Search arXivSearch

arXiv · 2408.01704

Ian G. Macdonald: Works of Art

Abstract

Ian Macdonald's works changed our perspective on so many parts of algebraic combinatorics and formal power series. This talk will display some selected works of the art of Ian Macdonald, representative of different periods of his oeuvre, and analyze how they resonate, both for the past development of our subject and for its future. This paper was prepared for the occasion of a lecture in tribute to Ian G. Macdonald, delivered at FPSAC 2024 in Bochum, Germany on 22 July 2024. I want to express thanks to the Executive Committee of FPSAC, the Organizing Committee of FPSAC 2024, and to the whole of our FPSAC 2024 community for making this lecture a possibility and for considering me for its delivery. Macdonald is my hero, and to be asked to play such a role in his legacy touches me deeply.

Explore related subjects

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Arun Ram. 2024-08-03. Ian G. Macdonald: Works of Art. https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.01704

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

Rooted Spider Embeddings and the Erd\H os-Sós Conjecture

Under a local density condition, we prove that every $k$-edge spider embeds at any prescribed center of degree at least $k$, unless all legs are even and the host graph has one of two specified structures. These structures contain complete bipartite subgraphs with prescribed neighborhoods. The proof uses path rerouting and three exchange lemmas that describe equality in neighborhood estimates. As a consequence, we recover the Erd\H os-Sós bound for all spiders.

math.CO

Random algebraic constructions for extremal and Ramsey problems

Building on Bukh's random algebraic method, we develop a framework for extremal and Ramsey problems involving apex hypergraphs. If $\mathcal{H}$ is a $(d-1)$-partite $(d-1)$-uniform hypergraph with $S$ edges and $\mathcal{H}(t)$ is obtained by adjoining $t$ vertices with common link $\mathcal{H}$, we prove that $\operatorname{ex}(n,\mathcal{H}(t))=Ω_{\mathcal{H}}(n^{d-1/S})$ for $t>9^{S+o_d(S)}$, which is best possible when $\mathcal{H}$ is Sidorenko. Our framework also yields sharper sided Zarankiewicz bounds, quantitative generalized Tur'an bounds, and diagonal multicolor Ramsey constructions. For each fixed $s\geq 2$ and $K\geq 3$, we further prove $\operatorname{r}_K(\mathcal K_{s,t};\mathcal K_n) =Θ_{s,t,K}((n/\log n)^s)$ for $t>9^{s+o(s)}$, extending a theorem of Alon and Rödl from factorial to exponential $t$. The main ingredients are interpolation on $m$-independent varieties, control of the dependencies imposed by symmetry, and linear spaces of forms whose nonzero members remain regular after a common algebraic slice. Limited edge independence then gives the spectral and local-density estimates needed for the Ramsey application.

math.CO

A note on vertex-critical induced subgraphs of shift graphs

Shift graphs, introduced by Erdős and Hajnal in 1964, form one of the simplest known non-recursive constructions of triangle-free graphs with arbitrarily large chromatic number. In this note, we identify a surprising property: for each integer $k \geq 1$, the smallest $k$-chromatic shift graph contains a \emph{unique} induced $k$-vertex-critical subgraph. We give an explicit description of this subgraph and prove its uniqueness. This provides a new family of vertex-critical triangle-free graphs of arbitrarily large chromatic number.

math.CO