Vol. 6 no. 2

1. Some lattices of closure systems on a finite set

In this paper we study two lattices of significant particular closure systems on a finite set, namely the union stable closure systems and the convex geometries. Using the notion of (admissible) quasi-closed set and of (deletable) closed set, we determine the covering relation \prec of these lattices and the changes induced, for instance, on the irreducible elements when one goes from C to C' where C and C' are two such closure systems satisfying C \prec C'. We also do a systematic study of these lattices of closure systems, characterizing for instance their join-irreducible and their meet-irreducible elements.

2. Rare Events and Conditional Events on Random Strings

Some strings -the texts- are assumed to be randomly generated, according to a probability model that is either a Bernoulli model or a Markov model. A rare event is the over or under-representation of a word or a set of words. The aim of this paper is twofold. First, a single word is given. One studies the tail distribution of the number of its occurrences. Sharp large deviation estimates are derived. Second, one assumes that a given word is overrepresented. The distribution of a second word is studied; formulae for the expectation and the variance are derived. In both cases, the formulae are accurate and actually computable. These results have applications in computational biology, where a genome is viewed as a text.

3. New Results on Generalized Graph Coloring

For graph classes \wp_1,...,\wp_k, Generalized Graph Coloring is the problem of deciding whether the vertex set of a given graph G can be partitioned into subsets V_1,...,V_k so that V_j induces a graph in the class \wp_j (j=1,2,...,k). If \wp_1=...=\wp_k is the class of edgeless graphs, then this problem coincides with the standard vertex k-COLORABILITY, which is known to be NP-complete for any k≥ 3. Recently, this result has been generalized by showing that if all \wp_i's are additive hereditary, then the generalized graph coloring is NP-hard, with the only exception of bipartite graphs. Clearly, a similar result follows when all the \wp_i's are co-additive.

4. Coxeter-like complexes

Motivated by the Coxeter complex associated to a Coxeter system (W,S), we introduce a simplicial regular cell complex Δ (G,S) with a G-action associated to any pair (G,S) where G is a group and S is a finite set of generators for G which is minimal with respect to inclusion. We examine the topology of Δ (G,S), and in particular the representations of G on its homology groups. We look closely at the case of the symmetric group S_n minimally generated by (not necessarily adjacent) transpositions, and their type-selected subcomplexes. These include not only the Coxeter complexes of type A, but also the well-studied chessboard complexes.

5. The Summation Package Sigma: Underlying Principles and a Rhombus Tiling Application

We give an overview of how a huge class of multisum identities can be proven and discovered with the summation package Sigma implemented in the computer algebra system Mathematica. General principles of symbolic summation are discussed. We illustrate the usage of Sigma by showing how one can find and prove a multisum identity that arose in the enumeration of rhombus tilings of a symmetric hexagon. Whereas this identity has been derived alternatively with the help of highly involved transformations of special functions, our tools enable to find and prove this identity completely automatically with the computer.

6. Optimal Sequential and Parallel Algorithms for Cut Vertices and Bridges on Trapezoid Graphs

Let G be a graph. A component of G is a maximal connected subgraph in G. A vertex v is a cut vertex of G if k(G-v) > k(G), where k(G) is the number of components in G. Similarly, an edge e is a bridge of G if k(G-e) > k(G). In this paper, we will propose new O(n) algorithms for finding cut vertices and bridges of a trapezoid graph, assuming the trapezoid diagram is given. Our algorithms can be easily parallelized on the EREW PRAM computational model so that cut vertices and bridges can be found in O(log n) time by using O(n / log n) processors.

7. Track Layouts of Graphs

A \emph(k,t)-track layout of a graph G consists of a (proper) vertex t-colouring of G, a total order of each vertex colour class, and a (non-proper) edge k-colouring such that between each pair of colour classes no two monochromatic edges cross. This structure has recently arisen in the study of three-dimensional graph drawings. This paper presents the beginnings of a theory of track layouts. First we determine the maximum number of edges in a (k,t)-track layout, and show how to colour the edges given fixed linear orderings of the vertex colour classes. We then describe methods for the manipulation of track layouts. For example, we show how to decrease the number of edge colours in a track layout at the expense of increasing the number of tracks, and vice versa. We then study the relationship between track layouts and other models of graph layout, namely stack and queue layouts, and geometric thickness. One of our principle results is that the queue-number and track-number of a graph are tied, in the sense that one is bounded by a function of the other. As corollaries we prove that acyclic chromatic number is bounded by both queue-number and stack-number. Finally we consider track layouts of planar graphs. While it is an open problem whether planar graphs have bounded track-number, we prove bounds on the track-number of outerplanar graphs, and give the best known lower bound on the track-number of planar graphs.\

