Given m positive integers R = (ri), n positive integers C = (cj) such that Σri = Σcj = N, and mn non-negative weights W=(wij), we consider the total weight T=T(R, C; W) of non-negative integer matrices D=(dij) with the row sums ri, column sums cj, and the weight of D equal to . For different choices of R, C, and W, the quantity T(R,C; W) specializes to the permanent of a matrix, the number of contingency tables with prescribed margins, and the number of integer feasible flows in a network. We present a randomized algorithm whose complexity is polynomial in N and which computes a number T′=T′(R,C;W) such that T′ ≤ T ≤ α(R,C)T′ where . In many cases, ln T′ provides an asymptotically accurate estimate of ln T. The idea of the algorithm is to express T as the expectation of the permanent of an N × N random matrix with exponentially distributed entries and approximate the expectation by the integral T′ of an efficiently computable log-concave function on ℝmn.

Let denote the set of unrooted labelled trees of size n and let ℳ be a particular (finite, unlabelled) tree. Assuming that every tree of is equally likely, it is shown that the limiting distribution as n goes to infinity of the number of occurrences of ℳ is asymptotically normal with mean value and variance asymptotically equivalent to μn and σ2n, respectively, where the constants μ>0 and σ≥0 are computable.

Let Γ =(V,E) be a point-symmetric reflexive relation and let υ ∈ V such that |Γ(υ)| is finite (and hence |Γ(x)| is finite for all x, by the transitive action of the group of automorphisms). Let j ∈ℕ be an integer such that Γj(υ)∩ Γ−(υ)={υ}. Our main result states that

As an application we have |Γj(υ)| ≥ 1+(|Γ(υ)|−1)j. The last result confirms a recent conjecture of Seymour in the case of vertex-symmetric graphs. Also it gives a short proof for the validity of the Caccetta–Häggkvist conjecture for vertex-symmetric graphs and generalizes an additive result of Shepherdson.

We consider random graphs with a fixed degree sequence. Molloy and Reed [11, 12] studied how the size of the giant component changes according to degree conditions. They showed that there is a phase transition and investigated the order of components before and after the critical phase. In this paper we study more closely the order of components at the critical phase, using singularity analysis of a generating function for a branching process which models the random graph with a given degree sequence.

In a balls-in-bins process with feedback, balls are sequentially thrown into bins so that the probability that a bin with n balls obtains the next ball is proportional to f(n) for some function f. A commonly studied case where there are two bins and f(n) = np for p > 0, and our goal is to study the fine behaviour of this process with two bins and a large initial number t of balls. Perhaps surprisingly, Brownian Motions are an essential part of both our proofs.

For p > 1/2, it was known that with probability 1 one of the bins will lead the process at all large enough times. We show that if the first bin starts with balls (for constant λ∈ℝ), the probability that it always or eventually leads has a non-trivial limit depending on λ.

For p ≤ 1/2, it was known that with probability 1 the bins will alternate in leadership. We show, however, that if the initial fraction of balls in one of the bins is > 1/2, the time until it is overtaken by the remaining bin scales like Θ(t1+1/(1-2p)) for p < 1/2 and exp(Θ(t)) for p = 1/2. In fact, the overtaking time has a non-trivial distribution around the scaling factor, which we determine explicitly.

Our proofs use a continuous-time embedding of the balls-in-bins process (due to Rubin) and a non-standard approximation of the process by Brownian Motion. The techniques presented also extend to more general functions f.

The k-core of a graph G is the maximal subgraph of G having minimum degree at least k. In 1996, Pittel, Spencer and Wormald found the threshold λc for the emergence of a non-trivial k-core in the random graph G(n, λ/n), and the asymptotic size of the k-core above the threshold. We give a new proof of this result using a local coupling of the graph to a suitable branching process. This proof extends to a general model of inhomogeneous random graphs with independence between the edges. As an example, we study the k-core in a certain power-law or ‘scale-free’ graph with a parameter c controlling the overall density of edges. For each k ≥ 3, we find the threshold value of c at which the k-core emerges, and the fraction of vertices in the k-core when c is ϵ above the threshold. In contrast to G(n, λ/n), this fraction tends to 0 as ϵ→0.

Zeilberger's enumeration schemes can be used to completely automate the enumeration of many permutation classes. We extend his enumeration schemes so that they apply to many more permutation classes and describe the Maple package WilfPlus, which implements this process. We also compare enumeration schemes to three other systematic enumeration techniques: generating trees, substitution decompositions, and the insertion encoding.