## Seminars and Colloquia by Series

### A proof of the Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture and related problems

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, December 14, 2021 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
ONLINE
Speaker
Abhishek MethukuUniversity of Birmingham

Please Note: Note the unusual time!

The famous Erdős–Faber–Lovász conjecture (posed in 1972) states that the chromatic index of any linear hypergraph on n vertices is at most n. In this talk, I will briefly sketch a proof of this conjecture for every large n. If time permits, I will also talk about our solution to a problem of Erdős from 1977 about chromatic index of hypergraphs with bounded codegree. Joint work with D. Kang, T. Kelly, D.Kuhn and D. Osthus.

### Density and graph edge coloring

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, December 7, 2021 - 15:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Guangming JingAugusta University

Given a multigraph $G=(V,E)$, the chromatic index $\chi'(G)$ is the minimum number of colors needed to color the edges of $G$ such that no two incident edges receive the same color. Let $\Delta(G)$ be the maximum degree of $G$ and let  $\Gamma(G):=\max \big\{\frac{2|E(U)|}{|U|-1}:\,\, U \subseteq V, \,\, |U|\ge 3 \hskip 2mm {\rm and \hskip 2mm odd} \big\}$. $\Gamma(G)$ is called the density of $G$. Clearly, the density is a lower bound for the chromatic index $\chi'(G)$. Moreover, this value can be computed in polynomial time. Goldberg and Seymour in the 1970s conjectured that $\chi'(G)=\lceil\Gamma(G)\rceil$ for any multigraph $G$ with $\chi'(G)\geq\Delta(G)+2$, known as the Goldberg-Seymour conjecture. In this talk we will discuss this conjecture and some related open problems. This is joint work with Guantao Chen and Wenan Zang.

### Constructions in combinatorics via neural networks

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, November 30, 2021 - 12:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
ONLINE
Speaker

Please Note: Note the unusual time!

Recently, significant progress has been made in the area of machine learning algorithms, and they have quickly become some of the most exciting tools in a scientist’s toolbox. In particular, recent advances in the field of reinforcement learning have led computers to reach superhuman level play in Atari games and Go, purely through self-play. In this talk I will give a basic introduction to neural networks and reinforcement learning algorithms. I will also indicate how these methods can be adapted to the "game" of trying to find a counterexample to a mathematical conjecture, and show some examples where this approach was successful.

### Strong 4-colourings of graphs

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, November 23, 2021 - 15:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
ONLINE
Speaker
Jessica McDonaldAuburn University

In this talk we’ll discuss strong 4-colourings of graphs and prove two new cases of the Strong Colouring Conjecture. Let H be a graph with maximum degree at most 2, and let G be obtained from H by gluing in vertex-disjoint copies of K_4. We’ll show that if H contains at most one odd cycle of length exceeding 3, or if H contains at most 3 triangles, then G is 4-colourable. This is joint work with Greg Puleo.

### Irregular $\mathbf{d_n}$-Process is distinguishable from Uniform Random $\mathbf{d_n}$-graph

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, November 16, 2021 - 15:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Erlang SuryaGeorgia Institute of Technology

For a graphic degree sequence $\mathbf{d_n}= (d_1 , . . . , d_n)$ of graphs with vertices $v_1 , . . . , v_n$, $\mathbf{d_n}$-process is the random graph process that inserts one edge at a time at random with the restriction that the degree of $v_i$ is at most $d_i$ . In 1999, N. Wormald asked whether the final graph of random $\mathbf{d_n}$-process is "similar" to the uniform random graph with degree sequence $\mathbf{d_n}$ when $\mathbf{d_n}=(d,\dots, d)$. We answer this question for the $\mathbf{d_n}$-process when the degree sequence $\mathbf{d_n}$ that is not close to being regular. We used the method of switching for stochastic processes; this allows us to track the edge statistics of the $\mathbf{d_n}$-process. Joint work with Mike Molloy and Lutz Warnke.

