Degree Ramsey numbers for even cycles

Let $H\stackrel{s}{?}G$ denote that any $s$-coloring of $E\left(H\right)$ contains a monochromatic $G$. The degree Ramsey number of a graph $G$, denoted by $R_{\Delta }(G,s)$, is $min\{\Delta \left(H\right):H\stackrel{s}{?}G\}$. We consider degree Ramsey numbers where $G$ is a fixed even cycle. Kinnersley, Milans, and West showed that $R_{\Delta }(C_{2k},s)\ge 2s$, and Kang and Perarnau showed that $R_{\Delta }(C_4,s)=\Theta \left(s^2\right)$. Our main result is that $R_{\Delta }(C_6,s)=\Theta \left(s^{3∕2}\right)$ and $R_{\Delta }(C_{10},s)=\Theta \left(s^{5∕4}\right)$. Additionally, we substantially improve the lower bound for $R_{\Delta }(C_{2k},s)$ for general $k$.     

Matchings,path covers and domination

We show that if $G$ is a graph with minimum degree at least three, then ${\gamma }_t\left(G\right)\le {\alpha }^{\prime }\left(G\right)+(\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)?1)∕2$ and this bound is tight, where ${\gamma }_t\left(G\right)$ is the total domination number of $G$, ${\alpha }^{\prime }\left(G\right)$ the matching number of $G$ and $\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)$ the path covering number of $G$ which is the minimum number of vertex disjoint paths such that every vertex belongs to a path in the cover. We show that if $G$ is a connected graph on at least six vertices, then ${\gamma }_{\mathrm{nt}}\left(G\right)\le {\alpha }^{\prime }\left(G\right)+\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)∕2$ and this bound is tight, where ${\gamma }_{\mathrm{nt}}\left(G\right)$ denotes the neighborhood total domination number of $G$. We observe that every graph $G$ of order $n$ satisfies ${\alpha }^{\prime }\left(G\right)+\mathrm{pc}\left(G\right)∕2\ge n∕2$, and we characterize the trees achieving equality in this bound.     

Minimal homogeneous Steiner 2-(v,3) trades

A Steiner 2-$(v,3)$ trade is a pair $(T_1,T_2)$ of disjoint partial Steiner triple systems, each on the same set of $v$ points, such that each pair of points occurs in $T_1$ if and only if it occurs in $T_2$. A Steiner 2-$(v,3)$ trade is called d-homogeneous if each point occurs in exactly d blocks of $T_1$ (or $T_2$). In this paper we construct minimal d-homogeneous Steiner 2-$(v,3)$ trades of foundation $v$ and volume $\mathit{dv}/3$ for sufficiently large values of $v$. (Specifically, $v>3(1.75d^2+3)$ if $v$ is divisible by 3 and $v>d(4^{d/3+1}+1)$ otherwise.)     

Limit theorems for critical first-passage percolation on the triangular lattice

Consider (independent) first-passage percolation on the sites of the triangular lattice $\mathbb{T}$ embedded in $\mathbb{C}$. Denote the passage time of the site $v$ in $\mathbb{T}$ by $t\left(v\right)$, and assume that $P(t\left(v\right)=0)=P(t\left(v\right)=1)=1∕2$. Denote by $b_{0,n}$ the passage time from 0 to the halfplane $\{v\in \mathbb{T}:\text{Re}\left(v\right)\ge n\}$, and by $T(0,nu)$ the passage time from 0 to the nearest site to $nu$, where $\left|u\right|=1$. We prove that as $n\to \infty$, $b_{0,n}∕logn\to 1∕\left(2\sqrt{3}\pi \right)$ a.s., $E\left[b_{0,n}\right]∕logn\to 1∕\left(2\sqrt{3}\pi \right)$ and Var$\left[b_{0,n}\right]∕logn\to 2∕\left(3\sqrt{3}\pi \right)?1∕\left(2{\pi }^2\right)$; $T(0,nu)∕logn\to 1∕\left(\sqrt{3}\pi \right)$ in probability but not a.s., $E\left[T(0,nu)\right]∕logn\to 1∕\left(\sqrt{3}\pi \right)$ and Var$\left[T(0,nu)\right]∕logn\to 4∕\left(3\sqrt{3}\pi \right)?1∕{\pi }^2$. This answers a question of Kesten and Zhang (1997) and improves our previous work (2014). From this result, we derive an explicit form of the central limit theorem for $b_{0,n}$ and $T(0,nu)$. A key ingredient for the proof is the moment generating function of the conformal radii for conformal loop ensemble ${\mathrm{CLE}}_6$, given by Schramm et al. (2009).     

Distinct distances between a collinear set and an arbitrary set of points

We consider the number of distinct distances between two finite sets of points in ${\mathbb{R}}^k$, for any constant dimension $k\ge 2$, where one set $P_1$ consists of $n$ points on a line $l$, and the other set $P_2$ consists of $m$ arbitrary points, such that no hyperplane orthogonal to $l$ and no hypercylinder having $l$ as its axis contains more than $O\left(1\right)$ points of $P_2$. The number of distinct distances between $P_1$ and $P_2$ is then

$\Omega \left(min\left\{n^{2∕3}{m}^{2∕3},\frac{n^{10∕11}{m}^{4∕11}}{{log}^{2∕11}m},n^2,m^2\right\}\right).$

Without the assumption on $P_2$, there exist sets $P_1$, $P_2$ as above, with only $O(m+n)$ distinct distances between them.     

A boundary Schwarz lemma for pluriharmonic mappings from the unit polydisk to the unit ball

In this article, we present a Schwarz lemma at the boundary for pluriharmonic mappings from the unit polydisk to the unit ball, which generalizes classical Schwarz lemma for bounded harmonic functions to higher dimensions. It is proved that if the pluriharmonic mapping f ∈ P(D~n, B~N) is C~(1+α) at z0 ∈ E_rD~n with f(0) = 0 and f(z_0) = ω_0∈B~N for any n,N ≥ 1, then there exist a nonnegative vector λ_f =(λ_1,0,…,λ_r,0,…,0)~T∈R~(2 n)satisfying λ_i≥1/(2~(2 n-1)) for 1 ≤ i ≤ r such that where z'_0 and w'_0 are real versions of z_0 and w_0, respectively.