Discrete Mathematics and Combinatorics Commons^™

Decomposing The Blocks Of A Steiner Triple System Of Order 4v-3 Into Partial Parallel Classes Of Size V-1, Leah C. Tollefson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In this report we present a summary and our new results on finding partial parallel classes of uniform size of Steiner triple systems, STS(v). We show several results for STS(4v - 3), where v = 3 mod 12 and v = 9 mod 12. In Chapter 1 we provide background knowledge and introduce the problem. In Chapter 2 we discuss some important known results to the problem, introduce the needed ingredients, and explain the methodology of the construction. Finally, in Chapter 3, we conclude with a summary and discuss possibilities for future work.

Modeling The Progress And Retention Of International Students Using Markov Chains, Lucas Gagne

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

International students are a small and diverse student population present in any sizable American university. One of the greatest obstacles in their path is the acquisition of the English language. English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs, such as the English Language Institute (ELI) at the University of Akron, attempt to address this problem. By studying how this student population progresses in their academic studies, EAP programs and their associated universities can make well-informed decisions on how best to serve their English Language Learners. One way to study International students is through the use of a Markov model based on university …

Multidimensional Mod Planes, Florentin Smarandache, W.B. Vasantha Kandasamy, K. Ilanthenral

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book authors name the interval [0, m); 2 ≤ m ≤ ∞ as mod interval. We have studied several properties about them but only here on wards in this book and forthcoming books the interval [0, m) will be termed as the mod real interval, [0, m)I as mod neutrosophic interval, [0,m)g; g2 = 0 as mod dual number interval, [0, m)h; h2 = h as mod special dual like number interval and [0, m)k, k2 = (m − 1) k as mod special quasi dual number interval. However there is only one real interval (∞, ∞) but …

Neutrosophic Graphs: A New Dimension To Graph Theory, Florentin Smarandache, Wb. Vasantha Kandasamy, K. Ilanthenral

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this book authors for the first time have made a through study of neutrosophic graphs. This study reveals that these neutrosophic graphs give a new dimension to graph theory. The important feature of this book is it contains over 200 neutrosophic graphs to provide better understanding of this concepts. Further these graphs happen to behave in a unique way inmost cases, for even the edge colouring problem is different from the classical one. Several directions and dimensions in graph theory are obtained from this study. Finally certainly these new notions of neutrosophic graphs in general and in particular the …

Some Properties Of The Exchange Operator With Respect To Structured Matrices Defined By Indefinite Scalar Product Spaces, Hanz Martin C. Cheng, Roden Jason David

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The properties of the exchange operator on some types of matrices are explored in this paper. In particular, the properties of exc(A,p,q), where A is a given structured matrix of size (p+q)Ã(p+q) and exc : M ÃNÃN â M is the exchange operator are studied. This paper is a generalization of one of the results in [N.J. Higham. J-orthogonal matrices: Properties and generation. SIAM Review, 45:504â519, 2003.].

Inner Product Spaces And Krein Spaces In The Quaternionic Setting, Daniel Alpay, Fabrizio Colombo, Irene Sabadini

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this paper we provide a study of quaternionic inner product spaces. This includes ortho-complemented subspaces, fundamental decompositions as well as a number of results of topological nature. Our main purpose is to show that a closed uniformly positive subspace in a quaternionic Krein space is ortho-complemented, and this leads to our choice of the results presented in the paper.

Second Hamiltonian Cycles In Claw-Free Graphs, Hossein Esfandiari, Colton Magnant, Pouria Salehi Nowbandegani, Shirdareh Haghighi

Theory & Applications of Graphs

Sheehan conjectured in 1975 that every Hamiltonian regular simple graph of even degree at least four contains a second Hamiltonian cycle. We prove that most claw-free Hamiltonian graphs with minimum degree at least 3 have a second Hamiltonian cycle and describe the structure of those graphs not covered by our result. By this result, we show that Sheehan’s conjecture holds for claw-free graphs whose order is not divisible by 6. In addition, we believe that the structure that we introduce can be useful for further studies on claw-free graphs.

