A counterexample to Herzog’s Conjecture on the number of involutions

In 1979, Herzog put forward the following conjecture: if two simple groups have the same number of involutions, then they are of the same order. We give a counterexample to this conjecture.     

Improving the Clark–Suen bound on the domination number of the Cartesian product of graphs

A long-standing Vizing’s conjecture asserts that the domination number of the Cartesian product of two graphs is at least as large as the product of their domination numbers; one of the most significant results related to the conjecture is the bound of Clark and Suen, $\gamma (G\square H)\ge \gamma \left(G\right)\gamma \left(H\right)∕2$, where $\gamma$ stands for the domination number, and $G\square H$ is the Cartesian product of graphs $G$ and $H$. In this note, we improve this bound by employing the 2-packing number $\rho \left(G\right)$ of a graph $G$ into the formula, asserting that $\gamma (G\square H)\ge (2\gamma \left(G\right)?\rho \left(G\right))\gamma \left(H\right)∕3$. The resulting bound is better than that of Clark and Suen whenever $G$ is a graph with $\rho \left(G\right)<\gamma \left(G\right)∕2$, and in the case $G$ has diameter 2 reads as $\gamma (G\square H)\ge (2\gamma \left(G\right)?1)\gamma \left(H\right)∕3$.     

The bondage number of graphs on topological surfaces and Teschner’s conjecture

The bondage number of a graph is the smallest number of its edges whose removal results in a graph having a larger domination number. We provide constant upper bounds for the bondage number of graphs on topological surfaces, and improve upper bounds for the bondage number in terms of the maximum vertex degree and the orientable and non-orientable genera of graphs. Also, we present stronger upper bounds for graphs with no triangles and graphs with the number of vertices larger than a certain threshold in terms of graph genera. This settles Teschner’s Conjecture in affirmative for almost all graphs. As an auxiliary result, we show tight lower bounds for the number of vertices of graphs 2-cell embeddable on topological surfaces of a given genus.     

A Note on Shen’s Conjecture on Groups with Given Same-Order Type

Mathematical Notes - Let $$G$$ be a group. Define an equivalence relation $$sim$$ on $$G$$ as follows: for $$x,y in G$$ , $$x sim y$$ if $$x$$ and $$y$$ have same order. The set of sizes of...     

A lower bound in Nehari’s theorem on the polydisc

By theorems of Ferguson and Lacey (d = 2) and Lacey and Terwilleger (d > 2), Nehari??s theorem (i.e., if H _?? is a bounded Hankel form on H ²(D ^d ) with analytic symbol ??, then there is a function ?? in L ^??(T ^d ) such that ?? is the Riesz projection of g4) is known to hold on the polydisc D ^d for d > 1. A method proposed in Helson??s last paper is used to show that the constant C _d in the estimate ??????_?? ?? C _d ??H _?? ?? grows at least exponentially with d; it follows that there is no analogue of Nehari??s theorem on the infinite-dimensional polydisc.     

A sufficient condition for Kim’s conjecture on the competition numbers of graphs

A hole of a graph $G$ is an induced cycle of length at least 4. Kim (2005) [3] conjectured that the competition number $k\left(G\right)$ is bounded by $h\left(G\right)+1$ for any graph $G$, where $h\left(G\right)$ is the number of holes of $G$. Li and Chang (2009) [5] proved that the conjecture is true for a graph whose holes all satisfy a property called ‘independence’. In this paper, by using similar proof techniques in Li and Chang (2009) [5], we prove the conjecture for graphs satisfying two conditions that allow the holes to overlap a lot.     

Heden’s bound on the tail of a vector space partition

A vector space partition of ${\mathbb{F}}_q^v$ is a collection of subspaces such that every non-zero vector is contained in a unique element. We improve a lower bound of Heden, in a subcase, on the number of elements of the smallest occurring dimension in a vector space partition. To this end, we introduce the notion of $q^r$-divisible sets of $k$-subspaces in ${\mathbb{F}}_q^v$. By geometric arguments we obtain non-existence results for these objects, which then imply the improved result of Heden.     

A Combinatorial Proof of Kneser’s Conjecture*

Knesers conjecture, first proved by Lovász in 1978, states that the graph with all k-element subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n} as vertices and with edges connecting disjoint sets has chromatic number n–2k+2. We derive this result from Tuckers combinatorial lemma on labeling the vertices of special triangulations of the octahedral ball. By specializing a proof of Tuckers lemma, we obtain self-contained purely combinatorial proof of Knesers conjecture.* Research supported by Charles University grants No. 158/99 and 159/99 and by ETH Zürich.     

A Counterexample to Wegner’s Conjecture on Good Covers

In 1975 Wegner conjectured that the nerve of every finite good cover in ℝ ^d is d-collapsible. We disprove this conjecture.     

A Comment on Ryser’s Conjecture for Intersecting Hypergraphs

Let \(\tau({\mathcal{H}})\) be the cover number and \(\nu({\mathcal{H}})\) be the matching number of a hypergraph \({\mathcal{H}}\). Ryser conjectured that every r-partite hypergraph \({\mathcal{H}}\) satisfies the inequality \(\tau({\mathcal{H}}) \leq (r-1) \nu ({\mathcal{H}})\). This conjecture is open for all r ≥ 4. For intersecting hypergraphs, namely those with \(\nu({\mathcal{H}}) = 1\), Ryser’s conjecture reduces to \(\tau({\mathcal{H}}) \leq r-1\). Even this conjecture is extremely difficult and is open for all r ≥ 6. For infinitely many r there are examples of intersecting r-partite hypergraphs with \(\tau({\mathcal{H}}) = r-1\), demonstrating the tightness of the conjecture for such r. However, all previously known constructions are not optimal as they use far too many edges. How sparse can an intersecting r-partite hypergraph be, given that its cover number is as large as possible, namely \(\tau({\mathcal{H}}) \ge r-1\)? In this paper we solve this question for r ≤ 5, give an almost optimal construction for r = 6, prove that any r-partite intersecting hypergraph with τ(H) ≥ r ? 1 must have at least \((3-\frac{1}{\sqrt{18}})r(1-o(1)) \approx 2.764r(1-o(1))\) edges, and conjecture that there exist constructions with Θ(r) edges.     

A linear bound on the Euler number of threefolds of Calabi–Yau and of general type

Let X⊂ℙ ^N be either a threefold of Calabi–Yau or of general type (embedded with r K _X ). In this article we give lower and upper bounds, linear on the degree of X and N, for the Euler number of X. As a corollary we obtain the boundedness of the region described by the Chern ratios of threefolds with ample canonical bundle and a new upper bound for the number of nodes of a complete intersection threefold. Received: 26 April 2000 / Revised version: 20 November 2000     

A Counter-Example to Hausmann’s Conjecture

Foundations of Computational Mathematics - In 1995 Jean-Claude Hausmann proved that a compact Riemannian manifold X is homotopy equivalent to its Rips complex $${text {Rips}}(X,r)$$ for small...     

Further study on Horozov-Iliev’s method of estimating the number of limit cycles

In the study of the number of limit cycles of near-Hamiltonian systems, the first order Melnikov function plays an important role. This paper aims to generalize Horozov-Iliev’s method to estimate the upper bound of the number of zeros of the function.