8,595 research outputs found
A constant-time algorithm for middle levels Gray codes
For any integer a middle levels Gray code is a cyclic listing of
all -element and -element subsets of such that
any two consecutive subsets differ in adding or removing a single element. The
question whether such a Gray code exists for any has been the subject
of intensive research during the last 30 years, and has been answered
affirmatively only recently [T. M\"utze. Proof of the middle levels conjecture.
Proc. London Math. Soc., 112(4):677--713, 2016]. In a follow-up paper [T.
M\"utze and J. Nummenpalo. An efficient algorithm for computing a middle levels
Gray code. To appear in ACM Transactions on Algorithms, 2018] this existence
proof was turned into an algorithm that computes each new set in the Gray code
in time on average. In this work we present an algorithm for
computing a middle levels Gray code in optimal time and space: each new set is
generated in time on average, and the required space is
Problems on q-Analogs in Coding Theory
The interest in -analogs of codes and designs has been increased in the
last few years as a consequence of their new application in error-correction
for random network coding. There are many interesting theoretical, algebraic,
and combinatorial coding problems concerning these q-analogs which remained
unsolved. The first goal of this paper is to make a short summary of the large
amount of research which was done in the area mainly in the last few years and
to provide most of the relevant references. The second goal of this paper is to
present one hundred open questions and problems for future research, whose
solution will advance the knowledge in this area. The third goal of this paper
is to present and start some directions in solving some of these problems.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:0805.3528 by other author
New constructions for covering designs
A {\em covering design}, or {\em covering}, is a family of
-subsets, called blocks, chosen from a -set, such that each -subset is
contained in at least one of the blocks. The number of blocks is the covering's
{\em size}, and the minimum size of such a covering is denoted by .
This paper gives three new methods for constructing good coverings: a greedy
algorithm similar to Conway and Sloane's algorithm for lexicographic
codes~\cite{lex}, and two methods that synthesize new coverings from
preexisting ones. Using these new methods, together with results in the
literature, we build tables of upper bounds on for , , and .
Constructions of Snake-in-the-Box Codes for Rank Modulation
Snake-in-the-box code is a Gray code which is capable of detecting a single
error. Gray codes are important in the context of the rank modulation scheme
which was suggested recently for representing information in flash memories.
For a Gray code in this scheme the codewords are permutations, two consecutive
codewords are obtained by using the "push-to-the-top" operation, and the
distance measure is defined on permutations. In this paper the Kendall's
-metric is used as the distance measure. We present a general method for
constructing such Gray codes. We apply the method recursively to obtain a snake
of length for permutations of ,
from a snake of length for permutations of~. Thus, we have
, improving
on the previous known ratio of . By using the general method we also present a direct construction. This
direct construction is based on necklaces and it might yield snakes of length
for permutations of . The direct
construction was applied successfully for and , and hence
.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Information Theor
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