MATH 580 / CS 571

COMBINATORIAL MATHEMATICS, Fall 2007

Summary of Lectures

This page contains a summary of the lectures so far in this course for Fall 2007. It lists only the topics discussed in each lecture. The text provides extensive discussion and additional material, so no additional notes are provided here. The order and coverage of topics is similar to Fall 2006, so that can be used as a rough guide to upcoming material.

Lec 1, 8/22 Wed, Sec 1.1: Course overview, general principles of enumeration, counting of words & subsets, binomial theorem, multisets/compositions.
Lec 2, 8/24 Fri, Sec 1.2: Lattice paths, basic identities, extended binomial coefficient, summing polynomials, Delannoy numbers.
Lec 3, 8/27 Mon, Sec 1.3: Counting graphs and trees, multinomial coefficients (trees by degrees, Fermat's Little Theorem), Ballot problem, Central binomial convolution.
Lec 4, 8/29 Wed, Sec 1.3-2.1: Catalan numbers (generalization, bijections, recurrence), Fibonacci numbers and 1,2-lists, derangements.

Lec 5, 8/31 Fri, Sec 2.1-2: recurrences in two indices (distribution problems, Delannoy numbers), characteristic equation method (through repeated roots).
Lec 6, 9/5 Wed, Sec 2.2: Characteristic equation method (inhomogeneous terms), generating function method (linear constant coefficients, Catalan solution).
Lec 7, 9/7 Fri, Sec 2.3-3.1: Substitution method (Tower of Hanoi, derangements, Stirling's approximation), generating functions (sum/product operations, multisets, restricted multiplicity).

Lec 8, 9/10 Mon, Sec 3.1: Generating functions in two variables (subsets), permutation statistics (OGFs by #inversions, #cycles), Eulerian numbers (#runs, Worpitzky's Identity by barred permutations, A(n,k) formula by inversion).
Lec 9, 9/12 Wed, Sec 3.2: Generating function manipulations (differentiation, evaluation at special values, shifting index, summing initial coefficients), summation by convolutions, Snake Oil method.
Lec 10, 9/14 Fri, Sec 3.3: Exponential generating functions. Products of EGFs (words), examples and applications of EGFs (flags on poles, restricted words, Stirling numbers, binomial inversion, derangements).
Lec 11, 9/17 Mon, Sec 3.3-4: The Exponential Formula (graphs, partitions, permutations, recurrence), Lagrange Inversion Formula (statement and application to trees). Partitions of integers (basic generating functions).
Lec 12, 9/19 Wed, Sec 3.4: Asymptotic number of partitions, Combinatorics of partitions (Ferrers diagrams, conjugation, Fallon's Identity, classes of triangles, Euler's Identity). [Start of PIE: basic formula]

Lec 13, 9/21 Fri, Sec 4.1: Inclusion-exclusion applications (totients, Stirling numbers, derangements, Eulerian numbers)
Lec 14, 9/24 Mon, Sec 4.1: PIE to prove identities, Permutations with restricted positions (rook polynomials), OGF by number of properties. Signed involutions (inclusion-exclusion as special case) .
Lec 15, 9/26 Wed, Sec 4.1-2: Disjoint-path systems in digraphs, application to lattice paths and rhombus tilings. Examples for counting under symmetry, Lagrange's Theorem, Burnside's Lemma.
Lec 16, 9/28 Fri, Sec 4.2-3: Cycle indices, symmetries of cube, pattern inventory (Polya's Theorem), counting isomorphism classes of graphs. Young tableaux (brief presentation of Hook-length formula, RSK correspondence, and consequences of RSK correspondence).

Chapter 5, First Concepts for Graphs, for background reading
Lec 17, 10/1 Mon, Sec 5.1-3 highlights, 6.1: Properties of Petersen graph, degree-sum formula and rectangle partition, characterization of bipartite graphs, Eulerian circuits. Bipartite Matching (Hall's Theorem).
Lec 18, 10/3 Wed, Sec 6.1-2: Marriage Theorem, orientations with specified outdegrees. Min/max relations (Ore's defect formula, Konig-Egervary Theorem, Gallai's Theorem, Konig's Other Theorem). General Matching (augmenting paths).
Lec 19, 10/5 Fri, Sec 6.2: Tutte's 1-Factor Condition, Berge-Tutte Formula. 1-factors in regular graphs, Petersen's 2-Factor Theorem (via Eulerian circuit and Hall's Theorem), reduction of f-factor to 1-factor in blowup),

Lec 20, 10/8 Mon, Sec 7.1: Connectivity (definitions, Harary graphs). Connectivity under cartesian product, edge-connectivity definitions, Whitney's Theorem. Edge-connectivity for diameter 2 (Plesnik, postponed), ....bonds and blocks skipped.
Lec 21, 10/11 Wed, Sec 7.2: k-Connected Graphs (Independent x,y-paths, linkage and blocking sets, Pym's Theorem, Menger's Theorems (8 versions), Ford-Fulkerson CSDR (postponed), Expansion and Fan Lemmas, cycles through specified vertices), ear decomposition and Robbins' Theorem (postponed to Fri).
Lec 22, 10/12 Fri, Sec 7.3: Spanning cycles: necessary condition, Thomason's lollipop, Ore & Dirac conditions, closure, skipped statement of Chvatal condition & Chvatal example, postponed Chvatal-Erdos Theorem.

