Let Ω be a finite set and let G be a permutation group acting on it. A subset H of G is called t-intersecting if any two elements in H agree on at least t points. Let SDn and SBn be the classical Coxeter group of type Dn and type Bn, respectively. We show that the maximum-sized (2t)-intersecting families in SDn and SBn are precisely cosets of stabilizers of t points in [n] ≔ {1, 2, …, n}, provided n is sufficiently large depending on t.

In this short paper, we characterise graphs of order $pq$ with $p, q$ prime which are self-complementary and vertex-transitive.

Let $p$ be a real number greater than one and let $\Gamma $ be a graph of bounded degree. We investigate links between the $p$-harmonic boundary of $\Gamma $ and the ${D}_{p} $-massive subsets of $\Gamma $. In particular, if there are $n$ pairwise disjoint ${D}_{p} $-massive subsets of $\Gamma $, then the $p$-harmonic boundary of $\Gamma $ consists of at least $n$ elements. We show that the converse of this statement is also true.

In this paper, we determine when $\mathop{({\Gamma }_{I} (L))}\nolimits ^{c} $, the complement of the zero divisor graph ${\Gamma }_{I} (L)$ with respect to a semiprime ideal $I$ of a lattice $L$, is connected and also determine its diameter, radius, centre and girth. Further, a form of Beck’s conjecture is proved for ${\Gamma }_{I} (L)$ when $\omega (\mathop{({\Gamma }_{I} (L))}\nolimits ^{c} )\lt \infty $.

This paper discusses a flaw in Murasugi–Przytycki’s Memoir ‘An index of a graph with applications to knot theory’ [Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 106 (1993)]. We point out and partly fix a gap occurring in the proof of Murasugi–Przytycki’s braid index inequalities involving the graph index. We explain why their notion of index fails to precisely reflect the reduction of Seifert circles by their diagram move, and redefine the index to account for that discrepancy.

We consider the bipartite matching model of customers and servers introduced by Caldentey, Kaplan and Weiss (2009). Customers and servers play symmetrical roles. There are finite sets C and S of customer and server classes, respectively. Time is discrete and at each time step one customer and one server arrive in the system according to a joint probability measure μ on C× S, independently of the past. Also, at each time step, pairs of matched customers and servers, if they exist, depart from the system. Authorized matchings are given by a fixed bipartite graph (C, S, E⊂ C × S). A matching policy is chosen, which decides how to match when there are several possibilities. Customers/servers that cannot be matched are stored in a buffer. The evolution of the model can be described by a discrete-time Markov chain. We study its stability under various admissible matching policies, including ML (match the longest), MS (match the shortest), FIFO (match the oldest), RANDOM (match uniformly), and PRIORITY. There exist natural necessary conditions for stability (independent of the matching policy) defining the maximal possible stability region. For some bipartite graphs, we prove that the stability region is indeed maximal for any admissible matching policy. For the ML policy, we prove that the stability region is maximal for any bipartite graph. For the MS and PRIORITY policies, we exhibit a bipartite graph with a non-maximal stability region.

A scale-free tree with the parameter β is very close to a star if β is just a bit larger than −1, whereas it is close to a random recursive tree if β is very large. Through the Zagreb index, we consider the whole scene of the evolution of the scale-free trees model as β goes from −1 to + ∞. The critical values of β are shown to be the first several nonnegative integer numbers. We get the first two moments and the asymptotic behaviors of this index of a scale-free tree for all β. The generalized plane-oriented recursive trees model is also mentioned in passing, as well as the Gordon-Scantlebury and the Platt indices, which are closely related to the Zagreb index.

We investigate island systems with continuous height functions and strongly laminar systems which are laminar systems containing sets with disjoint boundaries. In the discrete case, we show that for a maximal rectangular system of islands $ \mathcal{H} $ on an $m$ by $n$ rectangular grid we have $\lceil \min (m, n)/ 4\rceil \leq \vert \mathcal{H} \vert \leq \lceil m/ 2\rceil \lceil n/ 2\rceil $. In the continuous case we show that under some conditions maximal strongly laminar systems $ \mathcal{H} $ have cardinality ${\aleph }_{0} $ or ${2}^{{\aleph }_{0} } $ and present examples with $\vert \mathcal{H} \vert = {\aleph }_{0} $.

Results of Fowler and Sims show that every k-graph is completely determined by its k-coloured skeleton and collection of commuting squares. Here we give an explicit description of the k-graph associated with a given skeleton and collection of squares and show that two k-graphs are isomorphic if and only if there is an isomorphism of their skeletons which preserves commuting squares. We use this to prove directly that each k-graph Λ is isomorphic to the quotient of the path category of its skeleton by the equivalence relation determined by the commuting squares, and show that this extends to a homeomorphism of infinite-path spaces when the k-graph is row finite with no sources. We conclude with a short direct proof of the characterization, originally due to Robertson and Sims, of simplicity of the C*-algebra of a row-finite k-graph with no sources.

We study branching multiplicity spaces of complex classical groups in terms of ${\mathrm{GL} }_{2} $ representations. In particular, we show how combinatorics of ${\mathrm{GL} }_{2} $ representations are intertwined to make branching rules under the restriction of ${\mathrm{GL} }_{n} $ to ${\mathrm{GL} }_{n- 2} $. We also discuss analogous results for the symplectic and orthogonal groups.

