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Karasev conjectured that for any set of $3k$ lines in general position in the plane, which is partitioned into $3$ color classes of equal size $k$, the set can be partitioned into $k$ colorful 3-subsets such that all the triangles formed by the subsets have a point in common. Although the general conjecture is false, we show that Karasevs conjecture is true for lines in convex position. We also discuss possible generalizations of this result.
It is presented the simplest known disproof of the Borsuk conjecture stating that if a bounded subset of n-dimensional Euclidean space contains more than n points, then the subset can be partitioned into n+1 nonempty parts of smaller diameter. The argument is due to N. Alon and is a remarkable application of combinatorics and algebra to geometry. This note is purely expository and is accessible for students.
Motivated by a hat guessing problem proposed by Iwasawa cite{Iwasawa10}, Butler and Graham cite{Butler11} made the following conjecture on the existence of certain way of marking the {em coordinate lines} in $[k]^n$: there exists a way to mark one point on each {em coordinate line} in $[k]^n$, so that every point in $[k]^n$ is marked exactly $a$ or $b$ times as long as the parameters $(a,b,n,k)$ satisfies that there are non-negative integers $s$ and $t$ such that $s+t = k^n$ and $as+bt = nk^{n-1}$. In this paper we prove this conjecture for any prime number $k$. Moreover, we prove the conjecture for the case when $a=0$ for general $k$.
We prove that for any $varepsilon>0$, for any large enough $t$, there is a graph $G$ that admits no $K_t$-minor but admits a $(frac32-varepsilon)t$-colouring that is frozen with respect to Kempe changes, i.e. any two colour classes induce a connected component. This disproves three conjectures of Las Vergnas and Meyniel from 1981.
The Frankl conjecture (called also union-closed sets conjecture) is one of the famous unsolved conjectures in combinatorics of finite sets. In this short note, we introduce and to some extent justify some variants of the Frankl conjecture.
The Hall ratio of a graph $G$ is the maximum value of $v(H) / alpha(H)$ taken over all non-null subgraphs $H$ of $G$. For any graph, the Hall ratio is a lower-bound on its fractional chromatic number. In this note, we present various constructions of graphs whose fractional chromatic number grows much faster than their Hall ratio. This refutes a conjecture of Harris.