8. Improved Expansion of Random Cayley Graphs

In Random Cayley Graphs and Expanders, N. Alon and Y. Roichman proved that for every ε > 0 there is a finite c(ε ) such that for any sufficiently large group G, the expected value of the second largest (in absolute value) eigenvalue of the normalized adjacency matrix of the Cayley graph with respect to c(ε ) log |G| random elements is less than ε . We reduce the number of elements to c(ε )log D(G) (for the same c), where D(G) is the sum of the dimensions of the irreducible representations of G. In sufficiently non-abelian families of groups (as measured by these dimensions), log D(G) is asymptotically (1/2)log|G|. As is well known, a small eigenvalue implies large graph expansion (and conversely); see Tanner84 and AlonMilman84-2,AlonMilman84-1. For any specified eigenvalue or expansion, therefore, random Cayley graphs (of sufficiently non-abelian groups) require only half as many edges as was previously known.

9. On Linear Layouts of Graphs

In a total order of the vertices of a graph, two edges with no endpoint in common can be \emphcrossing, \emphnested, or \emphdisjoint. A \emphk-stack (respectively, \emphk-queue, \emphk-arch) \emphlayout of a graph consists of a total order of the vertices, and a partition of the edges into k sets of pairwise non-crossing (non-nested, non-disjoint) edges. Motivated by numerous applications, stack layouts (also called \emphbook embeddings) and queue layouts are widely studied in the literature, while this is the first paper to investigate arch layouts.\par Our main result is a characterisation of k-arch graphs as the \emphalmost (k+1)-colourable graphs; that is, the graphs G with a set S of at most k vertices, such that G S is (k+1)-colourable.\par In addition, we survey the following fundamental questions regarding each type of layout, and in the case of queue layouts, provide simple proofs of a number of existing results. How does one partition the edges given a fixed ordering of the vertices? What is the maximum number of edges in each type of layout? What is the maximum chromatic number of a graph admitting each type of layout? What is the computational complexity of recognising the graphs that admit each type of layout?\par A comprehensive bibliography of all known references on these topics is included. \par

10. The distribution of m-ary search trees generated by van der Corput sequences

We study the structure of $m$-ary search trees generated by the van der Corput sequences. The height of the tree is calculated and a generating function approach shows that the distribution of the depths of the nodes is asymptotically normal. Additionally a local limit theorem is derived.

11. On Cheating Immune Secret Sharing

The paper addresses the cheating prevention in secret sharing. We consider secret sharing with binary shares. The secret also is binary. This model allows us to use results and constructions from the well developed theory of cryptographically strong boolean functions. In particular, we prove that for given secret sharing, the average cheating probability over all cheating vectors and all original vectors, i.e., 1/n 2^n ∑ _c=1...n ∑ _α ∈V n ρ _c,α , denoted by øverlineρ , satisfies øverlineρ ≥ \frac12 , and the equality holds if and only if ρ _c,α satisfies ρ _c,α = \frac12 for every cheating vector δ _c and every original vector α . In this case the secret sharing is said to be cheating immune. We further establish a relationship between cheating-immune secret sharing and cryptographic criteria of boolean functions.This enables us to construct cheating-immune secret sharing.

12. On Locating-Dominating Codes in Binary Hamming Spaces

Locating faulty processors in a multiprocessor system gives the motivation for locating-dominating codes. We consider these codes in binary hypercubes and generalize the concept for the situation in which we want to locate more than one malfunctioning processor.

13. The Width of Galton-Watson Trees Conditioned by the Size

It is proved that the moments of the width of Galton-Watson trees of size n and with offspring variance σ ^2 are asymptotically given by (σ √n)^pm_p where m_p are the moments of the maximum of the local time of a standard scaled Brownian excursion. This is done by combining a weak limit theorem and a tightness estimate. The method is quite general and we state some further applications.

14. Well-spread sequences and edge-labellings with constant Hamilton-weight

A sequence (a_i) of integers is \emphwell-spread if the sums a_i+a_j, for i

15. Generating functions and the satisfiability threshold

The 3-SAT problem consists in determining if a boolean formula with 3 literals per clause is satisfiable. When the ratio between the number of clauses and the number of variables increases, a threshold phenomenon is observed: the probability of satisfiability appears to decrease sharply from 1 to 0 in the neighbourghood of a threshold value, conjectured to be close to 4.25. Although the threshold has been proved to exist for the 2-SAT formulæ and for closely related problems like 3-XORSAT, there is still no proof for the 3-sat problem. Recent works have provided so far upper and lower bounds for the threshold's potential location. We present here a unified approach to upper bounds that is based on urn models, generating functions, and saddle-point bounds. In this way, we re-derive some of the most significant upper bounds known in a simple and uniform manner.

