Algebraic Combinatorics

Written by one of the foremost experts in the field, Algebraic Combinatorics is a unique undergraduate textbook that will prepare the next generation of pure and applied mathematicians. The combination of the author’s extensive knowledge of combinatorics and classical and practical tools from algebra will inspire motivated students to delve deeply into the fascinating interplay between algebra and combinatorics. Readers will be able to apply their newfound knowledge to mathematical, engineering, and business models. The text is primarily intended for use in a one-semester advanced undergraduate course in algebraic combinatorics, enumerative combinatorics, or graph theory. Prerequisites include a basic knowledge of linear algebra over a field, existence of finite fields, and group theory. The topics in each chapter build on one another and include extensive problem sets as well as hints to selected exercises. Key topics include walks on graphs, cubes and the Radon transform, the Matrix–Tree Theorem, and the Sperner property. There are also three appendices on purely enumerative aspects of combinatorics related to the chapter material: the RSK algorithm, plane partitions, and the enumeration of labeled trees. Richard Stanley is currently professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Stanley has received several awards including the George Polya Prize in applied combinatorics, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Leroy P. Steele Prize for mathematical exposition. Also by the author: Combinatorics and Commutative Algebra, Second Edition, © Birkhauser.

This graduate level text is distinguished both by the range of topics and the novelty of the material it treats--more than half of the material in it has previously only appeared in research papers. The first half of this book introduces the characteristic and matchings polynomials of a graph. It is instructive to consider these polynomials together because they have a number of properties in common. The matchings polynomial has links with a number of problems in combinatorial enumeration, particularly some of the current work on the combinatorics of orthogonal polynomials. This connection is discussed at some length, and is also in part the stimulus for the inclusion of chapters on orthogonal polynomials and formal power series. Many of the properties of orthogonal polynomials are derived from properties of characteristic polynomials. The second half of the book introduces the theory of polynomial spaces, which provide easy access to a number of important results in design theory, coding theory and the theory of association schemes. This book should be of interest to second year graduate text/reference in mathematics.

Written for graduate students in mathematics or non-specialist mathematicians who wish to learn the basics about some of the most important current research in the field, this book provides an intensive, yet accessible, introduction to the subject of algebraic combinatorics. After recalling basic notions of combinatorics, representation theory, and

This edited volume features a curated selection of research in algebraic combinatorics that explores the boundaries of current knowledge in the field. Focusing on topics experiencing broad interest and rapid growth, invited contributors offer survey articles on representation theory, symmetric functions, invariant theory, and the combinatorics of Young tableaux. The volume also addresses subjects at the intersection of algebra, combinatorics, and geometry, including the study of polytopes, lattice points, hyperplane arrangements, crystal graphs, and Grassmannians. All surveys are written at an introductory level that emphasizes recent developments and open problems. An interactive tutorial on Schubert Calculus emphasizes the geometric and topological aspects of the topic and is suitable for combinatorialists as well as geometrically minded researchers seeking to gain familiarity with relevant combinatorial tools. Featured authors include prominent women in the field known for their exceptional writing of deep mathematics in an accessible manner. Each article in this volume was reviewed independently by two referees. The volume is suitable for graduate students and researchers interested in algebraic combinatorics.

This series is devoted to the publication of high-level monographs which cover the whole spectrum of current discrete mathematics and its applications in various fields. One of its main objectives is to make available to the professional community expositions of results and foundations of methods that play an important role in both the theory and applications of discrete mathematics. Contributions which are on the borderline of discrete mathematics and related fields and which stimulate further research at the crossroads of these areas are particularly welcome.

This volume consolidates selected articles from the 2016 Apprenticeship Program at the Fields Institute, part of the larger program on Combinatorial Algebraic Geometry that ran from July through December of 2016. Written primarily by junior mathematicians, the articles cover a range of topics in combinatorial algebraic geometry including curves, surfaces, Grassmannians, convexity, abelian varieties, and moduli spaces. This book bridges the gap between graduate courses and cutting-edge research by connecting historical sources, computation, explicit examples, and new results.

Proceedings of a high-level conference on discrete mathematics, focusing on group actions in the areas of pure mathematics, applied mathematics, computer science, physics, and chemistry. A useful tool for researchers and graduate students in discrete mathematics and theoretical computer science.

This volume contains the proceedings of the AMS Special Session on Discrete Geometry and Algebraic Combinatorics held on January 11, 2013, in San Diego, California. The collection of articles in this volume is devoted to packings of metric spaces and related questions, and contains new results as well as surveys of some areas of discrete geometry. This volume consists of papers on combinatorics of transportation polytopes, including results on the diameter of graphs of such polytopes; the generalized Steiner problem and related topics of the minimal fillings theory; a survey of distance graphs and graphs of diameters, and a group of papers on applications of algebraic combinatorics to packings of metric spaces including sphere packings and topics in coding theory. In particular, this volume presents a new approach to duality in sphere packing based on the Poisson summation formula, applications of semidefinite programming to spherical codes and equiangular lines, new results in list decoding of a family of algebraic codes, and constructions of bent and semi-bent functions.