Word maps and spectra of random graph lifts

We study here the spectra of random lifts of graphs. Let G be a finite connected graph, and let the infinite tree T be its universal cover space. If λ₁ and ρ are the spectral radii of G and T respectively, then, as shown by Friedman (Graphs Duke Math J 118 (2003), 19–35), in almost every n‐lift H of G, all “new” eigenvalues of H are ≤ O(λ ρ^1/2). Here we improve this bound to O(λ ρ^2/3). It is conjectured in (Friedman, Graphs Duke Math J 118 (2003) 19–35) that the statement holds with the bound ρ + o(1) which, if true, is tight by (Greenberg, PhD thesis, 1995). For G a bouquet with d/2 loops, our arguments yield a simple proof that almost every d‐regular graph has second eigenvalue O(d^2/3). For the bouquet, Friedman (2008). has famously proved the (nearly?) optimal bound of . Central to our work is a new analysis of formal words. Let w be a formal word in letters g,…,g. The word map associated with w maps the permutations σ₁,…,σ_k ∈ S_n to the permutation obtained by replacing for each i, every occurrence of g_i in w by σ_i. We investigate the random variable X that counts the fixed points in this permutation when the σ_i are selected uniformly at random. The analysis of the expectation ??(X) suggests a categorization of formal words which considerably extends the dichotomy of primitive vs. imprimitive words. A major ingredient of a our work is a second categorization of formal words with the same property. We establish some results and make a few conjectures about the relation between the two categorizations. These conjectures suggest a possible approach to (a slightly weaker version of) Friedman's conjecture. As an aside, we obtain a new conceptual and relatively simple proof of a theorem of A. Nica (Nica, Random Struct Algorithms 5 (1994), 703–730), which determines, for every fixed w, the limit distribution (as n →∞) of X. A surprising aspect of this theorem is that the answer depends only on the largest integer d so that w = u^d for some word u. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2010     

Hadamard matrices of small order and Yang conjecture

We show that 138 odd values of n<10000 for which a Hadamard matrix of order 4n exists have been overlooked in the recent handbook of combinatorial designs. There are four additional odd n=191, 5767, 7081, 8249 in that range for which Hadamard matrices of order 4n exist. There is a unique equivalence class of near‐normal sequences NN(36), and the same is true for NN(38) and NN(40). This means that the Yang conjecture on the existence of near‐normal sequences NN(n) has been verified for all even n⩽40, but it still remains open. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 18: 254–259, 2010     

Families of pairs of graphs with a large number of common cards

The vertex‐deleted subgraph G?v, obtained from the graph G by deleting the vertex v and all edges incident to v, is called a card of G. The deck of G is the multiset of its unlabelled vertex‐deleted subgraphs. The number of common cards of G and H (or between G and H) is the cardinality of the multiset intersection of the decks of G and H. In this article, we present infinite families of pairs of graphs of order n ≥ 4 that have at least \begin{eqnarray*}2\lfloor\frac{1}{3}(n-1)\rfloor\end{eqnarray*} common cards; we conjecture that these, along with a small number of other families constructed from them, are the only pairs of graphs having this many common cards, for sufficiently large n. This leads us to propose a new stronger version of the Reconstruction Conjecture. In addition, we present an infinite family of pairs of graphs with the same degree sequence that have \begin{eqnarray*}\frac{2}{3}(n+5-2\sqrt{3n+6})\end{eqnarray*} common cards, for appropriate values of n, from which we can construct pairs having slightly fewer common cards for all other values of n≥10. We also present infinite families of pairs of forests and pairs of trees with \begin{eqnarray*}2\lfloor\frac{1}{3}(n-4)\rfloor\end{eqnarray*} and \begin{eqnarray*}2\lfloor\frac{1}{3}(n-5)\rfloor\end{eqnarray*} common cards, respectively. We then present new families that have the maximum number of common cards when one graph is connected and the other disconnected. Finally, we present a family with a large number of common cards, where one graph is a tree and the other unicyclic, and discuss how many cards are required to determine whether a graph is a tree. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 63: 146–163, 2010     

An approximate version of Hadwiger's conjecture for claw‐free graphs

Hadwiger's conjecture states that every graph with chromatic number χ has a clique minor of size χ. In this paper we prove a weakened version of this conjecture for the class of claw‐free graphs (graphs that do not have a vertex with three pairwise nonadjacent neighbors). Our main result is that a claw‐free graph with chromatic number χ has a clique minor of size $\lceil\frac{2}{3}\chi\rceil$. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 63: 259–278, 2010     

The Beverton–Holt dynamic equation

The Cushing–Henson conjectures on time scales are presented and verified. The central part of these conjectures asserts that based on a model using the dynamic Beverton–Holt equation, a periodic environment is deleterious for the population. The proof technique is as follows. First, the Beverton–Holt equation is identified as a logistic dynamic equation. The usual substitution transforms this equation into a linear equation. Then the proof is completed using a recently established dynamic version of the generalized Jensen inequality.     

Modular forms and effective Diophantine approximation

After the work of G. Frey, it is known that an appropriate bound for the Faltings height of elliptic curves in terms of the conductor (Frey?s height conjecture) would give a version of the ABC conjecture. In this paper we prove a partial result towards Frey?s height conjecture which applies to all elliptic curves over $\mathbb{Q}$, not only Frey curves. Our bound is completely effective and the technique is based in the theory of modular forms. As a consequence, we prove effective explicit bounds towards the ABC conjecture of similar strength to what can be obtained by linear forms in logarithms, without using the latter technique. The main application is a new effective proof of the finiteness of solutions to the S-unit equation (that is, S-integral points of ${\mathbb{P}}^1?\{0,1,\infty \}$), with a completely explicit and effective bound, without using any variant of Baker?s theory or the Thue–Bombieri method.