Face numbers of down-sets

We compare various viewpoints on down-sets (simplicial complexes), illustrating how the combinatorial inclusion-exclusion principle may serve as an alternative to more advanced methods of studying their face numbers.Comment: 3 pages, accepted to Amer. Math. Monthly, v2: typos fixe

Achieving New Upper Bounds for the Hypergraph Duality Problem through Logic

The hypergraph duality problem DUAL is defined as follows: given two simple hypergraphs $\mathcal{G}$ and $\mathcal{H}$, decide whether $\mathcal{H}$ consists precisely of all minimal transversals of $\mathcal{G}$ (in which case we say that $\mathcal{G}$ is the dual of $\mathcal{H}$). This problem is equivalent to deciding whether two given non-redundant monotone DNFs are dual. It is known that non-DUAL, the complementary problem to DUAL, is in $\mathrm{GC}(\log^2 n,\mathrm{PTIME})$, where $\mathrm{GC}(f(n),\mathcal{C})$ denotes the complexity class of all problems that after a nondeterministic guess of $O(f(n))$ bits can be decided (checked) within complexity class $\mathcal{C}$. It was conjectured that non-DUAL is in $\mathrm{GC}(\log^2 n,\mathrm{LOGSPACE})$. In this paper we prove this conjecture and actually place the non-DUAL problem into the complexity class $\mathrm{GC}(\log^2 n,\mathrm{TC}^0)$ which is a subclass of $\mathrm{GC}(\log^2 n,\mathrm{LOGSPACE})$. We here refer to the logtime-uniform version of $\mathrm{TC}^0$, which corresponds to $\mathrm{FO(COUNT)}$, i.e., first order logic augmented by counting quantifiers. We achieve the latter bound in two steps. First, based on existing problem decomposition methods, we develop a new nondeterministic algorithm for non-DUAL that requires to guess $O(\log^2 n)$ bits. We then proceed by a logical analysis of this algorithm, allowing us to formulate its deterministic part in $\mathrm{FO(COUNT)}$. From this result, by the well known inclusion $\mathrm{TC}^0\subseteq\mathrm{LOGSPACE}$, it follows that DUAL belongs also to $\mathrm{DSPACE}[\log^2 n]$. Finally, by exploiting the principles on which the proposed nondeterministic algorithm is based, we devise a deterministic algorithm that, given two hypergraphs $\mathcal{G}$ and $\mathcal{H}$, computes in quadratic logspace a transversal of $\mathcal{G}$ missing in $\mathcal{H}$.Comment: Restructured the presentation in order to be the extended version of a paper that will shortly appear in SIAM Journal on Computin

Exact Algorithms for List-Coloring of Intersecting Hypergraphs

We show that list-coloring for any intersecting hypergraph of m edges on n vertices, and lists drawn from a set of size at most k, can be checked in quasi-polynomial time (mn)^{o(k^2*log(mn))}

Dual closure operators and their applications

Departing from a suitable categorical description of closure operators, this paper dualizes this notion and introduces some basic properties of dual closure operators. Usually these operators act on quotients rather than subobjects, and much attention is being paid here to their key examples in algebra and topology, which include the formation of monotone quotients (Eilenberg-Whyburn) and concordant quotients (Coffins). In fair categorical generality, these constructions are shown to be factors of the fundamental correspondence that relates connectecinesses and disconnectednesses in topology, as well as torsion classes and torsion-free classes in algebra. Depending on a given cogenerator, the paper also establishes a non-trivial correspondence between closure operators and dual closure operators in the category of R-modules. Dual closure operators must be carefully distinguished from interior operators that have been studied by other author