16. Analysis of some statistics for increasing tree families

This paper deals with statistics concerning distances between randomly chosen nodes in varieties of increasing trees. Increasing trees are labelled rooted trees where labels along any branch from the root go in increasing order. Many mportant tree families that have applications in computer science or are used as probabilistic models in various applications, like \emphrecursive trees, heap-ordered trees or \emphbinary increasing trees (isomorphic to binary search trees) are members of this variety of trees. We consider the parameters \textitdepth of a randomly chosen node, \textitdistance between two randomly chosen nodes, and the generalisations where \textitp nodes are randomly chosen Under the restriction that the node-degrees are bounded, we can prove that all these parameters converge in law to the Normal distribution. This extends results obtained earlier for binary search trees and heap-ordered trees to a much larger class of structures.

17. On an open problem of Green and Losonczy: exact enumeration of freely braided permutations

Recently, Green and Losonczy~GL1,GL2 introduced \emphfreely braided permutation as a special class of restricted permutations has arisen in representation theory. The freely braided permutations were introduced and studied as the upper bound for the number of commutation classes of reduced expressions for an element of a simply laced Coxeter group is achieved if and only if when the element is freely braided. In this paper, we prove that the generating function for the number of freely braided permutations in S_n is given by \par (1-3x-2x^2+(1+x)√1-4x) / (1-4x-x^2+(1-x^2)√1-4x).\par

18. Characterisations of Ideal Threshold Schemes

We characterise ideal threshold schemes from different approaches. Since the characteristic properties are independent to particular descriptions of threshold schemes all ideal threshold schemes can be examined by new points of view and new results on ideal threshold schemes can be discovered.

19. Statistical properties of general Markov dynamical sources: applications to information theory

In \textitDynamical sources in information theory: fundamental intervals and word prefixes, B. Vallée studies statistical properties of words generated by dynamical sources. This is done using generalized Ruelle operators. The aim of this article is to generalize sources for which the results hold. First, we avoid the use of Grotendieck theory and Fredholm determinants, this allows dynamical sources that cannot be extended to a complex disk or that are not analytic. Second, we consider Markov sources: the language generated by the source over an alphabet \textbfM is not necessarily \textbfM^*.

20. Efficient Algorithms on the Family Associated to an Implicational System

An implication system (IS) on a finite set S is a set of rules called Σ -implications of the kind A →_Σ B, with A,B ⊆ S. A subset X ⊆ S satisfies A →_Σ B when ''A ⊆ X implies B ⊆ X'' holds, so ISs can be used to describe constraints on sets of elements, such as dependency or causality. ISs are formally closely linked to the well known notions of closure operators and Moore families. This paper focuses on their algorithmic aspects. A number of problems issued from an IS Σ (e.g. is it minimal, is a given implication entailed by the system) can be reduced to the computation of closures φ _Σ (X), where φ _Σ is the closure operator associated to Σ . We propose a new approach to compute such closures, based on the characterization of the direct-optimal IS Σ _do which has the following properties: \beginenumerate ıtemit is equivalent to Σ ıtemφ _Σ _do(X) (thus φ _Σ (X)) can be computed by a single scanning of Σ _do-implications ıtemit is of minimal size with respect to ISs satisfying 1. and 2. \endenumerate We give algorithms that compute Σ _do, and from Σ _do closures φ _Σ (X) and the Moore family associated to φ _Σ .

21. Towards automated proofs of observational properties

Observational theories are a generalization of first-order theories where two objects are observationally equal if they cannot be distinguished by experiments with observable results. Such experiments, called contexts, are usually infinite. Therfore, we consider a special finite set of contexts, called cover-contexts, ''\emphcovering'' all the observable contexts. Then, we show that to prove that two objects are observationally equal, it is sufficient to prove that they are equal (in the classical sense) under these cover-contexts. We give methods based on rewriting techniques, for constructing such cover-contexts for interesting classes of observational specifications.

22. A Note on t-designs with t Intersection Numbers

We discuss Ray-Chaudhari and Wilson inequality for a 0-design and give simple proof of the result '\emphFor fixed block size k, there exist finitely many parametrically feasible t-designs with t intersection numbers and λ > 1'.