We investigate the Laplacian eigenvalues of sparse random graphs Gnp. We show that in the case that the expected degree d = (n-1)p is bounded, the spectral gap of the normalized Laplacian is o(1). Nonetheless, w.h.p. G = Gnp has a large subgraph core(G) such that the spectral gap of is as large as 1-O (d−1/2). We derive similar results regarding the spectrum of the combinatorial Laplacian L(Gnp). The present paper complements the work of Chung, Lu and Vu [8] on the Laplacian spectra of random graphs with given expected degree sequences. Applied to Gnp, their results imply that in the ‘dense’ case d ≥ ln2n the spectral gap of is 1-O (d−1/2) w.h.p.

We show that r-regular, s-uniform hypergraphs contain a perfect matching with high probability (whp), provided The Proof is based on the application of a technique of Robinson and Wormald [7, 8]. The space of hypergraphs is partitioned into subsets according to the number of small cycles in the hypergraph. The difference in the expected number of perfect matchings between these subsets explains most of the variance of the number of perfect matchings in the space of hypergraphs, and is sufficient to prove existence (whp), using the Chebychev Inequality.

We consider random planar graphs on $n$ labelled nodes, and show in particular that if the graph is picked uniformly at random then the expected number of edges is at least $\frac{13}{7}n +o(n)$. To prove this result we give a lower bound on the size of the set of edges that can be added to a planar graph on $n$ nodes and $m$ edges while keeping it planar, and in particular we see that if $m$ is at most $\frac{13}{7}n - c$ (for a suitable constant~$c$) then at least this number of edges can be added.

In this article we introduce combinatorial multicolour discrepancies and generalize several classical results from $2$-colour discrepancy theory to $c$ colours ($c \geq 2$). We give a recursive method that constructs $c$-colourings from approximations of $2$-colour discrepancies. This method works for a large class of theorems, such as the ‘six standard deviations’ theorem of Spencer (1985), the Beck–Fiala (1981) theorem, the results of Matoušek, Wernisch and Welzl (1994) and Matoušek (1995) for bounded VC-dimension, and Matoušek and Spencer's (1996) upper bound for the arithmetic progressions. In particular, the $c$-colour discrepancy of an arbitrary hypergraph ($n$ vertices, $m$ hyperedges) is \[ \OO\Bigl(\sqrt{\tfrac n c\,\log m}\Bigr). \] If $m = \OO(n)$, then this bound improves to \[ \OO\Bigl(\sqrt{\tfrac n c\,\log c}\Bigr). \]

On the other hand there are examples showing that discrepancy in $c$ colours can not be bounded in terms of two-colour discrepancies in general, even if $c$ is a power of 2. For the linear discrepancy version of the Beck–Fiala theorem, the recursive approach also fails.

Here we extend the method of floating colours via tensor products of matrices to multicolourings, and prove multicolour versions of the Beck–Fiala theorem and the Bárány–Grinberg theorem. Using properties of the tensor product we derive a lower bound for the $c$-colour discrepancy of general hypergraphs. For the hypergraph of arithmetic progressions in $\{1, \ldots, n\}$ this yields a lower bound of $\frac{1}{25 \sqrt c} \sqrt[4]{n}$ for the discrepancy in $c$ colours. The recursive method shows an upper bound of $\OO(c^{-0.16} \sqrt[4]{n})$

Numerous new properties of stochastic conditional independence are introduced. They are aimed, together with two surprisingly trivial examples, at a further reduction of the problem of probabilistic representability for four-element sets, i.e. of the problem which conditional independences within a system of four random variables can occur simultaneously. Proofs are based on fundamental properties of conditional independence and, in the discrete case, on the use of I-divergence and algebraic manipulations with marginal probabilities. A duality question is answered in the negative.

We consider Boolean functions over $n$ variables. Any such function can be represented (and computed) by a complete binary tree with and or or in the internal nodes and a literal in the external nodes, and many different trees can represent the same function, so that a fundamental question is related to the so-called complexity of a Boolean function: $L(f):=$ minimal size of a tree computing $f$.

The existence of a limiting probability distribution $P(\cdot)$ on the set of and/or trees was shown by Lefmann and Savický [8]. We give here an alternative proof, which leads to effective computation in simple cases. We also consider the relationship between the probability $P(f)$ and the complexity $L(f)$ of a Boolean function $f$. A detailed analysis of the functions enumerating some sub-families of trees, and of their radius of convergence, allows us to improve on the upper bound of $P(f)$, established by Lefmann and Savický.

We derive bounds for eigenvalues of the Laplacian of graphs using discrete versions of the Sobolev inequalities and heat kernel estimates.

Classical ergodic theory for integer-group actions uses entropy as a complete invariant for isomorphism of IID (independent, identically distributed) processes (a.k.a. product measures). This theory holds for amenable groups as well. Despite recent spectacular progress of Bowen, the situation for non-amenable groups, including free groups, is still largely mysterious. We present some illustrative results and open questions on free groups, which are particularly interesting in combinatorics, statistical physics and probability. Our results include bounds on minimum and maximum bisection for random cubic graphs that improve on all past bounds.

