Algebraically Solvable Problems: Describing Polynomials as Equivalent to Explicit Solutions

The Combinatorial Nullstellensatz can be used to solve certain problems in combinatorics. However, one of the major complications in using the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz is ensuring that there exists a nonzero monomial. This dissertation looks at applying the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz to finding perfect matchings in bipartite graphs. The first two chapters provide background material covering topics such as linear algebra, group theory, graph theory and even the discrete Fourier transform. New results start in the third chapter, showing that the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz can be used to solve the problem of finding perfect matchings in bipartite graphs. Using the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz also allows for a vice use of matroid intersection to find the nonzero monomial. By also applying the uncertainty principle, the number of perfect matchings in a bipartite graph can be bound. The fourth chapter examines properties of the polynomials created in the use of the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz to find perfect matchings in bipartite graphs. Many of the properties of the polynomials have analogous properties for the transforms of the polynomials, which are also examined. These properties often relate back to the structure of the graph which gave rise to the polynomial. The fifth chapter provides an application of the results. Since finding a nonzero monomial can be difficult and the polynomials created in this dissertation give polynomials with such a nonzero monomial the application shows how certain polynomials can be rewritten in terms of the matching polynomials. Such a rewriting may permit an easy method to find a nonzero monomial so that the Combinatorial Nullstellensatz can be applied to the polynomial. Finally, the fifth chapter concludes with some open problems that may be areas of further research.

In this paper, we discuss characteristic polynomials in (Clifford) geometric algebras $$\mathcal {G}_{p,q}$$ of vector space of dimension $$n=p+q$$ . We present basis-free formulas for all characteristic polynomial coefficients in the cases $$n\le 6$$ , alongside with a method to obtain general form of these formulas. The formulas involve only the operations of geometric product, summation, and operations of conjugation. All the formulas are verified using computer calculations. We present an analytical proof of all formulas in the case $$n=4$$ , and one of the formulas in the case $$n=5$$ . We present some new properties of the operations of conjugation and grade projection and use them to obtain the results of this paper. We also present formulas for characteristic polynomial coefficients in some special cases. In particular, the formulas for vectors (elements of grade 1) and basis elements are presented in the case of arbitrary n, the formulas for rotors (elements of spin groups) are presented in the cases $$n\le 5$$ . The results of this paper can be used in different applications of geometric algebras in computer graphics, computer vision, engineering, and physics. The presented basis-free formulas for characteristic polynomial coefficients can also be used in symbolic computation.

We investigate the complexity of counting Eulerian tours (#ET) and its variations from two perspectives—the complexity of exact counting and the complexity w.r.t. approximation-preserving reductions (AP-reductions, Dyer et al., Algorithmica 38(3):471–500, 2004). We prove that #ET is #P-complete even for planar 4-regular graphs. A closely related problem is that of counting A-trails (#A-trails) in graphs with rotational embedding schemes (so called maps). Kotzig (Theory of Graphs, Proc. Colloq., Tihany, 1966, pp. 219–230, Academic Press, San Diego, 1968) showed that #A-trails can be computed in polynomial time for 4-regular plane graphs (embedding in the plane is equivalent to giving a rotational embedding scheme). We show that for 4-regular maps the problem is #P-hard. Moreover, we show that from the approximation viewpoint #A-trails in 4-regular maps captures the essence of #ET, that is, we give an AP-reduction from #ET in general graphs to #A-trails in 4-regular maps. The reduction uses a fast mixing result for a card shuffling problem (Wilson, Ann. Appl. Probab. 14(1):274–325, 2004).

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the problems and results on combinatorial number theory. It discusses number theoretic problems that are of combinatorial nature. Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers along with the properties of objects made out of integers. Integers can be considered either in themselves or as solutions to equations. Questions in number theory are often understood through the study of analytical objects that encode properties of the integers, primes or other number-theoretic objects in some fashion. Real numbers can also be studied in relation to rational numbers.