Bounds For The Zero Forcing Number Of Graphs With Large Girth, Randy Davila, Franklin Kenter

Theory & Applications of Graphs

The zero-forcing number, Ζ(G) is an upper bound for the maximum nullity of all symmetric matrices with a sparsity pattern described by the graph. A simple lower bound is δ ≤ Ζ(G) where δ is the minimum degree. An improvement of this bound is provided in the case that G has girth of at least 5. In particular, it is shown that 2δ − 2 ≤ Ζ(G) for graphs with girth of at least 5; this can be further improved when G has a small cut set. Lastly, a conjecture is made regarding a lower bound for Ζ(G) as a …

Scheduling N Burgers For A K-Burger Grill: Chromatic Numbers With Restrictions, Peter Johnson, Xiaoya Zha

Theory & Applications of Graphs

The chromatic number has a well-known interpretation in the area of scheduling. If the vertices of a finite, simple graph are committees, and adjacency of two committees indicates that they must never be in session simultaneously, then the chromatic number of the graph is the smallest number of hours during which the committees/vertices of the graph may all have properly scheduled meetings of one continuous hour each. Slivnik [3] showed that the fractional chromatic number can be similarly characterized. In that characterization, the meetings are allowed to be broken into a finite number of disjoint intervals. Here we consider chromatic …

Path-Tables Of Trees: A Survey And Some New Results, Kevin Asciak

Theory & Applications of Graphs

The (vertex) path-table of a tree Τ contains quantitative information about the paths in Τ. The entry (i,j) of this table gives the number of paths of length j passing through vertex ^vi. The path-table is a slight variation of the notion of path layer matrix. In this survey we review some work done on the vertex path-table of a tree and also introduce the edge path-table. We show that in general, any type of path-table of a tree Τ does not determine Τ uniquely. We shall show that in trees, the number of paths passing through …

Connection And Separation In Hypergraphs, Mohammad A. Bahmanian, Mateja Sajna

Theory & Applications of Graphs

In this paper we study various fundamental connectivity properties of hypergraphs from a graph-theoretic perspective, with the emphasis on cut edges, cut vertices, and blocks. We prove a number of new results involving these concepts. In particular, we describe the exact relationship between the block decomposition of a hypergraph and the block decomposition of its incidence graph.

Community Detection Detailed For Online Social Networks, Christopher J. Hogan

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Ever since the internet became publicly available it has allowed users to interact with each other across virtual networks. With this large amounts of data being collected the clustering of this information has become an even more powerful tool for recognize patterns and trends in a network. In this research we look build a model for Community Detection in these online social networks. We combine the ideas from both discrete mathematics and sociology, to build an algorithm with the specific intent on discovering communities that exist in an online social network. We present many of the sociology theories behind the …

Quaternionic Hardy Spaces In The Open Unit Ball And Half Space And Blaschke Products, Daniel Alpay, Fabrizio Colombo, Irene Sabadini

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

The Hardy spaces H2(B) and H2(H+), where B and H+ denote, respectively, the open unit ball of the quaternions and the half space of quaternions with positive real part, as well as Blaschke products, have been intensively studied in a series of papers where they are used as a tool to prove other results in Schur analysis. This paper gives an overview on the topic, collecting the various results available.

Wiener-Chaos Approach To Optimal Prediction, Daniel Alpay, Alon Kipnis

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

In this work we combine Wiener chaos expansion approach to study the dynamics of a stochastic system with the classical problem of the prediction of a Gaussian process based on part of its sample path. This is done by considering special bases for the Gaussian space G generated by the process, which allows us to obtain an orthogonal basis for the Fock space of G such that each basis element is either measurable or independent with respect to the given samples. This allows us to easily derive the chaos expansion of a random variable conditioned on part of the sample …

Extremal Theorems For Degree Sequence Packing And The Two-Color Discrete Tomography Problem, Jennifer Diemunsch, Michael Ferrara, Sogol Jahanbekam, James Shook

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lucky Choice Number Of Planar Graphs With Given Girth, Axel Brandt, Jennifer Diemunsch, Sogol Jahanbekam