### Counting paths, cycles, and other subgraphs in planar graphs

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, November 9, 2021 - 15:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Ryan MartinIowa State University

For a planar graph $H$, let ${\bf N}_{\mathcal P}(n,H)$ denote the maximum number of copies of $H$ in an $n$-vertex planar graph. The case where $H$ is the path on $3$ vertices, $H=P_3$, was established by Alon and Caro. The case of $H=P_4$ was determined, also exactly, by Gy\H{o}ri, Paulos, Salia, Tompkins, and Zamora. In this talk, we will give the asymptotic values for $H$ equal to $P_5$ and $P_7$ as well as the cycles $C_6$, $C_8$, $C_{10}$ and $C_{12}$ and discuss the general approach which can be used to compute the asymptotic value for many other graphs $H$. This is joint work with Debarun Ghosh, Ervin Győri, Addisu Paulos, Nika Salia, Chuanqi Xiao, and Oscar Zamora and also joint work with Chris Cox.

### Line transversals in families of connected sets in the plane

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, November 2, 2021 - 15:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
ONLINE
Speaker
Shira ZerbibIowa State University

We prove that if a family of compact connected sets in the plane has the property that every three members of it are intersected by a line, then there are three lines intersecting all the sets in the family. This answers a question of Eckhoff from 1993, who proved that under the same condition there are four lines intersecting all the sets. We also prove a colorful version of this result under weakened conditions on the sets, improving results of Holmsen from 2013. Our proofs use the topological KKM theorem. Joint with Daniel McGinnis.

### Geometric bijections between subgraphs and orientations of a graph

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, October 26, 2021 - 15:45 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Zoom
Speaker
Changxin DingBrandeis University

Let $G$ be a connected finite graph. Backman, Baker, and Yuen have constructed a family of explicit and easy-to-describe bijections $g_{\sigma,\sigma^*}$ between spanning trees of $G$ and $(\sigma,\sigma^*)$-compatible orientations, where the $(\sigma,\sigma^*)$-compatible orientations are the representatives of equivalence classes of orientations up to cycle-cocycle reversal which are determined by a cycle signature $\sigma$ and a cocycle signature $\sigma^*$. Their proof makes use of zonotopal subdivisions and the bijections $g_{\sigma,\sigma^*}$ are called geometric bijections. Recently we have extended the geometric bijections to  subgraph-orientation correspondences. In this talk, I will introduce the bijections and the geometry behind them.

### Counting colorings of triangle-free graphs

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, October 19, 2021 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Ruijia CaoGeorgia Institute of Technology

Please Note: Note the unusual time!

In this talk, we will discuss the main results of our paper, Counting Colorings of Triangle-Free Graphs, in which we prove the Johansson-Molloy theorem for the upper bound on the chromatic number of a triangle free graph using a novel counting approach developed by Matthieu Rosenfeld, and also extend this result to obtain a lower bound on the number of proper q-colorings for a triangle free graph.  The talk will go over the history of the problem, an outline of our approach, and a high-level sketch of the main proofs. This is joint work with Anton Bernshteyn, Tyler Brazelton, and Akum Kang.

### Turán numbers of some complete degenerate hypergraphs

Series
Graph Theory Seminar
Time
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 11:00 for 1 hour (actually 50 minutes)
Location
Skiles 005
Speaker
Xiaofan YuanGeorgia Institute of Technology

Please Note: Note the unusual time!

Let $K^{(r)}_{s_1,s_2,\cdots,s_r}$ be the complete $r$-partite $r$-uniform hypergraph and $ex(n, K^{(r)}_{s_1,s_2,\cdots,s_r})$ be the maximum number of edges in any $n$-vertex $K^{(r)}_{s_1,s_2,\cdots,s_r}$-free $r$-uniform hypergraph. It is well-known in the graph case that $ex(n,K_{s,t})=\Theta(n^{2-1/s})$ when $t$ is sufficiently larger than $s$. We generalize the above to hypergraphs by showing that if $s_r$ is sufficiently larger than $s_1,s_2,\cdots,s_{r-1}$ then $$ex(n, K^{(r)}_{s_1,s_2,\cdots,s_r})=\Theta\left(n^{r-\frac{1}{s_1s_2\cdots s_{r-1}}}\right).$$ This is joint work with Jie Ma and Mingwei Zhang.