A square-free monomial ideal $I$ of $k[x_{1},\ldots ,x_{n}]$ is said to be an $f$-ideal if the facet complex and non-face complex associated with $I$ have the same $f$-vector. We show that $I$ is an $f$-ideal if and only if its Newton complementary dual $\widehat{I}$ is also an $f$-ideal. Because of this duality, previous results about some classes of $f$-ideals can be extended to a much larger class of $f$-ideals. An interesting by-product of our work is an alternative formulation of the Kruskal–Katona theorem for $f$-vectors of simplicial complexes.

A class of graphs is bridge-addable if given a graph $G$ in the class, any graph obtained by adding an edge between two connected components of $G$ is also in the class. The authors recently proved a conjecture of McDiarmid, Steger, and Welsh stating that if ${\mathcal{G}}$ is bridge-addable and $G_{n}$ is a uniform $n$-vertex graph from ${\mathcal{G}}$, then $G_{n}$ is connected with probability at least $(1+o_{n}(1))e^{-1/2}$. The constant $e^{-1/2}$ is best possible, since it is reached for the class of all forests.

In this paper, we prove a form of uniqueness in this statement: if ${\mathcal{G}}$ is a bridge-addable class and the random graph $G_{n}$ is connected with probability close to $e^{-1/2}$, then $G_{n}$ is asymptotically close to a uniform $n$-vertex random forest in a local sense. For example, if the probability converges to $e^{-1/2}$, then $G_{n}$ converges in the sense of Benjamini–Schramm to the uniformly infinite random forest $F_{\infty }$. This result is reminiscent of so-called “stability results” in extremal graph theory, the difference being that here the stable extremum is not a graph but a graph class.

This paper studies the friendship paradox for weighted and directed networks, from a probabilistic perspective. We consolidate and extend recent results of Cao and Ross and Kramer, Cutler and Radcliffe, to weighted networks. Friendship paradox results for directed networks are given; connections to detailed balance are considered.

Boij–Söderberg theory characterizes syzygies of graded modules and sheaves on projective space. This paper continues earlier work with Sam, extending the theory to the setting of $\text{GL}_{k}$-equivariant modules and sheaves on Grassmannians. Algebraically, we study modules over a polynomial ring in $kn$ variables, thought of as the entries of a $k\times n$ matrix. We give equivariant analogs of two important features of the ordinary theory: the Herzog–Kühl equations and the pairing between Betti and cohomology tables. As a necessary step, we also extend previous results, concerning the base case of square matrices, to cover complexes other than free resolutions. Our statements specialize to those of ordinary Boij–Söderberg theory when $k=1$. Our proof of the equivariant pairing gives a new proof in the graded setting: it relies on finding perfect matchings on certain graphs associated to Betti tables and to spectral sequences. As an application, we construct three families of extremal rays on the Betti cone for $2\times 3$ matrices.

We propose here a generalization of the problem addressed by the SHGH conjecture. The SHGH conjecture posits a solution to the question of how many conditions a general union $X$ of fat points imposes on the complete linear system of curves in $\mathbb{P}^{2}$ of fixed degree $d$, in terms of the occurrence of certain rational curves in the base locus of the linear subsystem defined by $X$. As a first step towards a new theory, we show that rational curves play a similar role in a special case of a generalized problem, which asks how many conditions are imposed by a general union of fat points on linear subsystems defined by imposed base points. Moreover, motivated by work of Di Gennaro, Ilardi and Vallès and of Faenzi and Vallès, we relate our results to the failure of a strong Lefschetz property, and we give a Lefschetz-like criterion for Terao’s conjecture on the freeness of line arrangements.

We study the chromatic number of the curve graph of a surface. We show that the chromatic number grows like $k\log k$ for the graph of separating curves on a surface of Euler characteristic $-k$. We also show that the graph of curves that represent a fixed nonzero homology class is uniquely $t$-colorable, where $t$ denotes its clique number. Together, these results lead to the best known bounds on the chromatic number of the curve graph. We also study variations for arc graphs and obtain exact results for surfaces of low complexity. Our investigation leads to connections with Kneser graphs, the Johnson homomorphism, and hyperbolic geometry.

Continuous-time branching processes (CTBPs) are powerful tools in random graph theory, but are not appropriate to describe real-world networks since they produce trees rather than (multi)graphs. In this paper we analyze collapsed branching processes (CBPs), obtained by a collapsing procedure on CTBPs, in order to define multigraphs where vertices have fixed out-degree m≥2. A key example consists of preferential attachment models (PAMs), as well as generalized PAMs where vertices are chosen according to their degree and age. We identify the degree distribution of CBPs, showing that it is closely related to the limiting distribution of the CTBP before collapsing. In particular, this is the first time that CTBPs are used to investigate the degree distribution of PAMs beyond the tree setting.

The Holme‒Kim random graph process is a variant of the Barabási‒Álbert scale-free graph that was designed to exhibit clustering. In this paper we show that whether the model does indeed exhibit clustering depends on how we define the clustering coefficient. In fact, we find that the local clustering coefficient typically remains positive whereas global clustering tends to 0 at a slow rate. These and other results are proven via martingale techniques, such as Freedman's concentration inequality combined with a bootstrapping argument.

