A Norm Compression Inequality for Block Partitioned Positive Semidefinite Matrices

Let $A$ be a positive semidefinite matrix, block partitioned as A=\twomat{B}{C}{C^*}{D}, where $B$ and $D$ are square blocks. We prove the following inequalities for the Schatten $q$-norm $||.||_q$, which are sharp when the blocks are of size at least $2\times2$: $$||A||_q^q \le (2^q-2) ||C||_q^q + ||B||_q^q+||D||_q^q, \quad 1\le q\le 2,$$ and $$||A||_q^q \ge (2^q-2) ||C||_q^q + ||B||_q^q+||D||_q^q, \quad 2\le q.$$ These bounds can be extended to symmetric partitionings into larger numbers of blocks, at the expense of no longer being sharp: $$||A||_q^q \le \sum_{i} ||A_{ii}||_q^q + (2^q-2) \sum_{i<j} ||A_{ij}||_q^q, \quad 1\le q\le 2,$$ and $$||A||_q^q \ge \sum_{i} ||A_{ii}||_q^q + (2^q-2) \sum_{i<j} ||A_{ij}||_q^q, \quad 2\le q.$$Comment: 24 page

A note on coloring vertex-transitive graphs

We prove bounds on the chromatic number $\chi$ of a vertex-transitive graph in terms of its clique number $\omega$ and maximum degree $\Delta$. We conjecture that every vertex-transitive graph satisfies $\chi \le \max \left\{\omega, \left\lceil\frac{5\Delta + 3}{6}\right\rceil\right\}$ and we prove results supporting this conjecture. Finally, for vertex-transitive graphs with $\Delta \ge 13$ we prove the Borodin-Kostochka conjecture, i.e., $\chi\le\max\{\omega,\Delta-1\}$

Extremes of the internal energy of the Potts model on cubic graphs

We prove tight upper and lower bounds on the internal energy per particle (expected number of monochromatic edges per vertex) in the anti-ferromagnetic Potts model on cubic graphs at every temperature and for all $q \ge 2$. This immediately implies corresponding tight bounds on the anti-ferromagnetic Potts partition function. Taking the zero-temperature limit gives new results in extremal combinatorics: the number of $q$-colorings of a $3$-regular graph, for any $q \ge 2$, is maximized by a union of $K_{3,3}$'s. This proves the $d=3$ case of a conjecture of Galvin and Tetali

High rank linear syzygies on low rank quadrics

We study the linear syzygies of a homogeneous ideal I in a polynomial ring S, focusing on the graded betti numbers b_(i,i+1) = dim_k Tor_i(S/I, k)_(i+1). For a variety X and divisor D with S = Sym(H^0(D)*), what conditions on D ensure that b_(i,i+1) is nonzero? Eisenbud has shown that a decomposition D = A + B such that A and B have at least two sections gives rise to determinantal equations (and corresponding syzygies) in I_X; and conjectured that if I_2 is generated by quadrics of rank at most 4, then the last nonvanishing b_(i,i+1) is a consequence of such equations. We describe obstructions to this conjecture and prove a variant. The obstructions arise from toric specializations of the Rees algebra of Koszul cycles, and we give an explicit construction of toric varieties with minimal linear syzygies of arbitrarily high rank. This gives one answer to a question posed by Eisenbud and Koh about specializations of syzygies.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure