Li, Nikiforov and Schelp [13] conjectured that any 2-edge coloured graph G with order n and minimum degree δ(G) > 3n/4 contains a monochromatic cycle of length ℓ, for all ℓ ∈ [4, ⌈n/2⌉]. We prove this conjecture for sufficiently large n and also find all 2-edge coloured graphs with δ(G)=3n/4 that do not contain all such cycles. Finally, we show that, for all δ>0 and n>n0(δ), if G is a 2-edge coloured graph of order n with δ(G) ≥ 3n/4, then one colour class either contains a monochromatic cycle of length at least (2/3+δ/2)n, or contains monochromatic cycles of all lengths ℓ ∈ [3, (2/3−δ)n].

We devise a fairly general sufficient condition ensuring that the endomorphism monoid of a countably infinite ultrahomogeneous structure (i.e. a Fraïssé limit) embeds all countable semigroups. This approach not only provides us with a framework unifying the previous scattered results in this vein, but actually yields new applications for endomorphism monoids of the (rational) Urysohn space and the countable universal ultrahomogeneous semilattice.

We define a hyperplane group to be a finite group generated by reflections fixing a single hyperplane pointwise. Landweber and Stong proved that the invariant ring of a hyperplane group is again a polynomial ring in any characteristic. Recently, Hartmann and Shepler gave a constructive proof of this result. By their algorithm, one can always construct generators that are additive. In this paper, we study hyperplane groups of order a power of a prime p in characteristic p and give a slightly different construction of the generators than Hartmann and Shepler. We then show that such generators have a particular form. Furthermore, we show that if the group is defined by a finite additive subgroup W ⊆ , the vanishing ideal of W is generated by polynomials obtained from a set of generators of the invariant ring that are additive. Finally, we give a shorter proof of the fact that the module of the invariant differential 1-forms is free in our situation.

Non-degenerate monoids of skew type are considered. This is a class of monoids S defined by n generators and quadratic relations of certain type, which includes the class of monoids yielding set-theoretic solutions of the quantum Yang–Baxter equation, also called binomial monoids (or monoids of I-type with square-free defining relations). It is shown that under any degree-lexicographic order on the associated free monoid FMn. of rank n the set of normal forms of elements of S is a regular language in FMn. As one of the key ingredients of the proof, it is shown that an identity of the form xN yN = yN xN holds in S. The latter is derived via an investigation of the structure of S viewed as a semigroup of matrices over a field. It also follows that the semigroup algebra K[S] is a finite module over a finitely generated commutative subalgebra of the form K[A] for a submonoid A of S.

We generalize Bondal and Orlov's Reconstruction Theorem for a Gorenstein scheme X and a projective morphism X → T whose (relative) dualizing sheaf is either T-ample or T-antiample.

We define a variant of the crossing number for an embedding of a graph G into ℝ3, and prove a lower bound on it which almost implies the classical crossing lemma. We also give sharp bounds on the rectilinear space crossing numbers of pseudo-random graphs.

A graph H is called common if the sum of the number of copies of H in a graph G and the number in the complement of G is asymptotically minimized by taking G to be a random graph. Extending a conjecture of Erdős, Burr and Rosta conjectured that every graph is common. Thomason disproved both conjectures by showing that K4 is not common. It is now known that in fact the common graphs are very rare. Answering a question of Sidorenko and of Jagger, Št'ovíček and Thomason from 1996 we show that the 5-wheel is common. This provides the first example of a common graph that is not three-colourable.

We give an explicit formula for the projective dynamics of planar homogeneous polynomial differential systems in terms of natural local invariants and we establish explicit algebraic connections (syzygies) between these invariants (leading to restrictions on possible global dynamics). We discuss multidimensional generalizations together with applications to the existence of first integrals and bounded solutions.

A tree T is said to be homogeneous if it is uniquely rooted and there exists an integer b ≥ 2, called the branching number of T, such that every t ∈ T has exactly b immediate successors. We study the behaviour of measurable events in probability spaces indexed by homogeneous trees.

Precisely, we show that for every integer b ≥ 2 and every integer n ≥ 1 there exists an integer q(b,n) with the following property. If T is a homogeneous tree with branching number b and {At:t ∈ T} is a family of measurable events in a probability space (Ω,Σ,μ) satisfying μ(At)≥ϵ>0 for every t ∈ T, then for every 0<θ<ϵ there exists a strong subtree S of T of infinite height, such that for every finite subset F of S of cardinality n ≥ 1 we haveIn fact, we can take q(b,n)= ((2b−1)2n−1−1)·(2b−2)−1. A finite version of this result is also obtained.

