We consider two graph colouring problems in which edges at distance at most t are given distinct colours, for some fixed positive integer t. We obtain two upper bounds for the distance-t chromatic index, the least number of colours necessary for such a colouring. One is a bound of (2-ε)Δt for graphs of maximum degree at most Δ, where ε is some absolute positive constant independent of t. The other is a bound of O(Δt/log Δ) (as Δ → ∞) for graphs of maximum degree at most Δ and girth at least 2t+1. The first bound is an analogue of Molloy and Reed's bound on the strong chromatic index. The second bound is tight up to a constant multiplicative factor, as certified by a class of graphs of girth at least g, for every fixed g ≥ 3, of arbitrarily large maximum degree Δ, with distance-t chromatic index at least Ω(Δt/log Δ).

We study the diameter of a family of random graphs on the torus that can be used to model wireless networks. In the random connection model two points x and y are connected with probability g(y−x), where g is a given function. We prove that the diameter of the graph is bounded by a constant, which depends only on ‖g‖1, with high probability as the number of vertices in the graph tends to infinity.

We consider irreducible Markov chains on a finite state space. We show that the mixing time of any such chain is equivalent to the maximum, over initial states x and moving large sets (As)s, of the hitting time of (As)s starting from x. We prove that in the case of the d-dimensional torus the maximum hitting time of moving targets is equal to the maximum hitting time of stationary targets. Nevertheless, we construct a transitive graph where these two quantities are not equal, resolving an open question of Aldous and Fill on a ‘cat and mouse’ game.

Given an edge colouring of a graph with a set of m colours, we say that the graph is exactly m-coloured if each of the colours is used. We consider edge colourings of the complete graph on $\mathbb{N}$ with infinitely many colours and show that either one can find an exactly m-coloured complete subgraph for every natural number m or there exists an infinite subset X ⊂ $\mathbb{N}$ coloured in one of two canonical ways: either the colouring is injective on X or there exists a distinguished vertex v in X such that X\{v} is 1-coloured and each edge between v and X\{v} has a distinct colour (all different to the colour used on X\{v}). This answers a question posed by Stacey and Weidl in 1999. The techniques that we develop also enable us to resolve some further questions about finding exactly m-coloured complete subgraphs in colourings with finitely many colours.

This paper concerns a relatively new combinatorial structure called staircase tableaux. They were introduced in the context of the asymmetric exclusion process and Askey–Wilson polynomials; however, their purely combinatorial properties have gained considerable interest in the past few years.

In this paper we further study combinatorial properties of staircase tableaux. We consider a general model of random staircase tableaux in which symbols (Greek letters) that appear in staircase tableaux may have arbitrary positive weights. (We consider only the case with the parameters u = q = 1.) Under this general model we derive a number of results. Some of our results concern the limiting laws for the number of appearances of symbols in a random staircase tableaux. They generalize and subsume earlier results that were obtained for specific values of the weights.

One advantage of our generality is that we may let the weights approach extreme values of zero or infinity, which covers further special cases appearing earlier in the literature. Furthermore, our generality allows us to analyse the structure of random staircase tableaux, and we obtain several results in this direction.

One of the tools we use is the generating functions of the parameters of interest. This leads us to a two-parameter family of polynomials, generalizing the classical Eulerian polynomials.

We also briefly discuss the relation of staircase tableaux to the asymmetric exclusion process, to other recently introduced types of tableaux, and to an urn model studied by a number of researchers, including Philippe Flajolet.

We define a sequence of tree-indexed processes closely related to the operation of the QuickSelect search algorithm (also known as Find) for all the various values of n (the number of input keys) and m (the rank of the desired order statistic among the keys). As a ‘master theorem’ we establish convergence of these processes in a certain Banach space, from which known distributional convergence results as n → ∞ about

1. (1) the number of key comparisons required

   are easily recovered

   1. (a) when m/n → α ∈ [0, 1], and

   2. (b) in the worst case over the choice of m.

   From the master theorem it is also easy, for distributional convergence of

2. (2) the number of symbol comparisons required,

Our techniques allow us to unify the treatment of cases (1) and (2) and indeed to consider many other cost functions as well. Further, all our results provide a stronger mode of convergence (namely, convergence in Lp or almost surely) than convergence in distribution. Extensions to MultipleQuickSelect are discussed briefly.

We propose a counting dimension for subsets of $\mathbb{Z}$ and prove that, under certain conditions on E,F ⊂ $\mathbb{Z}$, for Lebesgue almost every λ ∈ $\mathbb{R}$ the counting dimension of E + ⌊λF⌋ is at least the minimum between 1 and the sum of the counting dimensions of E and F. Furthermore, if the sum of the counting dimensions of E and F is larger than 1, then E + ⌊λF⌋ has positive upper Banach density for Lebesgue almost every λ ∈ $\mathbb{R}$. The result has direct consequences when E,F are arithmetic sets, e.g., the integer values of a polynomial with integer coefficients.

We propose an approach to analysing the asymptotic behaviour of Pólya urns based on the contraction method. For this, a new combinatorial discrete-time embedding of the evolution of the urn into random rooted trees is developed. A decomposition of these trees leads to a system of recursive distributional equations which capture the distributions of the numbers of balls of each colour. Ideas from the contraction method are used to study such systems of recursive distributional equations asymptotically. We apply our approach to a couple of concrete Pólya urns that lead to limit laws with normal limit distributions, with non-normal limit distributions and with asymptotic periodic distributional behaviour.

We resolve a conjecture proposed by D.E. Knuth concerning a recurrence arising in the satisfiability problem. Knuth's recurrence resembles recurrences arising in the analysis of tries, in particular PATRICIA tries, and asymmetric leader election. We solve Knuth's recurrence exactly and asymptotically, using analytic techniques such as the Mellin transform and analytic depoissonization.

Let G be a string graph (an intersection graph of continuous arcs in the plane) with m edges. Fox and Pach proved that G has a separator consisting of $O(m^{3/4}\sqrt{\log m})$ vertices, and they conjectured that the bound of $O(\sqrt m)$ actually holds. We obtain separators with $O(\sqrt m \,\log m)$ vertices.

Formal grammars such as L-systems have long been used to describe plant growth dynamics. In this article, they are used for a new purpose. The aim is to build a symbolic method that enables the computation of the stochastic distribution associated with the number of complex structures in plants whose organogenesis is driven by a multitype branching process. For that purpose, a new combinatorial framework is set in which plant structure is coded by a Dyck word. Moreover, organogenesis is represented by stochastic F0L-systems. In doing so, the problem is equivalent to determining the distribution of patterns in random words generated by a stochastic F0L-system. This method finds interesting applications in the parameter identification of stochastic models of plant development.

Let {X1 , . . , Xn} be a collection of binary-valued random variables and let f : {0, 1}n → $\mathbb{R}$ be a Lipschitz function. Under a negative dependence hypothesis known as the strong Rayleigh condition, we show that f − ${\mathbb E}$f satisfies a concentration inequality. The class of strong Rayleigh measures includes determinantal measures, weighted uniform matroids and exclusion measures; some familiar examples from these classes are generalized negative binomials and spanning tree measures. For instance, any Lipschitz-1 function of the edges of a uniform spanning tree on vertex set V (e.g., the number of leaves) satisfies the Gaussian concentration inequality

\begin{linenomath}$${{\mathbb P} (f - {\mathbb E} f \geq a) \leq \exp \biggl( - \frac{a^2}{8 \, |V|} \biggr) }.$$\end{linenomath}