UF Combinatorics Seminar

Spring 2012

The seminar will normally be held on Tuesdays during 7th period (1:55–2:45) in Little Hall 305.


Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 1:55–2:45 in Little 305
Aziza Jefferson (UF)

Avoiding 3-term arithmetic progressions


Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 1:55–2:45 in Little 305
Neil White (UF)

Coxeter groups


Tuesday, April 10, 2012, 1:55–2:45 in Little 305
Cheyne Homberger (UF)

Expected patterns in permutation classes


Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 1:55–2:45 in Little 305
Miklós Bóna (UF)



Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 1:55–2:45 in Little 305
Andrew Vince (UF)

Binary Sequences and Fractals


Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 1:55–2:45 in Little 305
Robert Brignall (The Open University)

Indecomposable graphs and the Reconstruction Conjecture


Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 1:55–2:45 in Little 305
Miklós Bóna (UF)

The absence of a permutation pattern and the number of occurrences of another one

Abstract: we will survey some results (without proofs) from three years ago, then show the proof of a suprising new result. Open problems will be discussed.


Fall 2011

The seminar will normally be held on Tuesdays during 9th period (4:05–4:55) in Little Hall 368.


Tuesday, November 22, 2011, 4:05–4:55 in Little 368
Michael Albert (University of Dunedin)



Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 4:05–4:55 in Little 368
Andrew Vince

The Eigen-Ellipse


Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 4:05–4:55 in Little 368
Nick Sharpe (UF)

Generalizing the Classical Marriage Lemma, Part 2 of 2


Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 4:05–4:55 in Little 368
Nick Sharpe (UF)

Generalizing the Classical Marriage Lemma, Part 1 of 2

Let n be a positive integer. Suppose there is a set of n boys, each of whom knows at least 1 of a set of n girls, in such a way that any subset of k boys knows at least k girls, for k=1,2,...,n. Then "The Classical Marriage Lemma" (which may also go by other names) says that one can hold a mass wedding in which each boy marries a girl whom he knows.

In my study of Ergodic Theory, I have encountered a generalization of the above, which I plan to talk about:

Suppose A and B are finite sets with p() and q() probability measures on A and B respectively, and that to every element a in A we associate a subset "phi(a)" of B, in such a way that for every subset S of A, p(S) <= q(phi(S)) holds. [Such a phi is called a "society from A to B".] Then there exists another society "nu" from A to B such that for all a in A: nu(a) is a subset of phi(a) [ "nu refines phi" ], AND such that

#{b in B | there exist distinct a1, a2 in A such that b lies in nu(a1) and nu(a2)} < #A .


Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 4:05–4:55 in Little 368
Jindrich Zapletal (UF)

Ramsey theory: a set theorist's view


Monday, October 3, 3:00–3:55 in Little 368
Péter Komjáth (Eötvös Loránd University)



Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 4:05–4:55 in Little 368
Neil White (UF)

Planar configurations


Spring 2011


Tuesday, February 8, 2010, 11:45–12:35 in Little 305
Miklós Bóna (UF)

Non-overlapping permutations


Wednesday January 19, 2010, 1:55–2:45 in Little 368
Qing Xiang (University of Delaware)

Cyclotomic constructions of strongly regular graphs and difference sets

Fall 2010


Tuesday November 23, 2010, 4:05
Duc Huynh (UF)

Sign-balanced and maj-balanced posets


Thursday November 18, 2010, 4:05
Daniel Gray (UF)

Combinatorial properties of two Fibonacci lattices


Tuesday November 9, 2010, 4:05
Cuong Ngo (UF)

d-Regular set partitions and rook placements


Tuesday November 2, 2010, 4:05
Larie Ward (UF)

Completions of Latin squares


Thursday October 21, 2010, 4:05
Steve Linton (University of St Andrews)

Monotone sequences and coin sliding games


Tuesday October 5, 2010, 4:05
Neil White (UF)

Signed Permutations, plus a gentle introduction to Coxeter Groups


Tuesday September 28, 2010, 4:05
Aziza Jefferson (UF)

Stirling polynomials


Tuesday September 21, 2010, 4:05
Miklós Bóna (UF)

Combinatorics of Genome Rearrangements


Tuesday September 7, 2010, 4:05
Andrew Vince (UF)

A Contractive Metric on a Finite Set