Maximum size of reverse-free sets of permutations

Two words have a reverse if they have the same pair of distinct letters on the same pair of positions, but in reversed order. A set of words no two of which have a reverse is said to be reverse-free. Let F(n,k) be the maximum size of a reverse-free set of words from [n]^k where no letter repeats within a word. We show the following lower and upper bounds in the case n >= k: F(n,k) \in n^k k^{-k/2 + O(k/log k)}. As a consequence of the lower bound, a set of n-permutations each two having a reverse has size at most n^{n/2 + O(n/log n)}.Comment: 10 page

Path separation by short cycles

Two Hamilton paths in $K_n$ are separated by a cycle of length $k$ if their union contains such a cycle. For small fixed values of $k$ we bound the asymptotics of the maximum cardinality of a family of Hamilton paths in $K_n$ such that any pair of paths in the family is separated by a cycle of length $k.$Comment: final version with correction

Block Crossings in Storyline Visualizations

Storyline visualizations help visualize encounters of the characters in a story over time. Each character is represented by an x-monotone curve that goes from left to right. A meeting is represented by having the characters that participate in the meeting run close together for some time. In order to keep the visual complexity low, rather than just minimizing pairwise crossings of curves, we propose to count block crossings, that is, pairs of intersecting bundles of lines. Our main results are as follows. We show that minimizing the number of block crossings is NP-hard, and we develop, for meetings of bounded size, a constant-factor approximation. We also present two fixed-parameter algorithms and, for meetings of size 2, a greedy heuristic that we evaluate experimentally.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2016

New bounds on even cycle creating Hamiltonian paths using expander graphs

We say that two graphs on the same vertex set are $G$-creating if their union (the union of their edges) contains $G$ as a subgraph. Let $H_n(G)$ be the maximum number of pairwise $G$-creating Hamiltonian paths of $K_n$. Cohen, Fachini and K\"orner proved $$n^{\frac{1}{2}n-o(n)}\leq H_n(C_4) \leq n^{\frac{3}{4}n+o(n)}.$$ In this paper we close the superexponential gap between their lower and upper bounds by proving $$n^{\frac{1}{2}n-\frac{1}{2}\frac{n}{\log{n}}-O(1)}\leq H_n(C_4) \leq n^{\frac{1}{2}n+o\left(\frac{n}{\log{n}} \right)}.$$ We also improve the previously established upper bounds on $H_n(C_{2k})$ for $k>3$, and we present a small improvement on the lower bound of F\"uredi, Kantor, Monti and Sinaimeri on the maximum number of so-called pairwise reversing permutations. One of our main tools is a theorem of Krivelevich, which roughly states that (certain kinds of) good expanders contain many Hamiltonian paths.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2e; v2: updated Footnote 1 on Page 5; v3: revised version incorporating suggestions by the referees (the changes are mainly in Section 5); v4: final version to appear in Combinatoric

A bijection to count (1-23-4)-avoiding permutations

A permutation is (1-23-4)-avoiding if it contains no four entries, increasing left to right, with the middle two adjacent in the permutation. Here we give a 2-variable recurrence for the number of such permutations, improving on the previously known 4-variable recurrence. At the heart of the proof is a bijection from (1-23-4)-avoiding permutations to increasing ordered trees whose leaves, taken in preorder, are also increasing.Comment: latex, 16 page

New bounds on even cycle creating Hamiltonian paths using expander graphs

We say that two graphs on the same vertex set are $G$-creating if their union (the union of their edges) contains $G$ as a subgraph. Let $H_n(G)$ be the maximum number of pairwise $G$-creating Hamiltonian paths of $K_n$. Cohen, Fachini and K\"orner proved $$n^{\frac{1}{2}n-o(n)}\leq H_n(C_4) \leq n^{\frac{3}{4}n+o(n)}.$$ In this paper we close the superexponential gap between their lower and upper bounds by proving $$n^{\frac{1}{2}n-\frac{1}{2}\frac{n}{\log{n}}-O(1)}\leq H_n(C_4) \leq n^{\frac{1}{2}n+o\left(\frac{n}{\log{n}} \right)}.$$ We also improve the previously established upper bounds on $H_n(C_{2k})$ for $k>3$, and we present a small improvement on the lower bound of F\"uredi, Kantor, Monti and Sinaimeri on the maximum number of so-called pairwise reversing permutations. One of our main tools is a theorem of Krivelevich, which roughly states that (certain kinds of) good expanders contain many Hamiltonian paths.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX2e; v2: updated Footnote 1 on Page 5; v3: revised version incorporating suggestions by the referees (the changes are mainly in Section 5); v4: final version to appear in Combinatoric

Cryptanalysis of SIGABA

SIGABA is a World War II cipher machine used by the United States. Both the United States Army and the United States Navy used it for tactical communication. In this paper, we consider an attack on SIGABA using the largest practical keyspace for the machine. This attack will highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the machine, as well as provide an insight into the strength of the security provided by the cipher

Geometrically constructed bases for homology of partition lattices of types A, B and D

We use the theory of hyperplane arrangements to construct natural bases for the homology of partition lattices of types A, B and D. This extends and explains the "splitting basis" for the homology of the partition lattice given in [Wa96], thus answering a question asked by R. Stanley. More explicitly, the following general technique is presented and utilized. Let A be a central and essential hyperplane arrangement in R^d. Let R_1,...,R_k be the bounded regions of a generic hyperplane section of A. We show that there are induced polytopal cycles \rho_{R_i} in the homology of the proper part \bar{L_A} of the intersection lattice such that {\rho_{R_i}}_{i=1,...,k} is a basis for \tilde H_{d-2}(\bar{L_A}). This geometric method for constructing combinatorial homology bases is applied to the Coxeter arrangements of types A, B and D, and to some interpolating arrangements.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figure

Shifted symmetric functions and multirectangular coordinates of Young diagrams

In this paper, we study shifted Schur functions $S_\mu^\star$, as well as a new family of shifted symmetric functions $\mathfrak{K}_\mu$ linked to Kostka numbers. We prove that both are polynomials in multi-rectangular coordinates, with nonnegative coefficients when written in terms of falling factorials. We then propose a conjectural generalization to the Jack setting. This conjecture is a lifting of Knop and Sahi's positivity result for usual Jack polynomials and resembles recent conjectures of Lassalle. We prove our conjecture for one-part partitions.Comment: 2nd version: minor modifications after referee comment