Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

In this talk, we use semidefinite programming and representation theory to compute new lower bounds on the crossing number of the complete bipartite graph $K_{m,n}$, extending a method from de Klerk et al. [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 20 (2006), 189--202] and the subsequent reduction by De Klerk, Pasechnik and Schrijver [Math. Prog. Ser. A and B, 109 (2007) 613--624].
 
We exploit the full symmetry of the problem by developing a block-diagonalization of the underlying matrix algebra and use it to improve bounds on several concrete instances. Our results imply that $\mathrm{cr}(K_{10,n}) \geq  4.87057 n^2 - 10n$, $\mathrm{cr}(K_{11,n}) \geq 5.99939 n^2-12.5n$, $\mathrm{cr}(K_{12,n}) \geq 7.25579 n^2 - 15n$, $\mathrm{cr}(K_{13,n}) \geq 8.65675 n^2-18n$ for all~$n$. The latter three bounds are computed using a new relaxation of the original semidefinite programming bound, by only requiring one small matrix block to be positive semidefinite. Our lower bound on $K_{13,n}$ implies that for each fixed $m \geq 13$, $\lim_{n \to \infty} \text{cr}(K_{m,n})/Z(m,n) \geq 0.8878 m/(m-1)$. Here $Z(m,n)$ is the Zarankiewicz number: the conjectured crossing number of $K_{m,n}$.
 
This talk is based on joint work with Sven Polak.

We will start sketching the proof of the quantitative unique continuation principle used in Ding-Smart from their key lemma. We will discuss the proof of a growth lemma from our key lemma, which (roughly) says that with high probability, eigenfunctions which are small on a high proportion of sites do not grow too rapidly.

Whitney showed that every planar triangulation without separating triangles is Hamiltonian. This result was extended to all $4$-connected planar graphs by Tutte. Hakimi, Schmeichel, and Thomassen showed the first lower bound $n/ \log _2 n$ for the number of Hamiltonian cycles in every $n$-vertex $4$-connected planar triangulation and in the same paper, they conjectured that this number is at least $2(n-2)(n-4)$, with equality if and only if $G$ is a double wheel. We show that every $4$-connected planar triangulation on $n$ vertices has $\Omega(n^2)$ Hamiltonian cycles. Moreover, we show that if $G$ is a $4$-connected planar triangulation on $n$ vertices and the distance between any two vertices of degree $4$ in $G$ is at least $3$, then $G$ has $2^{\Omega(n^{1/4})}$ Hamiltonian cycles.

 In first-passage percolation (FPP), we let $\tau_v$ be i.i.d. nonnegative weights on the vertices of a graph and study the weight of the minimal path between distant vertices. If $F$ is the distribution function of $\tau_v$, there are different regimes: if $F(0)$ is small, this weight typically grows like a linear function of the distance, and when $F(0)$ is large, the weight is typically of order one. In between these is the critical regime in which the weight can diverge but does so sublinearly. This talk will consider a dynamical version of critical FPP on the triangular lattice where vertices resample their weights according to independent rate-one Poisson processes. We will discuss results that show that if the sum of $F^{-1}(1/2+1/2^k)$ diverges, then a.s. there are exceptional times at which the weight grows atypically, but if the sum of $k^{7/8} F^{-1}(1/2+1/2^k)$ converges, then a.s. there are no such times. Furthermore, in the former case, we compute the Hausdorff and Minkowski dimensions of the exceptional set and show that they can be but need not be equal. Then we will consider what the model looks like when the weight of a long path is unusually small by considering an analogous construction to Kesten's incipient infinite cluster in the FPP setting. This is joint work with M. Damron, J. Hanson, W.-K. Lam.

Finally, we discuss a result related to work of Damron-Lam-Wang ('16) that the growth of the passage time to distance $n$ ($\mathbb{E}T(0,\partial B(n))$, where $B(n) = [-n,n]^2$)  has the same order (up to a constant factor) as the sequence $\mathbb{E}T^{\text{inv}}(0,\partial B(n))$. This second passage time is the minimal total weight of any path from 0 to $\partial B(n)$ that resides in a certain embedded invasion percolation cluster. We discuss a result that claims this constant factor cannot be taken to be 1. This result implies that the time constant for the model is different than that for the related invasion model, and that geodesics in the two models have different structures. This was joint work with M. Damron.