Some determinants of path generating functions

We evaluate four families of determinants of matrices, where the entries are sums or differences of generating functions for paths consisting of up-steps, down-steps and level steps. By specialisation, these determinant evaluations have numerous corollaries. In particular, they cover numerous determinant evaluations of combinatorial numbers - most notably of Catalan, ballot, and of Motzkin numbers - that appeared previously in the literature.Comment: 35 pages, AmS-TeX; minor corrections; final version to appear in Adv. Appl. Mat

The L\^e numbers of the square of a function and their applications

L\^e numbers were introduced by Massey with the purpose of numerically controlling the topological properties of families of non-isolated hypersurface singularities and describing the topology associated with a function with non-isolated singularities. They are a generalization of the Milnor number for isolated hypersurface singularities. In this note the authors investigate the composite of an arbitrary square-free f and $z^2$. They get a formula for the L\^e numbers of the composite, and consider two applications of these numbers. The first application is concerned with the extent to which the L\^e numbers are invariant in a family of functions which satisfy some equisingularity condition, the second is a quick proof of a new formula for the Euler obstruction of a hypersurface singularity. Several examples are computed using this formula including any X defined by a function which only has transverse D(q,p) singularities off the origin.Comment: 14 page

Non-trivial 3-wise intersecting uniform families

A family of $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set is called 3-wise intersecting if any three members in the family have non-empty intersection. We determine the maximum size of such families exactly or asymptotically. One of our results shows that for every $\epsilon>0$ there exists $n_0$ such that if $n>n_0$ and $\frac25+\epsilon<\frac kn<\frac 12-\epsilon$ then the maximum size is $4\binom{n-4}{k-3}+\binom{n-4}{k-4}$.Comment: 12 page

Quantum Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov Equation, Totally Symmetric Self-Complementary Plane Partitions and Alternating Sign Matrices

We present multiresidue formulae for partial sums in the basis of link patterns of the polynomial solution to the level 1 U_q(\hat sl_2) quantum Knizhnik--Zamolodchikov equation at generic values of the quantum parameter q. These allow for rewriting and generalizing a recent conjecture [Di Francesco '06] connecting the above to generating polynomials for weighted Totally Symmetric Self-Complementary Plane Partitions. We reduce the corresponding conjectures to a single integral identity, yet to be proved

Dynamical Supersymmetry Breaking in Intersecting Brane Models

In this paper we study dynamical supersymmetry breaking in absence of gravity with the matter content of the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The hidden sector of the theory is a strongly coupled gauge theory, realized in terms of microscopic variables which condensate to form mesons. The supersymmetry breaking scalar potential combines F, D terms with instanton generated interactions in the Higgs-mesons sector. We show that for a large region in parameter space the vacuum breaks in addition to supersymmetry also electroweak gauge symmetry. We furthermore present local D-brane configurations that realize these supersymmetry breaking patterns.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, pdflate

Polynomial Invariants for Arbitrary Rank DD Weakly-Colored Stranded Graphs

Polynomials on stranded graphs are higher dimensional generalization of Tutte and Bollob\'as-Riordan polynomials [Math. Ann. 323 (2002), 81-96]. Here, we deepen the analysis of the polynomial invariant defined on rank 3 weakly-colored stranded graphs introduced in arXiv:1301.1987. We successfully find in dimension $D\geq3$ a modified Euler characteristic with $D-2$ parameters. Using this modified invariant, we extend the rank 3 weakly-colored graph polynomial, and its main properties, on rank 4 and then on arbitrary rank $D$ weakly-colored stranded graphs.Comment: Basic definitions overlap with arXiv:1301.198

Short proofs of three results about intersecting systems

In this note, we give short proofs of three theorems about intersection problems. The first one is a determination of the maximum size of a nontrivial $k$-uniform, $d$-wise intersecting family for $n\ge \left(1+\frac{d}{2}\right)(k-d+2)$, which improves upon a recent result of O'Neill and Verstra\"{e}te. Our proof also extends to $d$-wise, $t$-intersecting families, and from this result we obtain a version of the Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado theorem for $d$-wise, $t$-intersecting families. The second result partially proves a conjecture of Frankl and Tokushige about $k$-uniform families with restricted pairwise intersection sizes. The third result concerns graph intersections. Answering a question of Ellis, we construct $K_{s, t}$-intersecting families of graphs which have size larger than the Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado-type construction whenever $t$ is sufficiently large in terms of $s$.Comment: 12 pages; we added a new result, Theorem 1