16,980 research outputs found
Quantum Algorithms for Weighing Matrices and Quadratic Residues
In this article we investigate how we can employ the structure of
combinatorial objects like Hadamard matrices and weighing matrices to device
new quantum algorithms. We show how the properties of a weighing matrix can be
used to construct a problem for which the quantum query complexity is
ignificantly lower than the classical one. It is pointed out that this scheme
captures both Bernstein & Vazirani's inner-product protocol, as well as
Grover's search algorithm.
In the second part of the article we consider Paley's construction of
Hadamard matrices, which relies on the properties of quadratic characters over
finite fields. We design a query problem that uses the Legendre symbol chi
(which indicates if an element of a finite field F_q is a quadratic residue or
not). It is shown how for a shifted Legendre function f_s(i)=chi(i+s), the
unknown s in F_q can be obtained exactly with only two quantum calls to f_s.
This is in sharp contrast with the observation that any classical,
probabilistic procedure requires more than log(q) + log((1-e)/2) queries to
solve the same problem.Comment: 18 pages, no figures, LaTeX2e, uses packages {amssymb,amsmath};
classical upper bounds added, presentation improve
Why Delannoy numbers?
This article is not a research paper, but a little note on the history of
combinatorics: We present here a tentative short biography of Henri Delannoy,
and a survey of his most notable works. This answers to the question raised in
the title, as these works are related to lattice paths enumeration, to the
so-called Delannoy numbers, and were the first general way to solve Ballot-like
problems. These numbers appear in probabilistic game theory, alignments of DNA
sequences, tiling problems, temporal representation models, analysis of
algorithms and combinatorial structures.Comment: Presented to the conference "Lattice Paths Combinatorics and Discrete
Distributions" (Athens, June 5-7, 2002) and to appear in the Journal of
Statistical Planning and Inference
On the expected number of perfect matchings in cubic planar graphs
A well-known conjecture by Lov\'asz and Plummer from the 1970s asserted that
a bridgeless cubic graph has exponentially many perfect matchings. It was
solved in the affirmative by Esperet et al. (Adv. Math. 2011). On the other
hand, Chudnovsky and Seymour (Combinatorica 2012) proved the conjecture in the
special case of cubic planar graphs. In our work we consider random bridgeless
cubic planar graphs with the uniform distribution on graphs with vertices.
Under this model we show that the expected number of perfect matchings in
labeled bridgeless cubic planar graphs is asymptotically , where
and is an explicit algebraic number. We also
compute the expected number of perfect matchings in (non necessarily
bridgeless) cubic planar graphs and provide lower bounds for unlabeled graphs.
Our starting point is a correspondence between counting perfect matchings in
rooted cubic planar maps and the partition function of the Ising model in
rooted triangulations.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure
Slices, slabs, and sections of the unit hypercube
Using combinatorial methods, we derive several formulas for the volume of
convex bodies obtained by intersecting a unit hypercube with a halfspace, or
with a hyperplane of codimension 1, or with a flat defined by two parallel
hyperplanes. We also describe some of the history of these problems, dating to
Polya's Ph.D. thesis, and we discuss several applications of these formulas.Comment: 11 pages; minor corrections to reference
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