Suppose that G is a graph with maximum degree d(G) such that, for every vertex v in G, the neighbourhood of v contains at most d(G)2/f (f > 1) edges. We show that the list chromatic number of G is at most Kd(G)/log f, for some positive constant K. This result is sharp up to the multiplicative constant K and strengthens previous results by Kim [9], Johansson [7], Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov [3], and the present author [18]. This also motivates several interesting questions.

As an application, we derive several upper bounds for the strong (list) chromatic index of a graph, under various assumptions. These bounds extend earlier results by Faudree, Gyárfás, Schelp and Tuza [6] and Mahdian [13] and determine, up to a constant factor, the strong (list) chromatic index of a random graph. Another application is an extension of a result of Kostochka and Steibitz [10] concerning the structure of list critical graphs.

The λ-dilate of a set A is λċA={λa : a∈A}. We give an asymptotically sharp lower bound on the size of sumsets of the form λ1ċA+ċċċ+λkċA for arbitrary integers λ1,. . .,λk and integer sets A. We also establish an upper bound for such sums, which is similar to, but often stronger than Plünnecke's inequality.

We perform the asymptotic enumeration of two classes of rooted maps on orientable surfaces: m-hypermaps and m-constellations. For m = 2 they correspond respectively to maps with even face degrees and bipartite maps. We obtain explicit asymptotic formulas for the number of such maps with any finite set of allowed face degrees.

Our proofs combine a bijective approach, generating series techniques related to lattice walks, and elementary algebraic graph theory.

A special case of our results implies former conjectures of Z. Gao.

Let Gr denote a graph chosen uniformly at random from the set of r-regular graphs with vertex set {1,2, …, n}, where 3 [les ] r [les ] c0n for some small constant c0. We prove that, with probability tending to 1 as n → ∞, Gr is r-connected and Hamiltonian.

Using differential equations, we examine the GREEDY algorithm studied by Azar, Broder, Karlin and Upfal for distributed load balancing [1]. This approach yields accurate estimates of the actual load distribution, provides insight into the exponential improvement GREEDY offers over simple random selection, and allows one to prove tight concentration theorems about the loads in a straightforward manner.

We shall pack circuits of arbitrary lengths into the complete graph KN. More precisely, if N is odd and [sum ]ti=1mi = (N2), mi [ges ] 3, then the edges of KN can be written as an edge-disjoint union of circuits of lengths m1,…,mt. Since the degrees of the vertices in any such packing must be even, this result cannot hold for even N. For N even, we prove that if [sum ]ti=1mi [les ] (N2) − N−2 then we can write some subgraph of KN as an edge-disjoint union of circuits of lengths m1,…,mt. In particular, KN minus a 1-factor can be written as a union of such circuits when [sum ]ti=1mi = (N2) − N−2. We shall also show that these results are best possible.

In 1965 Erdős conjectured a formula for the maximum number of edges in a k-uniform n-vertex hypergraph without a matching of size s. We prove this conjecture for k = 3 and all s ≥ 1 and n ≥ 4s.

Finding a hidden partition in a random environment is a general and important problem which contains as subproblems many important questions, such as finding a hidden clique, finding a hidden colouring, finding a hidden bipartition, etc.

In this paper we provide a simple SVD algorithm for this purpose, addressing a question of McSherry. This algorithm is easy to implement and works for sparse graphs under optimal density assumptions. We also consider an approximating algorithm, which on one hand works under very mild assumptions, but on other hand can sometimes be upgraded to give the exact solution.

The number, , of rooted plane binary trees of height ≤ h with n internal nodes is shown to satisfy

uniformly for δ−1(log n)−1/2 ≤ β ≤ δ(log n)1/2, where and δ is a positive constant. An asymptotic formula for is derived for h = cn, where 0 < c < 1. Bounds for are also derived for large and small heights. The methods apply to any simple family of trees, and the general asymptotic results are stated.

Let be the hypergraph whose points are the subsets X of [n] := {1,…,n} with l≤ |X| ≤ u, l < u, and whose edges are intervals in the Boolean lattice of the form I = {C ⊆[n] : X⊆C⊆Y} where |X| = l, |Y| = u, X ⊆ Y.We study the matching number i.e. the the maximum number of pairwise disjoint edges, and the covering number i.e. the minimum number of points which cover all edges. We prove that max and that for every ε > 0 the inequalities hold, where for the lower bounds we suppose that n is not too small. The corresponding fractional numbers can be determined exactly. Moreover, we show by construction that

In this paper we give a short proof of the Random Ramsey Theorem of Rödl and Ruciński: for any graph F which contains a cycle and r ≥ 2, there exist constants c, C > 0 such that

$$ \begin{equation*} \Pr[G_{n,p} \rightarrow (F)_r^e] = \begin{cases} 1-o(1) &p\ge Cn^{-1/m_2(F)},\\ o(1) &p\le cn^{-1/m_2(F)}, \end{cases} \end{equation*} $$

$$ \begin{equation*} m_2(F) = \max_{J\subseteq F, v_J\ge 2} \frac{e_J-1}{v_J-2}. \end{equation*} $$

Any function F: {0,. . ., N − 1} → {−1,1} such that F(x) can be computed from the binary digits of x using a bounded depth circuit is orthogonal to the Möbius function μ in the sense that

\[ \frac{1}{N} \sum_{0 \leq x \leq N-1} \mu(x)F(x) → 0 \quad\text{as}~~ N → \infty. \]