Lec 23, 10/15 Mon, Sec 8.1: Vertex coloring: examples, easy bounds, greedy coloring, interval graphs, degree bounds, Minty Theorem.
Lec 24, 10/17 Wed, Sec 8.1-2: Triangle-free graphs & Mycielski's construction, color-critical graphs (minimum degree, edge-connectivity), list coloring (examples).
Lec 25, 10/19 Fri, Sec 8.2-3: List coloring (degree choosability and extension of Brooks' Theorem), edge-coloring (complete graphs, Petersen graph, bipartite graphs), color fans and Vizing for graphs, skipped Anderson-Goldberg generalization of Vizing's Theorem.

Lec 26, 10/22 Mon, Sec 9.1: Planar graphs and their duals, cycles vs bonds, bipartite plane graphs, Euler's Formula and edge bound, skipped regular polyhedra
Lec 27, 10/24 Wed, Sec 9.2: Kuratowski's Theorem and convex embeddings, 5-coloring of planar graphs
Lec 28, 10/26 Fri, Sec 9.3: Coloring of planar graphs (5-choosability, Kempe), discharging (approach to 4CT, list edge-coloring of planar graphs), Tait's Theorem (skipped Grinberg's Theorem)

Lec 29, 10/29 Mon, Sec 10.1: Applications of pigeonhole principle (divisible pairs, paths in cubes, domino tilings, monotone sublists, increasing trails).
Lec 30, 10/31 Wed, Sec 10.2: Ramsey's Theorem and applications (convex m-gons, table storage).
Lec 31, 11/2 Fri, Sec 10.3: Ramsey numbers, graph Ramsey theory (tree vs complete graph), Schur's Theorem, Van der Waerden Theorem (statement and example)

Lec 32, 11/5 Mon, Sec 12.1: Partially ordered sets (definitions and examples, comparability graphs and cover graphs), Dilworth's Theorem, equivalence of Dilworth and Konig-Egervary, relation to PGT (postponed).
Lec 33, 11/7 Wed, Sec 12.2: graded posets & Sperner property, symmetric chain decompositions for subsets and products, bracketing decomposition, application to monotone Boolean functions.
Lec 34, 11/9 Fri, Sec 12.3: LYM posets (Sperner's Theorem via LYM, equivalence with regular covering and normalized matching, LYM and symmetric unimodal rank-sizes => symmetric chain decomposition, CSDR from Menger, statement of log-concavity & product result).

Lec 35, 11/12 Mon, Sec 14.1: existence arguments (Ramsey number, 2-colorability of k-uniform hypergraphs), pigeonhole property of expectation (linearity and indicator variables, Caro-Wei bound on independence number, application of Caro-Wei to Turan's Theorem, postponed pebbling in hypercubes).
Lec 36, 11/14 Wed, Sec 14.2: Deletion method (Ramsey numbers, dominating sets, sketch for large girth and chromatic number) .
Lec 37, 11/16 Fri, Sec 14.2-3: Symmetric Local Lemma & applications (Ramsey number, list coloring, Mutual Independence Principle). Random graph models, almost-always properties, connectedness of the random graph. Markov's Inequality and connectedness, notion of threshold function.
Lec 38, 11/26 Mon, Sec 14.3: Random graphs (Second moment method, threshold functions for disappearance of isolated vertices and appearance of balanced graphs, comments on evolution of graphs).
Lec 39, 11/28 Wed, Sec 14.3: connectivity/cliques/coloring of random graphs; lower bound for crossing number of graphs (Chapter 16). Introduction to orthogonal families of Latin squares (4-by-4 example, upper bound).

Lec 40, 11/30 Fri, Sec 17.1: Latin squares (MOLS(n,k), complete families, Moore-MacNeish construction), block designs (examples, elementary constraints on parameters, Fisher's Inequality).
Lec 41, 12/03 Mon, Sec 17.1-2: Symmetric designs (Bose), necessary conditions (example of Bruck-Chowla-Ryser), Hadamard matrices (restriction on order, skipped relation to designs and application to bipartite Ramsey problem). Equivalence of projective planes and (q^2+q+1,q+1,1)-designs.
Lec 42, 12/05 Wed, Sec 17.2: projective planes (relation to Latin squares, polarity graph with application to extremal problems).
Lec 43, 12/07 Fri, Sec 17.2-3: difference sets and multipliers, Steiner triple systems. !-->