Analityc Combinatorics

Combinatorics may very loosely be described as that branch of mathematics which is concerned with the problems of arranging objects in accordance with various imposed constraints. It covers a wide range of ideas and because of its fundamental nature it has applications throughout mathematics. Among the well-established areas of combinatorics may now be included the studies of graphs and networks, block designs, games, transversals, and enumeration problem s concerning permutations and combinations, from which the subject earned its title, as weil as the theory of independence spaces (or matroids). Along this broad front,various central themes link together the very diverse ideas. The theme which we introduce in this book is that of the abstract concept of independence. Here the reason for the abstraction is to unify; and, as we sh all see, this unification pays off handsomely with applications and illuminating sidelights in a wide variety of combinatorial situations. The study of combinatorics in general, and independence theory in particular, accounts for a considerable amount of space in the mathematical journais. For the most part, however, the books on abstract independence so far written are at an advanced level, ·whereas the purpose of our short book is to provide an elementary in­ troduction to the subject.

This is the first of two volumes of a state-of-the-art survey article collection which originates from three commutative algebra sessions at the 2009 Fall Southeastern American Mathematical Society Meeting at Florida Atlantic University. The articles reach into diverse areas of commutative algebra and build a bridge between Noetherian and non-Noetherian commutative algebra.

This undergraduate textbook is suitable for introductory classes in combinatorics and related topics.

This book is a concise, self-contained, up-to-date introduction to extremal combinatorics for nonspecialists. There is a strong emphasis on theorems with particularly elegant and informative proofs, they may be called gems of the theory. The author presents a wide spectrum of the most powerful combinatorial tools together with impressive applications in computer science: methods of extremal set theory, the linear algebra method, the probabilistic method, and fragments of Ramsey theory.