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

I Don't Play Chess: A Study Of Chess Piece Generating Polynomials, Stephen R. Skoch

Senior Independent Study Theses

This independent study examines counting problems of non-attacking rook, and non-attacking bishop placements. We examine boards for rook and bishop placement with restricted positions and varied dimensions. In this investigation, we discuss the general formula of a generating function for unrestricted, square bishop boards that relies on the Stirling numbers of the second kind. We discuss the maximum number of bishops we can place on a rectangular board, as well as a brief investigation of non-attacking rook placements on three-dimensional boards, drawing a connection to latin squares.

Domination Numbers Of Semi-Strong Products Of Graphs, Stephen R. Cheney

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the domination number of the semi-strong product of two graphs G and H where both G and H are simple and connected graphs. The product has an edge set that is the union of the edge set of the direct product of G and H together with the cardinality of V(H), copies of G. Unlike the other more common products (Cartesian, direct and strong), the semi-strong product is neither commutative nor associative.

The semi-strong product is not supermultiplicative, so it does not satisfy a Vizing like conjecture. It is also not submultiplicative so it shares these two …

Modeling Human Gaming Playing Behavior And Reward/Penalty Mechanism Using Discrete Event Simulation (Des), Christina M. Frederick, Michael Fitzgerald, Dahai Liu, Yolanda Ortiz, Christopher Via, Shawn Doherty, Jason P. Kring

Publications

Humans are remarkably complex and unpredictable; however, while predicting human behavior can be problematic, there are methods such as modeling and simulation that can be used to predict probable futures of human decisions. The present study analyzes the possibility of replacing human subjects with data resulting from pure models. Decisions made by college students in a multi-level mystery-solving game under 3 different gaming conditions are compared with the data collected from a predictive sequential Markov-Decision Process model. In addition, differences in participants’ data influenced by the three different conditions (additive, subtractive, control) were analyzed. The test results strongly suggest that …

Graphs Of Classroom Networks, Rebecca Holliday

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In this work, we use the Havel-Hakimi algorithm to visualize data collected from students to investigate classroom networks. The Havel-Hakimi algorithm uses a recursive method to create a simple graph from a graphical degree sequence. In this case, the degree sequence is a representation of the students in a classroom, and we use the number of peers with whom a student studied or collaborated to determine the degree of each. We expand upon the Havel-Hakimi algorithm by coding a program in MATLAB that generates random graphs with the same degree sequence. Then, we run another algorithm to find the isomorphism …

Labeled Trees And Spanning Trees: Computational Discrete Mathematics And Applications, Demet Yalman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, we examine two topics. In the first part, we consider Leech tree which is a tree of order n with positive integer edge weights such that the weighted distances between pairs of vertices are exactly from 1 to n choose 2. Only five Leech trees are known and some non-existence results have been presented through the years. Variations of Leech trees such as the minimal distinct distance trees and modular Leech trees have been considered in recent years. In this thesis, such Leech-type questions on distances between leaves are studied as well as some other labeling questions …

Combinatorial Game Theory: An Introduction To Tree Topplers, John S. Ryals Jr.

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new game, Tree Topplers, into the field of Combinatorial Game Theory. Before covering the actual material, a brief background of Combinatorial Game Theory is presented, including how to assign advantage values to combinatorial games, as well as information on another, related game known as Domineering. Please note that this document contains color images so please keep that in mind when printing.

Coloring The Square Of Planar Graphs Without 4-Cycles Or 5-Cycles, Robert Jaeger

Theses and Dissertations

The famous Four Color Theorem states that any planar graph can be properly colored using at most four colors. However, if we want to properly color the square of a planar graph (or alternatively, color the graph using distinct colors on vertices at distance up to two from each other), we will always require at least \Delta + 1 colors, where \Delta is the maximum degree in the graph. For all \Delta, Wegner constructed planar graphs (even without 3-cycles) that require about \frac{3}{2} \Delta colors for such a coloring.

To prove a stronger upper bound, we consider only planar graphs …