Let H be a graph on n vertices and let the blow-up graph G[H] be defined as follows. We replace each vertex vi of H by a cluster Ai and connect some pairs of vertices of Ai and Aj if (vi,vj) is an edge of the graph H. As usual, we define the edge density between Ai and Aj asWe study the following problem. Given densities γij for each edge (i,j) ∈ E(H), one has to decide whether there exists a blow-up graph G[H], with edge densities at least γij, such that one cannot choose a vertex from each cluster, so that the obtained graph is isomorphic to H, i.e., no H appears as a transversal in G[H]. We call dcrit(H) the maximal value for which there exists a blow-up graph G[H] with edge densities d(Ai,Aj)=dcrit(H) ((vi,vj) ∈ E(H)) not containing H in the above sense. Our main goal is to determine the critical edge density and to characterize the extremal graphs.

First, in the case of tree T we give an efficient algorithm to decide whether a given set of edge densities ensures the existence of a transversal T in the blow-up graph. Then we give general bounds on dcrit(H) in terms of the maximal degree. In connection with the extremal structure, the so-called star decomposition is proved to give the best construction for H-transversal-free blow-up graphs for several graph classes. Our approach applies algebraic graph-theoretical, combinatorial and probabilistic tools.

A detachment of a hypergraph is formed by splitting each vertex into one or more subvertices, and sharing the incident edges arbitrarily among the subvertices. For a given edge-coloured hypergraph , we prove that there exists a detachment such that the degree of each vertex and the multiplicity of each edge in (and each colour class of ) are shared fairly among the subvertices in (and each colour class of , respectively).

Let be a hypergraph with vertex partition {V1,. . .,Vn}, |Vi| = pi for 1 ≤ i ≤ n such that there are λi edges of size hi incident with every hi vertices, at most one vertex from each part for 1 ≤ i ≤ m (so no edge is incident with more than one vertex of a part). We use our detachment theorem to show that the obvious necessary conditions for to be expressed as the union 1 ∪ ··· ∪ k of k edge-disjoint factors, where for 1 ≤ i ≤ k, i is ri-regular, are also sufficient. Baranyai solved the case of h1 = ··· = hm, λ1 = ··· = λm = 1, p1 = ··· = pm, r1 = ··· = rk. Berge and Johnson (and later Brouwer and Tijdeman, respectively) considered (and solved, respectively) the case of hi = i, 1 ≤ i ≤ m, p1 = ··· = pm = λ1 = ··· = λm = r1 = ··· = rk = 1. We also extend our result to the case where each i is almost regular.

We introduce a precise framework for transferring strategies from simpler to more complex games, and use it to construct strategies in certain finite and infinite combinations of games. In particular, we give a finitary characterization of finite hypergraphs X such that the first player can win the positional game on infinitely many copies of X. This resolves a conjecture of Leader.

We consider uniformly elliptic operators with Dirichlet or Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions on a domain Ω in ℝN. We consider deformations ϕ(Ω) of Ω obtained by means of a locally Lipschitz homeomorphism ϕ and we estimate the variation of the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues upon variation of ϕ. We prove general stability estimates without assuming uniform upper bounds for the gradients of the maps ϕ. As an application, we obtain estimates on the rate of convergence for eigenvalues and eigenfunctions when a domain with an outward cusp is approximated by a sequence of Lipschitz domains.

We introduce two measures of weak non-compactness JaE and Ja that quantify, via distances, the idea of boundary that lies behind James's Compactness Theorem. These measures tell us, for a bounded subset C of a Banach space E and for given x* ∈ E*, how far from E or C one needs to go to find x** ∈ ⊂ E** with x**(x*) = sup x*(C). A quantitative version of James's Compactness Theorem is proved using JaE and Ja, and in particular it yields the following result. Let C be a closed convex bounded subset of a Banach space E and r > 0. If there is an elementinwhose distance to C is greater than r, then there is x* ∈ E* such that each x** ∈at which sup x*(C) is attained has distance to E greater than ½r. We indeed establish that JaE and Ja are equivalent to other measures of weak non-compactness studied in the literature. We also collect particular cases and examples showing when the inequalities between the different measures of weak non-compactness can be equalities and when the inequalities are sharp.