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.     

Note making a <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis><Subscript>4</Subscript>-free graph bipartite

We show that every K ₄-free graph G with n vertices can be made bipartite by deleting at most n ²/9 edges. Moreover, the only extremal graph which requires deletion of that many edges is a complete 3-partite graph with parts of size n/3. This proves an old conjecture of P. Erdős. Research supported in part by NSF CAREER award DMS-0546523, NSF grant DMS-0355497, USA-Israeli BSF grant, and by an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship.     

Proof of the bandwidth conjecture of Bollobás and Komlós

In this paper we prove the following conjecture by Bollobás and Komlós: For every γ > 0 and integers r ≥ 1 and Δ, there exists β > 0 with the following property. If G is a sufficiently large graph with n vertices and minimum degree at least ((r ? 1)/r + γ)n and H is an r-chromatic graph with n vertices, bandwidth at most β n and maximum degree at most Δ, then G contains a copy of H.     

Quasi-randomness and the distribution of copies of a fixed graph

We show that if a graph G has the property that all subsets of vertices of size n/4 contain the “correct” number of triangles one would expect to find in a random graph G(n, 1/2), then G behaves like a random graph, that is, it is quasi-random in the sense of Chung, Graham, and Wilson [6]. This answers positively an open problem of Simonovits and Sós [10], who showed that in order to deduce that G is quasi-random one needs to assume that all sets of vertices have the correct number of triangles. A similar improvement of [10] is also obtained for any fixed graph other than the triangle, and for any edge density other than 1/2. The proof relies on a theorem of Gottlieb [7] in algebraic combinatorics, concerning the rank of set inclusion matrices.     

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.     

Lower bound on the profile of degree pairs in cross-intersecting set systems

We raise the following problem. For natural numbers m, n ≥ 2, determine pairs d′, d″ (both depending on m and n only) with the property that in every pair of set systems A, B with |A| ≤ m, |B| ≤ n, and A ∩ B ≠ 0 for all A ∈ A, B ∈ B, there exists an element contained in at least d′ |A| members of A and d″ |B| members of B. Generalizing a previous result of Kyureghyan, we prove that all the extremal pairs of (d′, d″) lie on or above the line (n − 1) x + (m − 1) y = 1. Constructions show that the pair (1 + ɛ / 2n − 2, 1 + ɛ / 2m − 2) is infeasible in general, for all m, n ≥ 2 and all ɛ > 0. Moreover, for m = 2, the pair (d′, d″) = (1 / n, 1 / 2) is feasible if and only if 2 ≤ n ≤ 4. The problem originates from Razborov and Vereshchagin’s work on decision tree complexity. Research supported in part by the Hungarian Research Fund under grant OTKA T-032969.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis><Subscript>4</Subscript>-free subgraphs of random graphs revisited

In Combinatorica 17(2), 1997, Kohayakawa, ?uczak and Rödl state a conjecture which has several implications for random graphs. If the conjecture is true, then, for example, an application of a version of Szemerédi’s regularity lemma for sparse graphs yields an estimation of the maximal number of edges in an H-free subgraph of a random graph G _{n, p} . In fact, the conjecture may be seen as a probabilistic embedding lemma for partitions guaranteed by a version of Szemerédi’s regularity lemma for sparse graphs. In this paper we verify the conjecture for H = K ₄, thereby providing a conceptually simple proof for the main result in the paper cited above.     

On a graph packing conjecture by Bollobás,Eldridge and Catlin

Two graphs G ₁ and G ₂ of order n pack if there exist injective mappings of their vertex sets into [n], such that the images of the edge sets are disjoint. In 1978, Bollobás and Eldridge, and independently Catlin, conjectured that if (Δ(G ₁) + 1)(Δ(G ₂) + 1) ≤ n + 1, then G ₁ and G ₂ pack. Towards this conjecture, we show that for Δ(G ₁),Δ(G ₂) ≥ 300, if (Δ(G ₁) + 1)(Δ(G ₂) + 1) ≤ 0.6n + 1, then G ₁ and G ₂ pack. This is also an improvement, for large maximum degrees, over the classical result by Sauer and Spencer that G ₁ and G ₂ pack if Δ(G ₁)Δ(G ₂) < 0.5n. This work was supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0400498. The work of the second author was also partly supported by NSF grant DMS-0650784 and grant 05-01-00816 of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. The work of the third author was supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0652306.     

