We introduce a new graph polynomial that encodes interesting properties of graphs, for example, the number of matchings, the number of perfect matchings, and, for bipartite graphs, the number of independent sets (#BIS).

We analyse the complexity of exact evaluation of the polynomial at rational points and show a dichotomy result: for most points exact evaluation is #P-hard (assuming the generalized Riemann hypothesis) and for the rest of the points exact evaluation is trivial.

This paper deals with the partition function of the Ising model from statistical mechanics, which is used to study phase transitions in physical systems. A special case of interest is that of the Ising model with constant energies and external field. One may consider such an Ising system as a simple graph together with vertex and edge weights. When these weights are considered indeterminates, the partition function for the constant case is a trivariate polynomial Z(G;x,y,z). This polynomial was studied with respect to its approximability by Goldberg, Jerrum and Paterson. Z(G;x,y,z) generalizes a bivariate polynomial Z(G;t,y), which was studied in by Andrén and Markström.

We consider the complexity of Z(Gt,y) and Z(G;x,y,z) in comparison to that of the Tutte polynomial, which is well known to be closely related to the Potts model in the absence of an external field. We show that Z(G;x,y,z) is #P-hard to evaluate at all points in 3, except those in an exceptional set of low dimension, even when restricted to simple graphs which are bipartite and planar. A counting version of the Exponential Time Hypothesis, #ETH, was introduced by Dell, Husfeldt and Wahlén in order to study the complexity of the Tutte polynomial. In analogy to their results, we give under #ETH a dichotomy theorem stating that evaluations of Z(G;t,y) either take exponential time in the number of vertices of G to compute, or can be done in polynomial time. Finally, we give an algorithm for computing Z(G;x,y,z) in polynomial time on graphs of bounded clique-width, which is not known in the case of the Tutte polynomial.

We consider random permutations derived by sampling from stick-breaking partitions of the unit interval. The cycle structure of such a permutation can be associated with the path of a decreasing Markov chain on n integers. Under certain assumptions on the stick-breaking factor we prove a central limit theorem for the logarithm of the order of the permutation, thus extending the classical Erdős–Turán law for the uniform permutations and its generalization for Ewens' permutations associated with sampling from the PD/GEM(θ)-distribution. Our approach is based on using perturbed random walks to obtain the limit laws for the sum of logarithms of the cycle lengths.

We study distance properties of a general class of random directed acyclic graphs (dags). In a dag, many natural notions of distance are possible, for there exist multiple paths between pairs of nodes. The distance of interest for circuits is the maximum length of a path between two nodes. We give laws of large numbers for the typical depth (distance to the root) and the minimum depth in a random dag. This completes the study of natural distances in random dags initiated (in the uniform case) by Devroye and Janson. We also obtain large deviation bounds for the minimum of a branching random walk with constant branching, which can be seen as a simplified version of our main result.

In our previous paper [J. Funke and J. Millson, Cycles with local coefficients for orthogonal groups and vector-valued Siegel modular forms, American J. Math. 128 (2006), 899–948], we established a correspondence between vector-valued holomorphic Siegel modular forms and cohomology with local coefficients for local symmetric spaces $X$ attached to real orthogonal groups of type $(p, q)$. This correspondence is realized using theta functions associated with explicitly constructed ‘special’ Schwartz forms. Furthermore, the theta functions give rise to generating series of certain ‘special cycles’ in $X$ with coefficients.

In this paper, we study the boundary behaviour of these theta functions in the non-compact case and show that the theta functions extend to the Borel–Sere compactification $ \overline{X} $ of $X$. However, for the $ \mathbb{Q} $-split case for signature $(p, p)$, we have to construct and consider a slightly larger compactification, the ‘big’ Borel–Serre compactification. The restriction to each face of $ \overline{X} $ is again a theta series as in [J. Funke and J. Millson, loc. cit.], now for a smaller orthogonal group and a larger coefficient system.

As an application we establish in certain cases the cohomological non-vanishing of the special (co)cycles when passing to an appropriate finite cover of $X$. In particular, the (co)homology groups in question do not vanish. We deduce as a consequence a sharp non-vanishing theorem for ${L}^{2} $-cohomology.

The Littlewood conjecture states that for all (α,β)∈ℝ2. We show that with the additional factor of log q⋅log log q, the statement is false. Indeed, our main result implies that the set of (α,β) for which is of full dimension.

The first and second representation theorems for sign-indefinite, not necessarily semi-bounded quadratic forms are revisited. New and straightforward proofs of these theorems are given. A number of necessary and sufficient conditions for the second representation theorem to hold are obtained. A new simple and explicit example of a self-adjoint operator for which the second representation theorem fails to hold is also provided.

We prove a new global stability estimate for the Gel’fand–Calderón inverse problem on a two-dimensional bounded domain. Specifically, the inverse boundary value problem for the equation ${- }\Delta \psi + v\hspace{0.167em} \psi = 0$ on $D$ is analysed, where $v$ is a smooth real-valued potential of conductivity type defined on a bounded planar domain $D$. The main feature of this estimate is that it shows that the smoother a potential is, the more stable its reconstruction is. Furthermore, the stability is proven to depend exponentially on the smoothness, in a sense to be made precise. The same techniques yield a similar estimate for the Calderón problem for electrical impedance tomography.

When does the amount of torsion in the homology of an arithmetic group grow exponentially with the covolume? We give many examples where this is the case, and conjecture precise conditions.