Tilings and other combinatorial results

In this dissertation we treat three tiling problems and three problems in combinatorial geometry, extremal graph theory and sparse Ramsey theory. We first consider tilings of $\mathbb{Z}^n$. In this setting a tile $T$ is just a finite subset of $\mathbb{Z}^n$. We say that $T$ tiles $\mathbb{Z}^n$ if the latter set admits a partition into isometric copies of $T$. Chalcraft observed that there exist $T$ that do not tile $\mathbb{Z}^n$ but tile $\mathbb{Z}^{d}$ for some $d>n$. He conjectured that such $d$ exists for any given tile. We prove this conjecture in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 we prove a conjecture of Lonc, stating that for any poset $P$ of size a power of $2$, if $P$ has a greatest and a least element, then there is a positive integer $k$ such that $[2]^k$ can be partitioned into copies of $P$. The third tiling problem is about vertex-partitions of the hypercube graph $Q_n$. Offner asked: if $G$ is a subgraph of $Q_n$ such $|G|$ is a power of $2$, must $V(Q_d)$, for some $d$, admit a partition into isomorphic copies of $G$? In Chapter 4 we answer this question in the affirmative. We follow up with a question in combinatorial geometry. A line in a planar set $P$ is a maximal collinear subset of $P$. P\'or and Wood considered colourings of finite $P$ without large lines with a bounded number of colours. In particular, they examined whether monochromatic lines always appear in such colourings provided that $|P|$ is large. They conjectured that for all $k,l \ge 2$ there exists an $n \ge 2$ such that if $|P| \ge n$ and $P$ does not contain a line of cardinality larger than $l$, then every colouring of $P$ with $k$ colours produces a monochromatic line. In Chapter 5 we construct arbitrarily large counterexamples for the case $k=l=3$. We follow up with a problem in extremal graph theory. For any graph, we say that a given edge is triangular if it forms a triangle with two other edges. How few triangular edges can there be in a graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges? For sufficiently large $n$ we prove a conjecture of F\"uredi and Maleki that gives an exact formula for this minimum. This proof is given in Chapter 6. Finally, Chapter 7 is concerned with degrees of vertices in directed hypergraphs. One way to prescribe an orientation to an $r$-uniform graph $H$ is to assign for each of its edges one of the $r!$ possible orderings of its elements. Then, for any $p$-set of vertices $A$ and any $p$-set of indices $I \subset [r]$, we define the $I$-degree of $A$ to be the number of edges containing vertices $A$ in precisely the positions labelled by $I$. Caro and Hansberg were interested in determining whether a given $r$-uniform hypergraph admits an orientation where every set of $p$ vertices has some $I$-degree equal to $0$. They conjectured that a certain Hall-type condition is sufficient. We show that this is true for $r$ large, but false in general.EPSR

Automatic continuity, unique Polish topologies, and Zariski topologies on monoids and clones

In this paper we explore the extent to which the algebraic structure of a monoid $M$ determines the topologies on $M$ that are compatible with its multiplication. Specifically we study the notions of automatic continuity; minimal Hausdorff or Polish semigroup topologies; and we formulate a notion of the Zariski topology for monoids. If $M$ is a topological monoid such that every homomorphism from $M$ to a second countable topological monoid $N$ is continuous, then we say that $M$ has \emph{automatic continuity}. We show that many well-known monoids have automatic continuity with respect to a natural semigroup topology, namely: the full transformation monoid $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$; the full binary relation monoid $B_{\mathbb{N}}$; the partial transformation monoid $P_{\mathbb{N}}$; the symmetric inverse monoid $I_{\mathbb{N}}$; the monoid Inj$(\mathbb{N})$ consisting of the injective functions on $\mathbb{N}$; and the monoid $C(2^{\mathbb{N}})$ of continuous functions on the Cantor set. We show that the pointwise topology on $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$, and its analogue on $P_{\mathbb{N}}$, are the unique Polish semigroup topologies on these monoids. The compact-open topology is the unique Polish semigroup topology on $C(2^\mathbb{N})$ and $C([0, 1]^\mathbb{N})$. There are at least 3 Polish semigroup topologies on $I_{\mathbb{N}}$, but a unique Polish inverse semigroup topology. There are no Polish semigroup topologies $B_{\mathbb{N}}$ nor on the partitions monoids. At the other extreme, Inj$(\mathbb{N})$ and the monoid Surj$(\mathbb{N})$ of all surjective functions on $\mathbb{N}$ each have infinitely many distinct Polish semigroup topologies. We prove that the Zariski topologies on $\mathbb{N}^\mathbb{N}$, $P_{\mathbb{N}}$, and Inj$(\mathbb{N})$ coincide with the pointwise topology; and we characterise the Zariski topology on $B_{\mathbb{N}}$. In Section 7: clones.Comment: 51 pages (Section 7 about clones was added in version 4

Developments in entanglement theory and applications to relevant physical systems

This Thesis is devoted to the analysis of entanglement in relevant physical systems. Entanglement is the conducting theme of this research, though I do not dedicate to a single topic, but consider a wide scope of physical situations. I have followed mainly three lines of research for this Thesis, with a series of different works each, which are, Entanglement and Relativistic Quantum Theory, Continuous-variable entanglement, and Multipartite entanglement.Comment: Ph.D. Thesis, April 2007, Universidad Autonoma de Madri