A trace of a sequence is generated by deleting each bit of the sequence independently with a fixed probability. The well-studied trace reconstruction problem asks how many traces are required to reconstruct an unknown binary sequence with high probability. In this paper, we study the multidimensional version of this problem for matrices and hypermatrices, where a trace is generated by deleting each row/column of the matrix or each slice of the hypermatrix independently with a constant probability. Previously, Krishnamurthy, Mazumdar, McGregor and Pal showed that $\exp (\widetilde {O}(n^{d/(d+2)}))$ traces suffice to reconstruct any unknown $n\times n$ matrix (for $d=2$) and any unknown $n^{\times d}$ hypermatrix. By developing a dimension reduction procedure and establishing a multivariate version of the Littlewood-type result that lower bounds sparse complex polynomials around $1$, we improve this upper bound by showing that $\exp (\widetilde {O}(n^{3/7}))$ traces suffice to reconstruct any unknown $n\times n$ matrix, and $\exp (\widetilde {O}(n^{3/5}))$ traces suffice to reconstruct any unknown $n^{\times d}$ hypermatrix. In contrast to the earlier bound, our new exponent is bounded away from $1$ even as $d$ becomes very large.

We identify the size of the largest connected component in a subcritical inhomogeneous random graph with a kernel of preferential attachment type. The component is polynomial in the graph size with an explicitly given exponent, which is strictly larger than the exponent for the largest degree in the graph. This is in stark contrast to the behaviour of inhomogeneous random graphs with a kernel of rank one. Our proof uses local approximation by branching random walks going well beyond the weak local limit and novel results on subcritical killed branching random walks.

Balister, the second author, Groenland, Johnston, and Scott recently showed that there are asymptotically $C4^n/n^{3/4}$ many unordered sequences that occur as degree sequences of graphs with $n$ vertices. Combining limit theory for infinitely divisible distributions with a new connection between a class of random walk trajectories and a subset counting formula from additive number theory, we describe $C$ in terms of Walkup’s number of rooted plane trees. The bijection is related to an instance of the Lévy–Khintchine formula. Our main result complements a result of Stanley, that ordered graphical sequences are related to quasi-forests.

We study time-inhomogeneous random walks on finite groups in the case where each random walk step need not be supported on a generating set of the group. When the supports of the random walk steps satisfy a natural condition involving normal subgroups of quotients of the group, we show that the random walk converges to the uniform distribution on the group and give bounds for the convergence rate using spectral properties of the random walk steps. As an application, we use the moment method of Wood to prove a universality theorem for cokernels of random integer matrices allowing some dependence between entries.

A well-known theorem of Nikiforov asserts that any graph with a positive $K_{r}$-density contains a logarithmic blowup of $K_r$. In this paper, we explore variants of Nikiforov’s result in the following form. Given $r,t\in \mathbb{N}$, when a positive $K_{r}$-density implies the existence of a significantly larger (with almost linear size) blowup of $K_t$? Our results include:

• • For an $n$-vertex ordered graph $G$ with no induced monotone path $P_{6}$, if its complement $\overline {G}$ has positive triangle density, then $\overline {G}$ contains a biclique of size $\Omega ({n \over {\log n}})$. This strengthens a recent result of Pach and Tomon. For general $k$, let $g(k)$ be the minimum $r\in \mathbb{N}$ such that for any $n$-vertex ordered graph $G$ with no induced monotone $P_{2k}$, if $\overline {G}$ has positive $K_r$-density, then $\overline {G}$ contains a biclique of size $\Omega ({n \over {\log n}})$. Using concentration of measure and the isodiametric inequality on high dimensional spheres, we provide constructions showing that, surprisingly, $g(k)$ grows quadratically. On the other hand, we relate the problem of upper bounding $g(k)$ to a certain Ramsey problem and determine $g(k)$ up to a factor of 2.

• • Any incomparability graph with positive $K_{r}$-density contains a blowup of $K_r$ of size $\Omega ({n \over {\log n}}).$ This confirms a conjecture of Tomon in a stronger form. In doing so, we obtain a strong regularity type lemma for incomparability graphs with no large blowups of a clique, which is of independent interest. We also prove that any $r$-comparability graph with positive $K_{(2h-2)^{r}+1}$-density contains a blowup of $K_h$ of size $\Omega (n)$, where the constant $(2h-2)^{r}+1$ is optimal.

The ${n \over {\log n}}$ size of the blowups in all our results are optimal up to a constant factor.