We use the Stein‒Chen method to obtain compound Poisson approximations for the distribution of the number of subgraphs in a generalised stochastic block model which are isomorphic to some fixed graph. This model generalises the classical stochastic block model to allow for the possibility of multiple edges between vertices. We treat the case that the fixed graph is a simple graph and that it has multiple edges. The former results apply when the fixed graph is a member of the class of strictly balanced graphs and the latter results apply to a suitable generalisation of this class to graphs with multiple edges. We also consider a further generalisation of the model to pseudo-graphs, which may include self-loops as well as multiple edges, and establish a parameter regime in the multiple edge stochastic block model in which Poisson approximations are valid. The results are applied to obtain Poisson and compound Poisson approximations (in different regimes) for subgraph counts in the Poisson stochastic block model and degree corrected stochastic block model of Karrer and Newman (2011).

One model of real-life spreading processes is that of first-passage percolation (also called the SI model) on random graphs. Social interactions often follow bursty patterns, which are usually modelled with independent and identically distributed heavy-tailed passage times on edges. On the other hand, random graphs are often locally tree-like, and spreading on trees with leaves might be very slow due to bottleneck edges with huge passage times. Here we consider the SI model with passage times following a power-law distribution ℙ(ξ>t)∼t-α with infinite mean. For any finite connected graph G with a root s, we find the largest number of vertices κ(G,s) that are infected in finite expected time, and prove that for every k≤κ(G,s), the expected time to infect k vertices is at most O(k1/α). Then we show that adding a single edge from s to a random vertex in a random tree 𝒯 typically increases κ(𝒯,s) from a bounded variable to a fraction of the size of 𝒯, thus severely accelerating the process. We examine this acceleration effect on some natural models of random graphs: critical Galton--Watson trees conditioned to be large, uniform spanning trees of the complete graph, and on the largest cluster of near-critical Erdős‒Rényi graphs. In particular, at the upper end of the critical window, the process is already much faster than exactly at criticality.

Some congruences on conjectures of van Hamme are established. These results give partial answers to some of Swisher's conjectures.

A filling of a closed hyperbolic surface is a set of simpleclosed geodesics whose complement is a disjoint union of hyperbolicpolygons. The systolic length is the length of a shortestessential closed geodesic on the surface. A geodesic is called systolic, ifthe systolic length is realised by its length. For every $g\geq 2$ , we construct closed hyperbolic surfaces of genus $g$ whose systolic geodesics fill the surfaces withcomplements consisting of only two components. Finally, we remark that onecan deform the surfaces obtained to increase the systole.

We revisit the coordinatisation method for projective planes by considering the consequences of using finite fields to coordinatise projective planes of prime power order. This leads to some general restrictions on the form of the resulting planar ternary ring (PTR) when viewed as a trivariate polynomial over the field. We also consider how the Lenz–Barlotti type of the plane being coordinatised impacts the form of the PTR polynomial, thereby deriving further restrictions.

We extend known results concerning crossing numbers by giving the crossingnumber of the join product $G+D_{n}$ , where the connected graph $G$ consists of one $4$ -cycle and of two leaves incident with the same vertex ofthe $4$ -cycle, and $D_{n}$ consists of $n$ isolated vertices. The proofs are done with the help ofsoftware that generates all cyclic permutations for a given number $k$ and creates a graph for calculating the distances betweenall $(k-1)!$ vertices of the graph.

Let $G$ be an infinite graph on countably many vertices and let $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}$ be a closed, infinite set of real numbers. We establishthe existence of an unbounded self-adjoint operator whose graph is $G$ and whose spectrum is $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}$ .

We give combinatorial descriptions of two stochastic growth models for series-parallel networks introduced by Hosam Mahmoud by encoding the growth process via recursive tree structures. Using decompositions of the tree structures and applying analytic combinatorics methods allows a study of quantities in the corresponding series-parallel networks. For both models we obtain limiting distribution results for the degree of the poles and the length of a random source-to-sink path, and furthermore we get asymptotic results for the expected number of source-to-sink paths. Moreover, we introduce generalizations of these stochastic models by encoding the growth process of the networks via further important increasing tree structures.

We present an average-case analysis of a variant of dual-pivot quicksort. We show that the algorithmic partitioning strategy used is optimal, that is, it minimizes the expected number of key comparisons. For the analysis, we calculate the expected number of comparisons exactly as well as asymptotically; in particular, we provide exact expressions for the linear, logarithmic and constant terms.

An essential step is the analysis of zeros of lattice paths in a certain probability model. Along the way a combinatorial identity is proved.

We compute the limit shape for several classes of restricted integer partitions, where the restrictions are placed on the part sizes rather than the multiplicities. Our approach utilizes certain classes of bijections which map limit shapes continuously in the plane. We start with bijections outlined in [43], and extend them to include limit shapes with different scaling functions.

Athanasiadis [‘A survey of subdivisions and local $h$-vectors’, in The Mathematical Legacy of Richard P. Stanley (American Mathematical Society, Providence, RI, 2017), 39–51] asked whether the local $h$-polynomials of type $A$ cluster subdivisions have only real zeros. We confirm this conjecture and prove that the local $h$-polynomials for all the Cartan–Killing types have only real roots. Our proofs use multiplier sequences and Chebyshev polynomials of the second kind.