In a recent paper of Ellenberg, Oberlin, and Tao [The Kakeya set and maximal conjectures for algebraic varieties over finite fields. Mathematika 56 (2010), 1–25], the authors asked whether there are Besicovitch phenomena in ${ \mathbb{F} }_{q} \mathop{[[t] ] }\nolimits ^{n} $. In this paper, we answer their question in the affirmative by explicitly constructing a Kakeya set of measure zero in ${ \mathbb{F} }_{q} \mathop{[[t] ] }\nolimits ^{n} $. Furthermore, we prove that any Kakeya set in ${ \mathbb{F} }_{q} \mathop{[[t] ] }\nolimits ^{2} $ or ${ \mathbb{Z} }_{p}^{2} $ is of Minkowski dimension 2.

We generalise an argument of Leader, Russell, and Walters to show that almost all sets of $d+ 2$ points on the $(d- 1)$-sphere ${S}^{d- 1} $ are not contained in a transitive set in some ${\mathbf{R} }^{n} $.

A graph $\mit{\Gamma} $ is called $1$-regular if $ \mathsf{Aut} \mit{\Gamma} $ acts regularly on its arcs. In this paper, a classification of $1$-regular Cayley graphs of valency $7$ is given; in particular, it is proved that there is only one core-free graph up to isomorphism.

For positive integers $p$ and $q$, let ${ \mathcal{G} }_{p, q} $ be a class of graphs such that $\vert E(G)\vert \leq p\vert V(G)\vert - q$ for every $G\in { \mathcal{G} }_{p, q} $. In this paper, we consider the sum of the $k\mathrm{th} $ powers of the degrees of the vertices of a graph $G\in { \mathcal{G} }_{p, q} $ with $\Delta (G)\geq 2p$. We obtain an upper bound for this sum that is linear in ${\Delta }^{k- 1} $. These graphs include the planar, 1-planar, $t$-degenerate, outerplanar, and series-parallel graphs.

Rooted monounary algebras can be considered as an algebraic counterpart of directed rooted trees. We work towards a characterization of the lattice of compatible quasiorders by describing its join- and meet-irreducible elements. We introduce the limit $\cB _\infty $ of all $d$-dimensional Boolean cubes $\Two ^d$ as a monounary algebra; then the natural order on $\Two ^d$ is meet-irreducible. Our main result is that any completely meet-irreducible quasiorder of a rooted algebra is a homomorphic preimage of the natural partial order (or its inverse) of a suitable subalgebra of $\cB _\infty $. For a partial order, it is known that complete meet-irreducibility means that the corresponding partially ordered structure is subdirectly irreducible. For a rooted monounary algebra it is shown that this property implies that the unary operation has finitely many nontrivial kernel classes and its graph is a binary tree.

The almost-sure connectivity of the Euclidean minimal spanning forest MSF(X) on a homogeneous Poisson point process X ⊂ ℝd is an open problem for dimension d>2. We introduce a descending family of graphs (G n )n ≥2 that can be seen as approximations to the MSF in the sense that MSF(X)=∩n=2 ∞G n (X). For n=2, one recovers the relative neighborhood graph or, in other words, the β-skeleton with β=2. We show that almost-sure connectivity of G n (X) holds for all n≥2, all dimensions d≥2, and also point processes X more general than the homogeneous Poisson point process. In particular, we show that almost-sure connectivity holds if certain continuum percolation thresholds are strictly positive or, more generally, if almost surely X does not admit generalized descending chains.

We investigate the ray-length distributions for two different rectangular versions of Gilbert's tessellation (see Gilbert (1967)). In the full rectangular version, lines extend either horizontally (east- and west-growing rays) or vertically (north- and south-growing rays) from seed points which form a Poisson point process, each ray stopping when another ray is met. In the half rectangular version, east- and south-growing rays do not interact with west and north rays. For the half rectangular tessellation, we compute analytically, via recursion, a series expansion for the ray-length distribution, whilst, for the full rectangular version, we develop an accurate simulation technique, based in part on the stopping-set theory for Poisson processes (see Zuyev (1999)), to accomplish the same. We demonstrate the remarkable fact that plots of the two distributions appear to be identical when the intensity of seeds in the half model is twice that in the full model. In this paper we explore this coincidence, mindful of the fact that, for one model, our results are from a simulation (with inherent sampling error). We go on to develop further analytic theory for the half-Gilbert model using stopping-set ideas once again, with some novel features. Using our theory, we obtain exact expressions for the first and second moments of the ray length in the half-Gilbert model. For all practical purposes, these results can be applied to the full-Gilbert model—as much better approximations than those provided by Mackisack and Miles (1996).

We consider a code to be a subset of the vertex set of a Hamming graph. We examine elusive pairs, code-group pairs where the code is not determined by knowledge of its set of neighbours. We construct a new infinite family of elusive pairs, where the group in question acts transitively on the set of neighbours of the code. In these examples, the alphabet size always divides the length of the code. We show that there is no elusive pair for the smallest set of parameters that does not satisfy this condition. We also pose several questions regarding elusive pairs.

For $n= 1, 2, 3, \ldots $ let ${S}_{n} $ be the sum of the first $n$ primes. We mainly show that the sequence ${a}_{n} = \sqrt[n]{{S}_{n} / n}~(n= 1, 2, 3, \ldots )$ is strictly decreasing, and moreover the sequence ${a}_{n+ 1} / {a}_{n} ~(n= 10, 11, \ldots )$ is strictly increasing. We also formulate similar conjectures involving twin primes or partitions of integers.

We prove an upper bound on sums of squares of minors of $\{+1, -1\}$-matrices. The bound is sharp for Hadamard matrices, a result due to de Launey and Levin [‘$(1,-1)$-matrices with near-extremal properties’, SIAM J. Discrete Math.23(2009), 1422–1440], but our proof is simpler. We give several corollaries relevant to minors of Hadamard matrices.