An edge-coloured graph $G$ is called properly connected if any two vertices are connected by a properly coloured path. The proper connection number, $pc(G)$, of a graph $G$, is the smallest number of colours that are needed to colour $G$ such that it is properly connected. Let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(n)$ denote the minimum value such that $pc(G)=2$ for any 2-connected incomplete graph $G$ of order $n$ with minimum degree at least $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(n)$. Brause et al. [‘Minimum degree conditions for the proper connection number of graphs’, Graphs Combin. 33 (2017), 833–843] showed that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(n)>n/42$. In this note, we show that $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(n)>n/36$.

An undirected graph $G$ is determined by its $T$-gain spectrum (DTS) if every $T$-gain graph cospectral to $G$ is switching equivalent to $G$. We show that the complete graph $K_{n}$ and the graph $K_{n}-e$ obtained by deleting an edge from $K_{n}$ are DTS, the star $K_{1,n}$ is DTS if and only if $n\leq 2$, and an odd path $P_{2m+1}$ is not DTS if $m\geq 2$. We give an operation for constructing cospectral $T$-gain graphs and apply it to show that a tree of arbitrary order (at least $5$) is not DTS.

A set of graphs are called cospectral if their adjacency matrices have the same characteristic polynomial. In this paper we introduce a simple method for constructing infinite families of cospectral regular graphs. The construction is valid for special cases of a property introduced by Schwenk. For the case of cubic (3-regular) graphs, computational results are given which show that the construction generates a large proportion of the cubic graphs, which are cospectral with another cubic graph.

A diregular bipartite tournament is a balanced complete bipartite graph whose edges are oriented so that every vertex has the same in- and out-degree. In 1981 Jackson showed that a diregular bipartite tournament contains a Hamilton cycle, and conjectured that in fact its edge set can be partitioned into Hamilton cycles. We prove an approximate version of this conjecture: for every ε > 0 there exists n0 such that every diregular bipartite tournament on 2n ≥ n0 vertices contains a collection of (1/2–ε)n cycles of length at least (2–ε)n. Increasing the degree by a small proportion allows us to prove the existence of many Hamilton cycles: for every c > 1/2 and ε > 0 there exists n0 such that every cn-regular bipartite digraph on 2n ≥ n0 vertices contains (1−ε)cn edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles.

Let $\{D_M\}_{M\geq 0}$ be the n-vertex random directed graph process, where $D_0$ is the empty directed graph on n vertices, and subsequent directed graphs in the sequence are obtained by the addition of a new directed edge uniformly at random. For each $$\varepsilon> 0$$, we show that, almost surely, any directed graph $D_M$ with minimum in- and out-degree at least 1 is not only Hamiltonian (as shown by Frieze), but remains Hamiltonian when edges are removed, as long as at most $1/2-\varepsilon$ of both the in- and out-edges incident to each vertex are removed. We say such a directed graph is $(1/2-\varepsilon)$-resiliently Hamiltonian. Furthermore, for each $\varepsilon > 0$, we show that, almost surely, each directed graph $D_M$ in the sequence is not $(1/2+\varepsilon)$-resiliently Hamiltonian.

This improves a result of Ferber, Nenadov, Noever, Peter and Škorić who showed, for each $\varepsilon > 0$, that the binomial random directed graph $D(n,p)$ is almost surely $(1/2-\varepsilon)$-resiliently Hamiltonian if $p=\omega(\log^8n/n)$.

For fixed graphs F1,…,Fr, we prove an upper bound on the threshold function for the property that G(n, p) → (F1,…,Fr). This establishes the 1-statement of a conjecture of Kohayakawa and Kreuter.

A classical result of Erdős and, independently, of Bondy and Simonovits [3] says that the maximum number of edges in an n-vertex graph not containing C2k, the cycle of length 2k, is O(n1+1/k). Simonovits established a corresponding supersaturation result for C2k’s, showing that there exist positive constants C,c depending only on k such that every n-vertex graph G with e(G)⩾ Cn1+1/k contains at least c(e(G)/v(G))2k copies of C2k, this number of copies tightly achieved by the random graph (up to a multiplicative constant).

