbers to obtain polynomials ρ _n (d) for the full collection and α _n (d) for the subcollection. The number of traditional Joyce trees is the tangent number α _n (1); α _n (2) is the number of cells in the canonical partition by Laflamme, Sauer and Vuksanovic of n-element subsets of the infinite random (Rado) graph; and ρ _n (2) is the number of weak embedding types of rooted n-leaf J-trees of sequences of 0’s and 1’s. The author thanks the University of Tel Aviv for hospitality in April 2004 when much of this work was done.     

Parameterized partition relations on the real numbers

We consider several kinds of partition relations on the set of real numbers and its powers, as well as their parameterizations with the set of all infinite sets of natural numbers, and show that they hold in some models of set theory. The proofs use generic absoluteness, that is, absoluteness under the required forcing extensions. We show that Solovay models are absolute under those forcing extensions, which yields, for instance, that in these models for every well ordered partition of there is a sequence of perfect sets whose product lies in one piece of the partition. Moreover, for every finite partition of there is and a sequence of perfect sets such that the product lies in one piece of the partition, where is the set of all infinite subsets of X. The proofs yield the same results for Borel partitions in ZFC, and for more complex partitions in any model satisfying a certain degree of generic absoluteness. This work was supported by the research projects MTM 2005-01025 of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education and 2005SGR-00738 of the Generalitat de Catalunya. A substantial part of the work was carried out while the second-named author was ICREA Visiting Professor at the Centre de Recerca Matemàtica in Bellaterra (Barcelona), and also during the first-named author’s stays at the Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas and the California Institute of Technology. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by these institutions.     

Degree spectra of the successor relation of computable linear orderings

We establish that for every computably enumerable (c.e.) Turing degree b the upper cone of c.e. Turing degrees determined by b is the degree spectrum of the successor relation of some computable linear ordering. This follows from our main result, that for a large class of linear orderings the degree spectrum of the successor relation is closed upward in the c.e. Turing degrees. The authors acknowledge partial support by the NSF binational grant DMS-0554841, and Harizanov by the NSF grant DMS-0704256, and Chubb by the Sigma Xi Grant in Aid of Research.     

The toric ideal of a graphic matroid is generated by quadrics

Describing minimal generating sets of toric ideals is a well-studied and difficult problem. Neil White conjectured in 1980 that the toric ideal associated to a matroid is generated by quadrics corresponding to single element symmetric exchanges. We give a combinatorial proof of White’s conjecture for graphic matroids.     

The parity problem of polymatroids without double circuits

According to the present state of the theory of the matroid parity problem, the existence of a good characterization to the size of a maximum matching depends on the behavior of certain substructures, called double circuits. In this paper we prove that if a polymatroid has no double circuits then a partition type min-max formula characterizes the size of a maximum matching. Applications to parity constrained orientations and to a rigidity problem are given. Research is supported by OTKA grants K60802, TS049788 and by European MCRTN Adonet, Contract Grant No. 504438.     

Partitions of large Rado graphs

Let κ be a cardinal which is measurable after generically adding many Cohen subsets to κ and let be the κ-Rado graph. We prove, for 2 ≤ m < ω, that there is a finite value such that the set [κ] ^m can be partitioned into classes such that for any coloring of any of the classes C _i in fewer than κ colors, there is a copy of in such that is monochromatic. It follows that , that is, for any coloring of with fewer than κ colors there is a copy of such that has at most colors. On the other hand, we show that there are colorings of such that if is any copy of then for all , and hence . We characterize as the cardinality of a certain finite set of types and obtain an upper and a lower bound on its value. In particular, and for m > 2 we have where r _m is the corresponding number of types for the countable Rado graph. Research of M. Džamonja and J. A. Larson were partially supported by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and research of W. J. Mitchell was partly supported by grant number DMS 0400954 from the United States National Science Foundation.     

A short proof of Halin’s grid theorem

We give a short proof of Halin’s theorem that every thick end of a graph contains the infinite grid.     

