Maximal partial Latin cubes

We prove that each maximal partial Latin cube must have more than 29.289% of its cells filled and show by construction that this is a nearly tight bound. We also prove upper and lower bounds on the number of cells containing a fixed symbol in maximal partial Latin cubes and hypercubes, and we use these bounds to determine for small orders n the numbers k for which there exists a maximal partial Latin cube of order n with exactly k entries. Finally, we prove that maximal partial Latin cubes of order n exist of each size from approximately half-full (n3/2 for even n ≥ 10 and (n3 + n)/2 for odd n ≥21) to completely full, except for when either precisely 1 or 2 cells are empty

Ryser Type Conditions for Extending Colorings of Triples

In 1951, Ryser showed that an $n\times n$ array $L$ whose top left $r\times s$ subarray is filled with $n$ different symbols, each occurring at most once in each row and at most once in each column, can be completed to a latin square of order $n$ if and only if the number of occurrences of each symbol in $L$ is at least $r+s-n$. We prove a Ryser type result on extending partial coloring of 3-uniform hypergraphs. Let $X,Y$ be finite sets with $X\subsetneq Y$ and $|Y|\equiv 0 \pmod 3$. When can we extend a (proper) coloring of $\lambda \binom{X}{3}$ (all triples on a ground set $X$, each one being repeated $\lambda$ times) to a coloring of $\lambda \binom{Y}{3}$ using the fewest possible number of colors? It is necessary that the number of triples of each color in $\binom{X}{3}$ is at least $|X|-2|Y|/3$. Using hypergraph detachments (Combin. Probab. Comput. 21 (2012), 483--495), we establish a necessary and sufficient condition in terms of list coloring complete multigraphs. Using H\"aggkvist-Janssen's bound (Combin. Probab. Comput. 6 (1997), 295--313), we show that the number of triples of each color being at least $|X|/2-|Y|/6$ is sufficient. Finally we prove an Evans type result by showing that if $|Y|\geq 3|X|$, then any $q$-coloring of any subset of $\lambda \binom{X}{3}$ can be embedded into a $\lambda\binom{|Y|-1}{2}$-coloring of $\lambda \binom{Y}{3}$ as long as $q\leq \lambda \binom{|Y|-1}{2}-\lambda \binom{|X|}{3}/\lfloor{|X|/3}\rfloor$.Comment: 10 page

Multi-latin squares

A multi-latin square of order $n$ and index $k$ is an $n\times n$ array of multisets, each of cardinality $k$, such that each symbol from a fixed set of size $n$ occurs $k$ times in each row and $k$ times in each column. A multi-latin square of index $k$ is also referred to as a $k$-latin square. A $1$-latin square is equivalent to a latin square, so a multi-latin square can be thought of as a generalization of a latin square. In this note we show that any partially filled-in $k$-latin square of order $m$ embeds in a $k$-latin square of order $n$, for each $n\geq 2m$, thus generalizing Evans' Theorem. Exploiting this result, we show that there exist non-separable $k$-latin squares of order $n$ for each $n\geq k+2$. We also show that for each $n\geq 1$, there exists some finite value $g(n)$ such that for all $k\geq g(n)$, every $k$-latin square of order $n$ is separable. We discuss the connection between $k$-latin squares and related combinatorial objects such as orthogonal arrays, latin parallelepipeds, semi-latin squares and $k$-latin trades. We also enumerate and classify $k$-latin squares of small orders.Comment: Final version as sent to journa

Nonextendible Latin Cuboids

We show that for all integers m >= 4 there exists a 2m x 2m x m latin cuboid that cannot be completed to a 2mx2mx2m latin cube. We also show that for all even m > 2 there exists a (2m-1) x (2m-1) x (m-1) latin cuboid that cannot be extended to any (2m-1) x (2m-1) x m latin cuboid

A tight lower bound for an online hypercube packing problem and bounds for prices of anarchy of a related game

We prove a tight lower bound on the asymptotic performance ratio $\rho$ of the bounded space online $d$-hypercube bin packing problem, solving an open question raised in 2005. In the classic $d$-hypercube bin packing problem, we are given a sequence of $d$-dimensional hypercubes and we have an unlimited number of bins, each of which is a $d$-dimensional unit hypercube. The goal is to pack (orthogonally) the given hypercubes into the minimum possible number of bins, in such a way that no two hypercubes in the same bin overlap. The bounded space online $d$-hypercube bin packing problem is a variant of the $d$-hypercube bin packing problem, in which the hypercubes arrive online and each one must be packed in an open bin without the knowledge of the next hypercubes. Moreover, at each moment, only a constant number of open bins are allowed (whenever a new bin is used, it is considered open, and it remains so until it is considered closed, in which case, it is not allowed to accept new hypercubes). Epstein and van Stee [SIAM J. Comput. 35 (2005), no. 2, 431-448] showed that $\rho$ is $\Omega(\log d)$ and $O(d/\log d)$, and conjectured that it is $\Theta(\log d)$. We show that $\rho$ is in fact $\Theta(d/\log d)$. To obtain this result, we elaborate on some ideas presented by those authors, and go one step further showing how to obtain better (offline) packings of certain special instances for which one knows how many bins any bounded space algorithm has to use. Our main contribution establishes the existence of such packings, for large enough $d$, using probabilistic arguments. Such packings also lead to lower bounds for the prices of anarchy of the selfish $d$-hypercube bin packing game. We present a lower bound of $\Omega(d/\log d)$ for the pure price of anarchy of this game, and we also give a lower bound of $\Omega(\log d)$ for its strong price of anarchy

Combinatorial Invariants of Rational Polytopes

The first part of this dissertation deals with the equivariant Ehrhart theory of the permutahedron. As a starting point to determining the equivariant Ehrhart theory of the permutahedron, Ardila, Schindler, and I obtain a volume formula for the rational polytopes that are fixed by acting on the permutahedron by a permutation, which generalizes a result of Stanley’s for the volume for the standard permutahedron. Building from the aforementioned work, Ardila, Supina, and I determine the equivariant Ehrhart theory of the permutahedron, thereby resolving an open problem posed by Stapledon. We provide combinatorial descriptions of the Ehrhart quasipolynomial and Ehrhart series of the fixed polytopes of the permutahedron. Additionally, we answer questions regarding the polynomiality of the equivariant analogue of the h*-polynomial. The second part of this dissertation deals with decompositions of the h*-polynomial for rational polytopes. An open problem in Ehrhart theory is to classify all Ehrhart quasipolynomials. Toward this classification problem, one may ask for necessary in- equalities among the coefficients of an h*-polynomial. Beck, Braun, and I contribute such inequalities when P is a rational polytope. Additionally, we provide two decompositions of the h*-polynomial for rational polytopes, thereby generalizing results of Betke and McMullen and Stapledon. We use our rational Betke–McMullen formula to provide a novel proof of Stanley’s Monotonicity Theorem for rational polytopes