Exact formulae for transport coefficients are available in the literature by calculating the flux caused by certain external forces. These expressions cannot usually be evaluated in perturbation theory since the transport coefficient involved is usually infinite in the absence of scattering; for example, electrical conductivity is infinite for a system without scattering. In this paper exact formulae are derived relating forces to fluxes, for example for the electrical resistance of a system. In certain special cases these can be evaluated in perturbation theory and manipulations of the perturbation series are no longer required, but for the general case they suffer from the same difficulties as the direct expressions.

In this thesis we investigate the existence of solutions to boundary value problems (BVPs) for nonlinear systems of first-order ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and difference equations. The thesis is divided into two parts. Part one is devoted to the study of difference equations where two types of problems are studied. First, we derive the existence of solutions to first-order systems of difference equations that arise when one applies the trapezoidal rule to approximate solutions of second-order scalar ODEs. Strict discrete lower solutions are used with maximum principle arguments in the discrete problem to obtain a priori bounds on solutions. The a priori bounds on difference quotients for solutions of the discrete problem are obtained from the Bernstein-Nagumo condition. We use homototopy to find solutions of the discrete amroximations. Second, motivated by Ma [60] we consider existence and uniqueness of solutions to difference equations which arise as discrete approximations to three-point BVPs for systems of first-order ODES after employing the Euler method. Several existence and uniqueness results for three-point BVPs are established, using the contraction mapping theorem and the Brouwer fixed point theorem in Rn. In part two, two types of problems for systems of first-order ODES are analyzed. First, we study the existence of a unique solution to a system of first-order differentia1 equations under multi-point BVPs with nonlinear boundary conditions. We prove the existence and uniqueness of solutions for a system of first-order three-point BVP under which the properties of linear three-point BVP are preserved under small nonlinear perturbations of both the differentia1 equation and the boundary conditions. The method of proof of the existence of solutions using the Banach contraction mapping principle is similar to that used by Rodriguez [75], who studied the discrete analogue of this BVP. Second, motivated by Cronin 120,211 we investigate the existence of solutions to three-point BVPs in perturbed systems of first-order ODEs at resonance where the associated homogeneous linear problem has nontrivial solutions. Based on the second part of the investigation of three-point BVPs in perturbed systems of first-order ODEs at resonance, four different results were obtained: (i) The existence of solutions via a version of the Brouwer Fixed Point Theorem which is due to Miranda. (ii) The existence of solutions to the problem through the application of the Implicit Function Theorem. These two results extend the work of Feng and Webb [34], and Gupta [39] for the problems at resonance in Euclidean 2-space. (iii) Existence results for three-point BVPs at resonance for general BVPs through the application of Brouwer degree theory; we show the degree is non zero through the application of Borsuk's Theorem for one problem and through a result of Cronin involving pairs of polynomials in two variables whose terms of highest order have no common factors. (iv) The existence of solutions to the entrainment of frequency problem in Euclidean 2-space. We will investigate conditions under which entrainment of frequency for three-point as well as two-point BVPs by adapting the work of Cronin in periodic case. We will describe such conditions and then show the degree is non zero through a result of Cronin involving pairs of polynomials in two variables whose terms of lowest order have no common factors.

Constructing an Infinite Family of Cubic 1-Regular Graphs

In this thesis we explore extremal graph theory, focusing on new methods which apply to different notions of regular graph. The first notion is dregularity, which means each vertex of a graph is contained in exactly d edges, and the second notion is Szemeredi regularity, which is a strong, approximate version of this property that relates to pseudorandomness. We begin with a novel method for optimising observables of Gibbs distributions in sparse graphs. The simplest application of the method is to the hard-core model, concerning independent sets in d-regular graphs, where we prove a tight upper bound on an observable known as the occupancy fraction. We also cover applications to matchings and colourings, in each case proving a tight bound on an observable of a Gibbs distribution and deriving an extremal result on the number of a relevant combinatorial structure in regular graphs. The results relate to a wide range of topics including statistical physics and Ramsey theory. We then turn to a form of Szemeredi regularity in sparse hypergraphs, and develop a method for embedding complexes that generalises a widely-applied method for counting in pseudorandom graphs. We prove an inheritance lemma which shows that the neighbourhood of a sparse, regular subgraph of a highly pseudorandom hypergraph typically inherits regularity in a natural way. This shows that we may embed complexes into suitable regular hypergraphs vertex-by-vertex, in much the same way as one can prove a counting lemma for regular graphs. Finally, we consider the multicolour Ramsey number of paths and even cycles. A well-known density argument shows that when the edges of a complete graph on kn vertices are coloured with k colours, one can find a monochromatic path on n vertices. We give an improvement to this bound by exploiting the structure of the densest colour, and use the regularity method to extend the result to even cycles.