The superstar packing problem

Hell and Kirkpatrick proved that in an undirected graph, a maximum size packing by a set of non-singleton stars can be found in polynomial time if this star-set is of the form {S ₁, S ₂, ..., S _k } for some k∈ℤ₊ (S _i is the star with i leaves), and it is NP-hard otherwise. This may raise the question whether it is possible to enlarge a set of stars not of the form {S ₁, S ₂, ..., S _k } by other non-star graphs to get a polynomially solvable graph packing problem. This paper shows such families of depth 2 trees. We show two approaches to this problem, a polynomial alternating forest algorithm, which implies a Berge-Tutte type min-max theorem, and a reduction to the degree constrained subgraph problem of Lovász. Research is supported by OTKA grants K60802, TS049788 and by European MCRTN Adonet, Contract Grant No. 504438.     

On end degrees and infinite cycles in locally finite graphs

We introduce a natural extension of the vertex degree to ends. For the cycle space C(G) as proposed by Diestel and Kühn [4, 5], which allows for infinite cycles, we prove that the edge set of a locally finite graph G lies in C(G) if and only if every vertex and every end has even degree. In the same way we generalise to locally finite graphs the characterisation of the cycles in a finite graph as its 2-regular connected subgraphs.     

The symmetry axiom in Minkowski planes

We give a synthetic proof that in a symmetric Minkowski plane the rectangle axiom (G) holds. Dedicated to Professor Helmut Karzel     

Linear orders with distinguished function symbol

We consider certain linear orders with a function on them, and discuss for which types of functions the resulting structure is or is not computably categorical. Particularly, we consider computable copies of the rationals with a fixed-point free automorphism, and also ω with a non-decreasing function. D. Cenzer was partially supported by National Science Foundation grants DMS 0532644 and 0554841 and 652372. B. Csima was partially supported by Canadian NSERC Discovery Grant 312501. B. Khoussainov has partially been supported by Marsden Fund of Royal New Zealand Society.     

Hadamard matrices of order 764 exist

Two Hadamard matrices of order 764 of Goethals-Seidel type are constructed. The author was supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant.     

A note on a spanning 3-tree

A tree T is called a k-tree, if the maximum degree of T is at most k. In this paper, we prove that if G is an n-connected graph with independence number at most n + m + 1 (n≥1,n≥m≥0), then G has a spanning 3-tree T with at most m vertices of degree 3.     

The complexity of the Specht modules corresponding to hook partitions

We show that the complexity of the Specht module corresponding to any hook partition is the p-weight of the partition. We calculate the variety and the complexity of the signed permutation modules. Let E _s be a representative of the conjugacy class containing an elementary abelian p-subgroup of a symmetric group generated by s disjoint p-cycles. We give formulae for the generic Jordan types of signed permutation modules restricted to E _s and of Specht modules corresponding to hook partitions μ restricted to E _s where s is the p-weight of μ.      

The intrinsic dimensionality of graphs

We resolve the following conjecture raised by Levin together with Linial, London, and Rabinovich [Combinatorica, 1995]. For a graph G, let dim(G) be the smallest d such that G occurs as a (not necessarily induced) subgraph of ℤ_∞ ^d , the infinite graph with vertex set ℤ ^d and an edge (u, v) whenever ∥u − v∥_∞ = 1. The growth rate of G, denoted ρ _G , is the minimum ρ such that every ball of radius r > 1 in G contains at most r ^ρ vertices. By simple volume arguments, dim(G) = Ω(ρ _G ). Levin conjectured that this lower bound is tight, i.e., that dim(G) = O(ρ _G ) for every graph G. Previously, it was unknown whether dim(G) could be bounded above by any function of ρ _G . We show that a weaker form of Levin’s conjecture holds by proving that dim(G) = O(ρ _G log ρ _G ) for any graph G. We disprove, however, the specific bound of the conjecture and show that our upper bound is tight by exhibiting graphs for which dim(G) = Ω(ρ _G log ρ _G ). For several special families of graphs (e.g., planar graphs), we salvage the strong form, showing that dim(G) = O(ρ _G ). Our results extend to a variant of the conjecture for finite-dimensional Euclidean spaces posed by Linial and independently by Benjamini and Schramm. Supported by NSF grant CCR-0121555 and by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.