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.     

Ramsey goodness and beyond

In a seminal paper from 1983, Burr and Erdős started the systematic study of Ramsey numbers of cliques vs. large sparse graphs, raising a number of problems. In this paper we develop a new approach to such Ramsey problems using a mix of the Szemerédi regularity lemma, embedding of sparse graphs, Turán type stability, and other structural results. We give exact Ramsey numbers for various classes of graphs, solving five — all but one — of the Burr-Erdős problems.     

The minimum degree threshold for perfect graph packings

Let H be any graph. We determine up to an additive constant the minimum degree of a graph G which ensures that G has a perfect H-packing (also called an H-factor). More precisely, let δ(H,n) denote the smallest integer k such that every graph G whose order n is divisible by |H| and with δ(G)≥k contains a perfect H-packing. We show that

The reflexivity of a Segre product of projective varieties

We study the reflexivity of a Segre product of a projective space and a projective variety Y, and give a criterion for to be reflexive in terms of m, the dimension of Y, the rank of the general Hessian of Y and the characteristic of the ground field. Our study is closely related to a question raised by Kleiman and Piene on the relationship between the conormal map and the Gauss map.     

An exact Turán result for the generalized triangle

Let Σ _k consist of all k-graphs with three edges D ₁, D ₂, D ₃ such that |D ₁ ∩ D ₂| = k − 1 and D ₁ Δ D ₂ ⊆ D ₃. The exact value of the Turán function ex(n, Σ _k ) was computed for k = 3 by Bollobás [Discrete Math. 8 (1974), 21–24] and for k = 4 by Sidorenko [Math Notes 41 (1987), 247–259]. Let the k-graph T _k ∈ Σ _k have edges

Schur type functions associated with polynomial sequences of binomial type

We introduce a class of Schur type functions associated with polynomial sequences of binomial type. This can be regarded as a generalization of the ordinary Schur functions and the factorial Schur functions. This generalization satisfies some interesting expansion formulas, in which there is a curious duality. Moreover, this class includes examples which are useful to describe the eigenvalues of Capelli type central elements of the universal enveloping algebras of classical Lie algebras.      

Calabi–Yau varieties with semi-stable fibre structures

Motivated by the Strominger–Yau–Zaslow conjecture, we study Calabi–Yau varieties with semi-stable fibre structures. We use Hodge theory to study the higher direct images of wedge products of relative cotangent sheaves of certain semi-stable families over higher dimensional quasi-projective bases, and obtain some results on positivity. We then apply these results to study non-isotrivial Calabi–Yau varieties fibred by semi-stable Abelian varieties (or hyperkähler varieties).     

The mixed problem in <Emphasis Type="Italic">L</Emphasis><Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis></Superscript> for some two-dimensional Lipschitz domains

We consider the mixed problem,

Slope stability and exceptional divisors of high genus

We study slope stability of smooth surfaces and its connection with exceptional divisors. We show that a surface containing an exceptional divisor with arithmetic genus at least two is slope unstable for some polarisation. In the converse direction we show that slope stability of surfaces can be tested with divisors, and prove that for surfaces with non-negative Kodaira dimension any destabilising divisor must have negative self-intersection and arithmetic genus at least two. We also prove that a destabilising divisor can never be nef, and as an application give an example of a surface that is slope stable but not K-stable. D. Panov was supported by EPSRC grant number EP/E044859/1 and J. Ross was partially supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant No. DMS-0700419.