We investigate the possible structures imposed on a finite group by its possession of an automorphism sending a large fraction of the group elements to their cubes, the philosophy being that this should force the group to be, in some sense, close to abelian. We prove two main theorems. In the first, we completely classify all finite groups with an automorphism cubing more than half their elements. All such groups are either nilpotent class 2 or possess an abelian subgroup of index 2. For our second theorem, we show that if a group possesses an automorphism sending more than 4/15 of its elements to their cubes, then it must be solvable. The group A_5 shows that this result is best-possible. Both our main findings closely parallel results of previous authors on finite groups possessing an automorphism which inverts many elements. The technicalities of the new proofs are somewhat more subtle, and also throw up a nice connection to a basic problem in combinatorial number theory, namely the study of subsets of finite cyclic groups which avoid non-trivial solutions to one or more translation invariant linear equations.

Consider a codebook containing N unit-norm complex vectors in a K-dimensional space. In a number of applications, the codebook that minimizes the maximal cross-correlation amplitude (I/sub max/) is often desirable. Relying on tools from combinatorial number theory, we construct analytically optimal codebooks meeting, in certain cases, the Welch lower bound. When analytical constructions are not available, we develop an efficient numerical search method based on a generalized Lloyd algorithm, which leads to considerable improvement on the achieved I/sub max/ over existing alternatives. We also derive a composite lower bound on the minimum achievable I/sub max/ that is effective for any codebook size N.

A retrospective on 60 years of approximation theory and associated fields

In these notes we try to demonstrate the utility of the theory of theta functions in combinatorial number theory and complex analysis. The main idea is to use identities among theta functions to deduce either useful number-theoretic information related to representations as sums of squares and triangular numbers, statements concerning congruences, or statements concerning partitions of sets of integers. In complex analysis the main utility is in the theory of compact Riemann surfaces, with which we do not deal. We do show how identities among theta functions yield proofs of Picard’s theorem and a conformal map of the rectangle onto the disk.

We use ergodic-theoretical tools to study various notions of “large” sets of integers which naturally arise in theory of almost periodic functions, combinatorial number theory, and dynamics. Call a subset of N a Bohr set if it corresponds to an open subset in the Bohr compactification, and a piecewise Bohr set (PWB) if it contains arbitrarily large intervals of a fixed Bohr set. For example, we link the notion of PWB-sets to sets of the form A+B, where A and B are sets of integers having positive upper Banach density and obtain the following sharpening of a recent result of Renling Jin.

Book Review: Recurrence in ergodic theory and combinatorial number theory

Starting with a simple formulation accessible to all mathematicians, this second edition is designed to provide a thorough introduction to nonstandard analysis. Nonstandard analysis is now a well-developed, powerful instrument for solving open problems in almost all disciplines of mathematics; it is often used as a secret weapon by those who know the technique. This book illuminates the subject with some of the most striking applications in analysis, topology, functional analysis, probability and stochastic analysis, as well as applications in economics and combinatorial number theory. The first chapter is designed to facilitate the beginner in learning this technique by starting with calculus and basic real analysis. The second chapter provides the reader with the most important tools of nonstandard analysis: the transfer principle, Keisler s internal definition principle, the spill-over principle, and saturation. The remaining chapters of the book study different fields for applications; each begins with a gentle introduction before then exploring solutions to open problems. All chapters within this second edition have been reworked and updated, with several completely new chapters on compactifications and number theory. Nonstandard Analysis for the Working Mathematician will be accessible to both experts and non-experts, and will ultimately provide many new and helpful insights into the enterprise of mathematics