In this paper we extend Simonovits' result to a supersaturation result of r-uniform linear cycles of even length in r-uniform linear hypergraphs. Our proof is self-contained and includes the r = 2 case. As an auxiliary tool, we develop a reduction lemma from general host graphs to almost-regular host graphs that can be used for other supersaturation problems, and may therefore be of independent interest.

We study structural properties of graphs with bounded clique number and high minimum degree. In particular, we show that there exists a function L = L(r,ɛ) such that every Kr-free graph G on n vertices with minimum degree at least ((2r–5)/(2r–3)+ɛ)n is homomorphic to a Kr-free graph on at most L vertices. It is known that the required minimum degree condition is approximately best possible for this result.

For r = 3 this result was obtained by Łuczak (2006) and, more recently, Goddard and Lyle (2011) deduced the general case from Łuczak’s result. Łuczak’s proof was based on an application of Szemerédi’s regularity lemma and, as a consequence, it only gave rise to a tower-type bound on L(3, ɛ). The proof presented here replaces the application of the regularity lemma by a probabilistic argument, which yields a bound for L(r, ɛ) that is doubly exponential in poly(ɛ).

If we pick n random points uniformly in $[0,1]^d$ and connect each point to its $c_d \log{n}$ nearest neighbors, where $d\ge 2$ is the dimension and $c_d$ is a constant depending on the dimension, then it is well known that the graph is connected with high probability. We prove that it suffices to connect every point to $ c_{d,1} \log{\log{n}}$ points chosen randomly among its $ c_{d,2} \log{n}$ nearest neighbors to ensure a giant component of size $n - o(n)$ with high probability. This construction yields a much sparser random graph with $\sim n \log\log{n}$ instead of $\sim n \log{n}$ edges that has comparable connectivity properties. This result has non-trivial implications for problems in data science where an affinity matrix is constructed: instead of connecting each point to its k nearest neighbors, one can often pick $k'\ll k$ random points out of the k nearest neighbors and only connect to those without sacrificing quality of results. This approach can simplify and accelerate computation; we illustrate this with experimental results in spectral clustering of large-scale datasets.

A uniform recursive tree on n vertices is a random tree where each possible $(n-1)!$ labelled recursive rooted tree is selected with equal probability. We introduce and study weighted trees, a non-uniform recursive tree model departing from the recently introduced Hoppe trees. This class generalizes both uniform recursive trees and Hoppe trees, providing diversity among the nodes and making the model more flexible for applications. We analyse the number of leaves, the height, the depth, the number of branches, and the size of the largest branch in these weighted trees.

Let V be an n-set, and let X be a random variable taking values in the power-set of V. Suppose we are given a sequence of random coupons $X_1, X_2, \ldots $, where the $X_i$ are independent random variables with distribution given by X. The covering time T is the smallest integer $t\geq 0$ such that $\bigcup_{i=1}^t X_i=V$. The distribution of T is important in many applications in combinatorial probability, and has been extensively studied. However the literature has focused almost exclusively on the case where X is assumed to be symmetric and/or uniform in some way.

In this paper we study the covering time for much more general random variables X; we give general criteria for T being sharply concentrated around its mean, precise tools to estimate that mean, as well as examples where T fails to be concentrated and when structural properties in the distribution of X allow for a very different behaviour of T relative to the symmetric/uniform case.

Macdonald processes are measures on sequences of integer partitions built using the Cauchy summation identity for Macdonald symmetric functions. These measures are a useful tool to uncover the integrability of many probabilistic systems, including the Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) equation and a number of other models in its universality class. In this paper, we develop the structural theory behind half-space variants of these models and the corresponding half-space Macdonald processes. These processes are built using a Littlewood summation identity instead of the Cauchy identity, and their analysis is considerably harder than their full-space counterparts.

