Pattern Avoidance Over a Hypergraph

A classic result of Marcus and Tardos (previously known as the Stanley-Wilf conjecture) bounds from above the number of $n$-permutations ($\sigma \in S_n$) that do not contain a specific sub-permutation. In particular, it states that for any fixed permutation $\pi$, the number of $n$-permutations that avoid $\pi$ is at most exponential in $n$. In this paper, we generalize this result. We bound the number of avoidant $n$-permutations even if they only have to avoid $\pi$ at specific indices. We consider a $k$-uniform hypergraph $\Lambda$ on $n$ vertices and count the $n$-permutations that avoid $\pi$ at the indices corresponding to the edges of $\Lambda$. We analyze both the random and deterministic hypergraph cases. This problem was originally proposed by Asaf Ferber. When $\Lambda$ is a random hypergraph with edge density $\alpha$, we show that the expected number of $\Lambda$-avoiding $n$-permutations is bounded (both upper and lower) as $\exp(O(n))\alpha^{-\frac{n}{k-1}}$, using a supersaturation version of F\"{u}redi-Hajnal. In the deterministic case we show that, for $\Lambda$ containing many size $L$ cliques, the number of $\Lambda$-avoiding $n$-permutations is $O\left(\frac{n\log^{2+\epsilon}n}{L}\right)^n$, giving a nontrivial bound with $L$ polynomial in $n$. Our main tool in the analysis of this deterministic case is the new and revolutionary hypergraph containers method, developed in papers of Balogh-Morris-Samotij and Saxton-Thomason.

A Separator Theorem for Hypergraphs and a CSP-SAT Algorithm

We show that for every $r \ge 2$ there exists $\epsilon_r > 0$ such that any $r$-uniform hypergraph with $m$ edges and maximum vertex degree $o(\sqrt{m})$ contains a set of at most $(\frac{1}{2} - \epsilon_r)m$ edges the removal of which breaks the hypergraph into connected components with at most $m/2$ edges. We use this to give an algorithm running in time $d^{(1 - \epsilon_r)m}$ that decides satisfiability of $m$-variable $(d, k)$-CSPs in which every variable appears in at most $r$ constraints, where $\epsilon_r$ depends only on $r$ and $k\in o(\sqrt{m})$. Furthermore our algorithm solves the corresponding #CSP-SAT and Max-CSP-SAT of these CSPs. We also show that CNF representations of unsatisfiable $(2, k)$-CSPs with variable frequency $r$ can be refuted in tree-like resolution in size $2^{(1 - \epsilon_r)m}$. Furthermore for Tseitin formulas on graphs with degree at most $k$ (which are $(2, k)$-CSPs) we give a deterministic algorithm finding such a refutation.

Information Limits for Community Detection in Hypergraph with Label Information

In network data mining, community detection refers to the problem of partitioning the nodes of a network into clusters (communities). This is equivalent to identifying the cluster label of each node. A label estimator is said to be an exact recovery of the true labels (communities) if it coincides with the true labels with a probability convergent to one. In this work, we consider the effect of label information on the exact recovery of communities in an m-uniform Hypergraph Stochastic Block Model (HSBM). We investigate two scenarios of label information: (1) a noisy label for each node is observed independently, with 1−αn as the probability that the noisy label will match the true label; (2) the true label of each node is observed independently, with the probability of 1−αn. We derive sharp boundaries for exact recovery under both scenarios from an information-theoretical point of view. The label information improves the sharp detection boundary if and only if αn=n−β+o(1) for a constant β>0.

Some Applications of Wagner's Weighted Subgraph Counting Polynomial

We use Wagner's weighted subgraph counting polynomial to prove that the partition function of the anti-ferromagnetic Ising model on line graphs is real rooted and to prove that roots of the edge cover polynomial have absolute value at most $4$. We more generally show that roots of the edge cover polynomial of a $k$-uniform hypergraph have absolute value at most $2^k$, and discuss applications of this to the roots of domination polynomials of graphs. We moreover discuss how our results relate to efficient algorithms for approximately computing evaluations of these polynomials.

The Quest for Strong Inapproximability Results with Perfect Completeness

The Unique Games Conjecture has pinned down the approximability of all constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs), showing that a natural semidefinite programming relaxation offers the optimal worst-case approximation ratio for any CSP. This elegant picture, however, does not apply for CSP instances that are perfectly satisfiable, due to the imperfect completeness inherent in the Unique Games Conjecture. This work is motivated by the pursuit of a better understanding of the approximability of perfectly satisfiable instances of CSPs. We prove that an “almost Unique” version of Label Cover can be approximated within a constant factor on satisfiable instances. Our main conceptual contribution is the formulation of a (hypergraph) version of Label Cover that we call V Label Cover . Assuming a conjecture concerning the inapproximability of V Label Cover on perfectly satisfiable instances, we prove the following implications: • There is an absolute constant c 0 such that for k ≥ 3, given a satisfiable instance of Boolean k -CSP, it is hard to find an assignment satisfying more than c 0 k 2 /2 k fraction of the constraints. • Given a k -uniform hypergraph, k ≥ 2, for all ε > 0, it is hard to tell if it is q -strongly colorable or has no independent set with an ε fraction of vertices, where q =⌈ k +√ k -1/2⌉. • Given a k -uniform hypergraph, k ≥ 3, for all ε > 0, it is hard to tell if it is ( k -1)-rainbow colorable or has no independent set with an ε fraction of vertices.

Exponential Lower Bound for Berge-Ramsey Problems

We give an exponential lower bound for the smallest $$N$$ N such that no matter how we c-color the edges of a complete $$r$$ r -uniform hypergraph on $$N$$ N vertices, we can always find a monochromatic Berge-$$K_n$$ K n .

The Extremal Number of Surfaces

In 1973, Brown, Erdős and Sós proved that if $\mathcal{H}$ is a 3-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices which contains no triangulation of the sphere, then $\mathcal{H}$ has $O(n^{5/2})$ edges, and this bound is the best possible up to a constant factor. Resolving a conjecture of Linial, also reiterated by Keevash, Long, Narayanan and Scott, we show that the same result holds for triangulations of the torus. Furthermore, we extend our result to every closed orientable surface $\mathcal{S}$.

The Szemerédi–Petruska conjecture for a few small values

Let H be a 3-uniform hypergraph of order n with clique number $$\omega (H)=k$$ ω ( H ) = k . Assume that the union of the k-cliques of H equals its vertex set, the intersection of all maximum cliques of H is empty, but the intersection of all but one k-clique is non-empty. For fixed $$m=n-k$$ m = n - k , Szemerédi and Petruska conjectured the sharp bound $$n\hbox {\,\,\char 054\,\,}{m+2\atopwithdelims ()2}$$ n 6 m + 2 2 . In this note the conjecture is verified for $$m=2,3$$ m = 2 , 3 and 4.