Tilings and other combinatorial results

In this dissertation we treat three tiling problems and three problems in combinatorial geometry, extremal graph theory and sparse Ramsey theory. We first consider tilings of \mathbb{Z}ⁿ. In this setting a tile $T$ is just a finite subset of \mathbb{Z}ⁿ. We say that $T$ tiles \mathbb{Z}ⁿ if the latter set admits a partition into isometric copies of $T$. Chalcraft observed that there exist $T$ that do not tile \mathbb{Z}ⁿ but tile \mathbb{Z}^d for some $d>n$. He conjectured that such $d$ exists for any given tile. We prove this conjecture in Chapter 2. In Chapter 3 we prove a conjecture of Lonc, stating that for any poset $P$ of size a power of $2$, if $P$ has a greatest and a least element, then there is a positive integer $k$ such that [2]^k can be partitioned into copies of $P$. The third tiling problem is about vertex-partitions of the hypercube graph Q_n. Offner asked: if $G$ is a subgraph of Q_n such $|G|$ is a power of $2$, must V(Q_d), for some $d$, admit a partition into isomorphic copies of $G$? In Chapter 4 we answer this question in the affirmative. We follow up with a question in combinatorial geometry. A line in a planar set $P$ is a maximal collinear subset of $P$. P\'or and Wood considered colourings of finite $P$ without large lines with a bounded number of colours. In particular, they examined whether monochromatic lines always appear in such colourings provided that $|P|$ is large. They conjectured that for all $k,l \ge 2$ there exists an $n \ge 2$ such that if $|P| \ge n$ and $P$ does not contain a line of cardinality larger than $l$, then every colouring of $P$ with $k$ colours produces a monochromatic line. In Chapter 5 we construct arbitrarily large counterexamples for the case $k=l=3$. We follow up with a problem in extremal graph theory. For any graph, we say that a given edge is triangular if it forms a triangle with two other edges. How few triangular edges can there be in a graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges? For sufficiently large $n$ we prove a conjecture of F\"uredi and Maleki that gives an exact formula for this minimum. This proof is given in Chapter 6. Finally, Chapter 7 is concerned with degrees of vertices in directed hypergraphs. One way to prescribe an orientation to an $r$-uniform graph $H$ is to assign for each of its edges one of the $r!$ possible orderings of its elements. Then, for any $p$-set of vertices $A$ and any $p$-set of indices $I \subset [r]$, we define the $I$-degree of $A$ to be the number of edges containing vertices $A$ in precisely the positions labelled by $I$. Caro and Hansberg were interested in determining whether a given $r$-uniform hypergraph admits an orientation where every set of $p$ vertices has some $I$-degree equal to $0$. They conjectured that a certain Hall-type condition is sufficient. We show that this is true for $r$ large, but false in general.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Gruslys, Vytautas

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Leader, Imre Bennett

• Combinatorics
• Tilings
• Combinatorial Geometry
• Extremal Graph Theory
• Ramsey Theory

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/7de35f40-10ab-4bff-a5da-a9642aea2ef5/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.18291

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/271311