We compute moments and Laplace transforms of observables for general half-space Macdonald measures. Introducing new dynamics preserving this class of measures, we relate them to various stochastic processes, in particular the log-gamma polymer in a half-quadrant (they are also related to the stochastic six-vertex model in a half-quadrant and the half-space ASEP). For the polymer model, we provide explicit integral formulas for the Laplace transform of the partition function. Nonrigorous saddle-point asymptotics yield convergence of the directed polymer free energy to either the Tracy–Widom (associated to the Gaussian orthogonal or symplectic ensemble) or the Gaussian distribution depending on the average size of weights on the boundary.

We study random unlabelled k-trees by combining the colouring approach by Gainer-Dewar and Gessel (2014) with the cycle-pointing method by Bodirsky, Fusy, Kang and Vigerske (2011). Our main applications are Gromov–Hausdorff–Prokhorov and Benjamini–Schramm limits that describe their asymptotic geometric shape on a global and local scale as the number of (k + 1)-cliques tends to infinity.

We study the independence density for finite families of finite tuples of sets for continuous actions of discrete groups on compact metrizable spaces. We use it to show that actions with positive naive entropy are Li–Yorke chaotic and untame. In particular, distal actions have zero naive entropy. This answers a question of Lewis Bowen.

We give an efficient algorithm that, given a graph G and a partition V1,…,Vm of its vertex set, finds either an independent transversal (an independent set {v1,…,vm} in G such that ${v_i} \in {V_i}$ for each i), or a subset ${\cal B}$ of vertex classes such that the subgraph of G induced by $\bigcup\nolimits_{\cal B}$ has a small dominating set. A non-algorithmic proof of this result has been known for a number of years and has been used to solve many other problems. Thus we are able to give algorithmic versions of many of these applications, a few of which we describe explicitly here.

In this note, we evaluate sums of partial theta functions. Our main tool is an application of an extended version of the Bailey transform to an identity of Gasper and Rahman on $q$-hypergeometric series.

What is the minimum number of triangles in a graph of given order and size? Motivated by earlier results of Mantel and Turán, Rademacher solved the first nontrivial case of this problem in 1941. The problem was revived by Erdős in 1955; it is now known as the Erdős–Rademacher problem. After attracting much attention, it was solved asymptotically in a major breakthrough by Razborov in 2008. In this paper, we provide an exact solution for all large graphs whose edge density is bounded away from $1$, which in this range confirms a conjecture of Lovász and Simonovits from 1975. Furthermore, we give a description of the extremal graphs.

It is well known that the pair $(\mathcal {S}_n,\mathcal {S}_{n-1})$ is a Gelfand pair where $\mathcal {S}_n$ is the symmetric group on n elements. In this paper, we prove that if G is a finite group then $(G\wr \mathcal {S}_n, G\wr \mathcal {S}_{n-1}),$ where $G\wr \mathcal {S}_n$ is the wreath product of G by $\mathcal {S}_n,$ is a Gelfand pair if and only if G is abelian.

We discuss a truncated identity of Euler and present a combinatorial proof of it. We also derive two finite identities as corollaries. As an application, we establish two related $q$-congruences for sums of $q$-Catalan numbers, one of which has been proved by Tauraso [‘$q$-Analogs of some congruences involving Catalan numbers’, Adv. Appl. Math. 48 (2012), 603–614] by a different method.

We enumerate factorizations of a Coxeter element in a well-generated complex reflection group into arbitrary factors, keeping track of the fixed space dimension of each factor. In the infinite families of generalized permutations, our approach is fully combinatorial. It gives results analogous to those of Jackson in the symmetric group and can be refined to encode a notion of cycle type. As one application of our results, we give a previously overlooked characterization of the poset of W-noncrossing partitions.