On the Intersection Number of Matchings and Minimum Weight Perfect Matchings of Multicolored Point Sets

Let P and Q be disjoint point sets with 2r and 2s elements respectively, and M₁ and M₂ be their minimum weight perfect matchings (with respect to edge lengths). We prove that the edges of M₁ and M₂ intersect at most |M₁|+|M₂|−1 times. This bound is tight. We also prove that P and Q have perfect matchings (not necessarily of minimum weight) such that their edges intersect at most min{r,s} times. This bound is also sharp. Supported by PAPIIT(UNAM) of México, Proyecto IN110802 Supported by FAI-UASLP and by CONACYT of México, Proyecto 32168-E Supported by CONACYT of México, Proyecto 37540-A     

Algebraic and combinatorial properties of zircons

In this paper we introduce and study a new class of posets, that we call zircons, which includes all Coxeter groups partially ordered by Bruhat order. We prove that many of the properties of Coxeter groups extend to zircons often with simpler proofs: in particular, zircons are Eulerian posets and the Kazhdan-Lusztig construction of the Kazhdan-Lusztig representations can be carried out in the context of zircons. Moreover, for any zircon Z, we construct and count all balanced and exact labelings (used in the construction of the Bernstein-Gelfand-Gelfand resolutions in the case that Z is the Weyl group of a Kac-Moody algebra). Partially supported by the program “Gruppi di trasformazioni e applicazioni”, University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Part of this research was carried out while the author was a member of the Institut Mittag-Leffler of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.     

Dimers, tilings and trees

Generalizing results of Temperley (London Mathematical Society Lecture Notes Series 13 (1974) 202), Brooks et al. (Duke Math. J. 7 (1940) 312) and others (Electron. J. Combin. 7 (2000); Israel J. Math. 105 (1998) 61) we describe a natural equivalence between three planar objects: weighted bipartite planar graphs; planar Markov chains; and tilings with convex polygons. This equivalence provides a measure-preserving bijection between dimer coverings of a weighted bipartite planar graph and spanning trees of the corresponding Markov chain. The tilings correspond to harmonic functions on the Markov chain and to “discrete analytic functions” on the bipartite graph.The equivalence is extended to infinite periodic graphs, and we classify the resulting “almost periodic” tilings and harmonic functions.