Most Probably Intersecting Families of Subsets

Let F be a family of subsets of an n-element set. It is called intersecting if every pair of its members has a non-disjoint intersection. It is well known that an intersecting family satisfies the inequality vertical bar F vertical bar <= 2(n-1). Suppose that vertical bar F vertical bar = 2(n-1) + i. Choose the members of F independently with probability p (delete them with probability 1 - p). The new family is intersecting with a certain probability. We try to maximize this probability by choosing F appropriately. The exact maximum is determined in this paper for some small i. The analogous problem is considered for families consisting of k-element subsets, but the exact solution is obtained only when the size of the family exceeds the maximum size of the intersecting family only by one. A family is said to be inclusion-free if no member is a proper subset of another one. It is well known that the largest inclusion-free family is the one consisting of all [n/2]-element subsets. We determine the most probably inclusion-free family too, when the number of members is (n([n/2])) + 1

Ramsey expansions of metrically homogeneous graphs

We discuss the Ramsey property, the existence of a stationary independence relation and the coherent extension property for partial isometries (coherent EPPA) for all classes of metrically homogeneous graphs from Cherlin's catalogue, which is conjectured to include all such structures. We show that, with the exception of tree-like graphs, all metric spaces in the catalogue have precompact Ramsey expansions (or lifts) with the expansion property. With two exceptions we can also characterise the existence of a stationary independence relation and the coherent EPPA. Our results can be seen as a new contribution to Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il's classification programme of Ramsey classes and as empirical evidence of the recent convergence in techniques employed to establish the Ramsey property, the expansion (or lift or ordering) property, EPPA and the existence of a stationary independence relation. At the heart of our proof is a canonical way of completing edge-labelled graphs to metric spaces in Cherlin's classes. The existence of such a "completion algorithm" then allows us to apply several strong results in the areas that imply EPPA and respectively the Ramsey property. The main results have numerous corollaries on the automorphism groups of the Fra\"iss\'e limits of the classes, such as amenability, unique ergodicity, existence of universal minimal flows, ample generics, small index property, 21-Bergman property and Serre's property (FA).Comment: 57 pages, 14 figures. Extends results of arXiv:1706.00295. Minor revisio

Hereditary properties of partitions, ordered graphs and ordered hypergraphs

In this paper we use the Klazar-Marcus-Tardos method to prove that if a hereditary property of partitions P has super-exponential speed, then for every k-permutation pi, P contains the partition of [2k] with parts {i, pi(i) + k}, where 1 <= i <= k. We also prove a similar jump, from exponential to factorial, in the possible speeds of monotone properties of ordered graphs, and of hereditary properties of ordered graphs not containing large complete, or complete bipartite ordered graphs. Our results generalize the Stanley-Wilf Conjecture on the number of n-permutations avoiding a fixed permutation, which was recently proved by the combined results of Klazar and of Marcus and Tardos. Our main results follow from a generalization to ordered hypergraphs of the theorem of Marcus and Tardos.Comment: 25 pgs, no figure

Colouring set families without monochromatic k-chains

A coloured version of classic extremal problems dates back to Erd\H{o}s and Rothschild, who in 1974 asked which $n$-vertex graph has the maximum number of 2-edge-colourings without monochromatic triangles. They conjectured that the answer is simply given by the largest triangle-free graph. Since then, this new class of coloured extremal problems has been extensively studied by various researchers. In this paper we pursue the Erd\H{o}s--Rothschild versions of Sperner's Theorem, the classic result in extremal set theory on the size of the largest antichain in the Boolean lattice, and Erd\H{o}s' extension to $k$-chain-free families. Given a family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $[n]$, we define an $(r,k)$-colouring of $\mathcal{F}$ to be an $r$-colouring of the sets without any monochromatic $k$-chains $F_1 \subset F_2 \subset \dots \subset F_k$. We prove that for $n$ sufficiently large in terms of $k$, the largest $k$-chain-free families also maximise the number of $(2,k)$-colourings. We also show that the middle level, $\binom{[n]}{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor}$, maximises the number of $(3,2)$-colourings, and give asymptotic results on the maximum possible number of $(r,k)$-colourings whenever $r(k-1)$ is divisible by three.Comment: 30 pages, final versio

Kirchhoff's Rule for Quantum Wires

In this article we formulate and discuss one particle quantum scattering theory on an arbitrary finite graph with $n$ open ends and where we define the Hamiltonian to be (minus) the Laplace operator with general boundary conditions at the vertices. This results in a scattering theory with $n$ channels. The corresponding on-shell S-matrix formed by the reflection and transmission amplitudes for incoming plane waves of energy $E>0$ is explicitly given in terms of the boundary conditions and the lengths of the internal lines. It is shown to be unitary, which may be viewed as the quantum version of Kirchhoff's law. We exhibit covariance and symmetry properties. It is symmetric if the boundary conditions are real. Also there is a duality transformation on the set of boundary conditions and the lengths of the internal lines such that the low energy behaviour of one theory gives the high energy behaviour of the transformed theory. Finally we provide a composition rule by which the on-shell S-matrix of a graph is factorizable in terms of the S-matrices of its subgraphs. All proofs only use known facts from the theory of self-adjoint extensions, standard linear algebra, complex function theory and elementary arguments from the theory of Hermitean symplectic forms.Comment: 40 page