GCD matrices, posets, and nonintersecting paths

We show that with any finite partially ordered set one can associate a matrix whose determinant factors nicely. As corollaries, we obtain a number of results in the literature about GCD matrices and their relatives. Our main theorem is proved combinatorially using nonintersecting paths in a directed graph.Comment: 10 pages, see related papers at http://www.math.msu.edu/~saga

Generalisation : graphs and colourings

The interaction between practice and theory in mathematics is a central theme. Many mathematical structures and theories result from the formalisation of a real problem. Graph Theory is rich with such examples. The graph structure itself was formalised by Leonard Euler in the quest to solve the problem of the Bridges of Königsberg. Once a structure is formalised, and results are proven, the mathematician seeks to generalise. This can be considered as one of the main praxis in mathematics. The idea of generalisation will be illustrated through graph colouring. This idea also results from a classic problem, in which it was well known by topographers that four colours suffice to colour any map such that no countries sharing a border receive the same colour. The proof of this theorem eluded mathematicians for centuries and was proven in 1976. Generalisation of graphs to hypergraphs, and variations on the colouring theme will be discussed, as well as applications in other disciplines.peer-reviewe

Generalized Kneser coloring theorems with combinatorial proofs

The Kneser conjecture (1955) was proved by Lov\'asz (1978) using the Borsuk-Ulam theorem; all subsequent proofs, extensions and generalizations also relied on Algebraic Topology results, namely the Borsuk-Ulam theorem and its extensions. Only in 2000, Matou\v{s}ek provided the first combinatorial proof of the Kneser conjecture. Here we provide a hypergraph coloring theorem, with a combinatorial proof, which has as special cases the Kneser conjecture as well as its extensions and generalization by (hyper)graph coloring theorems of Dol'nikov, Alon-Frankl-Lov\'asz, Sarkaria, and Kriz. We also give a combinatorial proof of Schrijver's theorem.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Bulk, surface and corner free energy series for the chromatic polynomial on the square and triangular lattices

We present an efficient algorithm for computing the partition function of the q-colouring problem (chromatic polynomial) on regular two-dimensional lattice strips. Our construction involves writing the transfer matrix as a product of sparse matrices, each of dimension ~ 3^m, where m is the number of lattice spacings across the strip. As a specific application, we obtain the large-q series of the bulk, surface and corner free energies of the chromatic polynomial. This extends the existing series for the square lattice by 32 terms, to order q^{-79}. On the triangular lattice, we verify Baxter's analytical expression for the bulk free energy (to order q^{-40}), and we are able to conjecture exact product formulae for the surface and corner free energies.Comment: 17 pages. Version 2: added 4 further term to the serie

A tree-decomposed transfer matrix for computing exact Potts model partition functions for arbitrary graphs, with applications to planar graph colourings

Combining tree decomposition and transfer matrix techniques provides a very general algorithm for computing exact partition functions of statistical models defined on arbitrary graphs. The algorithm is particularly efficient in the case of planar graphs. We illustrate it by computing the Potts model partition functions and chromatic polynomials (the number of proper vertex colourings using Q colours) for large samples of random planar graphs with up to N=100 vertices. In the latter case, our algorithm yields a sub-exponential average running time of ~ exp(1.516 sqrt(N)), a substantial improvement over the exponential running time ~ exp(0.245 N) provided by the hitherto best known algorithm. We study the statistics of chromatic roots of random planar graphs in some detail, comparing the findings with results for finite pieces of a regular lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Version 2 has been substantially expanded. Version 3 shows that the worst-case running time is sub-exponential in the number of vertice