No Arabic abstract
The Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) and its counting counterpart appears under different guises in many areas of mathematics, computer science, and elsewhere. Its structural and algorithmic properties have demonstrated to play a crucial role in many of those applications. For instance, in the decision CSPs, structural properties of the relational structures involved---like, for example, dismantlability---and their logical characterizations have been instrumental for determining the complexity and other properties of the problem. Topological properties of the solution set such as connectedness are related to the hardness of CSPs over random structures. Additionally, in approximate counting and statistical physics, where CSPs emerge in the form of spin systems, mixing properties and the uniqueness of Gibbs measures have been heavily exploited for approximating partition functions and free energy. In spite of the great diversity of those features, there are some eerie similarities between them. These were observed and made more precise in the case of graph homomorphisms by Brightwell and Winkler, who showed that dismantlability of the target graph, connectedness of the set of homomorphisms, and good mixing properties of the corresponding spin system are all equivalent. In this paper we go a step further and demonstrate similar connections for arbitrary CSPs. This requires much deeper understanding of dismantling and the structure of the solution space in the case of relational structures, and new refined concepts of mixing introduced by Brice~no. In addition, we develop properties related to the study of valid extensions of a given partially defined homomorphism, an approach that turns out to be novel even in the graph case. We also add to the mix the combinatorial property of finite duality and its logic counterpart, FO-definability, studied by Larose, Loten, and Tardif.
The profile of a relational structure $R$ is the function $varphi_R$ which counts for every integer $n$ the number, possibly infinite, $varphi_R(n)$ of substructures of $R$ induced on the $n$-element subsets, isomorphic substructures being identified. If $varphi_R$ takes only finite values, this is the Hilbert function of a graded algebra associated with $R$, the age algebra $A(R)$, introduced by P.~J.~Cameron. In a previous paper, we studied the relationship between the properties of a relational structure and those of their algebra, particularly when the relational structure $R$ admits a finite monomorphic decomposition. This setting still encompasses well-studied graded commutative algebras like invariant rings of finite permutation groups, or the rings of quasi-symmetric polynomials. In this paper, we investigate how far the well know algebraic properties of those rings extend to age algebras. The main result is a combinatorial characterization of when the age algebra is finitely generated. In the special case of tournaments, we show that the age algebra is finitely generated if and only if the profile is bounded. We explore the Cohen-Macaulay property in the special case of invariants of permutation groupoids. Finally, we exhibit sufficient conditions on the relational structure that make naturally the age algebra into a Hopf algebra.
Let $mathrm{G}$ be a subgroup of the symmetric group $mathfrak S(U)$ of all permutations of a countable set $U$. Let $overline{mathrm{G}}$ be the topological closure of $mathrm{G}$ in the function topology on $U^U$. We initiate the study of the poset $overline{mathrm{G}}[U]:={f[U]mid fin overline{mathrm{G}}}$ of images of the functions in $overline{mathrm{G}}$, being ordered under inclusion. This set $overline{mathrm{G}}[U]$ of subsets of the set $U$ will be called the emph{poset of copies for} the group $mathrm{G}$. A denomination being justified by the fact that for every subgroup $mathrm{G}$ of the symmetric group $mathfrak S(U)$ there exists a homogeneous relational structure $R$ on $U$ such that $overline G$ is the set of embeddings of the homogeneous structure $R$ into itself and $overline{mathrm{G}}[U]$ is the set of copies of $R$ in $R$ and that the set of bijections $overline Gcap mathfrak S(U)$ of $U$ to $U$ forms the group of automorphisms of $mathrm{R}$.
In the hard-core model on a finite graph we are given a parameter lambda>0, and an independent set I arises with probability proportional to lambda^|I|. On infinite graphs a Gibbs distribution is defined as a suitable limit with the correct conditional probabilities. In the infinite setting we are interested in determining when this limit is unique and when there is phase coexistence, i.e., existence of multiple Gibbs states. On finite graphs we are interested in determining the mixing time of local Markov chains. On Z^2 it is conjectured that these problems are related and that both undergo a phase transition at some critical point lambda_c approx 3.79. For phase coexistence, much of the work to date has focused on the regime of uniqueness, with the best result being recent work of Restrepo et al. showing that there is a unique Gibbs state for all lambda < 2.3882. Here we give the first non-trivial result in the other direction, showing that there are multiple Gibbs states for all lambda > 5.3646. Our proof adds two significant innovations to the standard Peierls argument. First, building on the idea of fault lines introduced by Randall, we construct an event that distinguishes two boundary conditions and always has long contours associated with it, obviating the need to accurately enumerate short contours. Second, we obtain vastly improved bounds on the number of contours by relating them to a new class of self-avoiding walks on an oriented version of Z^2. We extend our characterization of fault lines to show that local Markov chains will mix slowly when lambda > 5.3646 on lattice regions with periodic (toroidal) boundary conditions and when lambda > 7.1031 with non-periodic (free) boundary conditions. The arguments here rely on a careful analysis that relates contours to taxi walks and represent a sevenfold improvement to the previously best known values of lambda.
Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in general position in the plane. A subset $I$ of $P$ is called an emph{island} if there exists a convex set $C$ such that $I = P cap C$. In this paper we define the emph{generalized island Johnson graph} of $P$ as the graph whose vertex consists of all islands of $P$ of cardinality $k$, two of which are adjacent if their intersection consists of exactly $l$ elements. We show that for large enough values of $n$, this graph is connected, and give upper and lower bounds on its diameter.
A connected graph $G$ is called strongly Menger (edge) connected if for any two distinct vertices $x,y$ of $G$, there are $min {{rm deg}_G(x), {rm deg}_G(y)}$ vertex(edge)-disjoint paths between $x$ and $y$. In this paper, we consider strong Menger (edge) connectedness of the augmented $k$-ary $n$-cube $AQ_{n,k}$, which is a variant of $k$-ary $n$-cube $Q_n^k$. By exploring the topological proprieties of $AQ_{n,k}$, we show that $AQ_{n,3}$ for $ngeq 4$ (resp. $AQ_{n,k}$ for $ngeq 2$ and $kgeq 4$) is still strongly Menger connected even when there are $4n-9$ (resp. $4n-8$) faulty vertices and $AQ_{n,k}$ is still strongly Menger edge connected even when there are $4n-4$ faulty edges for $ngeq 2$ and $kgeq 3$. Moreover, under the restricted condition that each vertex has at least two fault-free edges, we show that $AQ_{n,k}$ is still strongly Menger edge connected even when there are $8n-10$ faulty edges for $ngeq 2$ and $kgeq 3$. These results are all optimal in the sense of the maximum number of tolerated vertex (resp. edge) faults.