Unanswered Questions
3,089 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
55
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On the first sequence without triple in arithmetic progression
In this Numberphile video (from 3:36 to 7:41), Neil Sloane explains an amazing sequence:
It is the lexicographically first among the sequences of positive integers without triple in arithmetic ...
- 2,598
51
votes
0
answers
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Does every triangle-free graph with maximum degree at most 6 have a 5-colouring?
A very specific case of Reed's Conjecture
Reed's $\omega$,$\Delta$, $\chi$ conjecture proposes that every graph has $\chi \leq \lceil \tfrac 12(\Delta+1+\omega)\rceil$. Here $\chi$ is the chromatic ...
CommunityBot
- 1
45
votes
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A = B (but not quite); 3-d arrays with multiple recurrences
Many years ago, I discovered the remarkable array (apparently originally discovered by Ramanujan)
1
1 3
2 10 15
6 40 105 105
24 196 700 1260 945
...
- 33.4k
41
votes
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Is there anything to the obvious analogy between Joyal's combinatorial species and Goodwillie calculus?
Combinatorial species and calculus of functors both take the viewpoint that many interesting functors can be expanded in a kind of Taylor series. Many operations familiar from actual calculus can be ...
- 62.6k
36
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3-colorings of the unit distance graph of $\Bbb R^3$
Let $\Gamma$ be the unit distance graph of $\Bbb R^3$: points $(x,y)$ form an edge if $|x,y|=1$.
Let $(A,B,C,D)$ be a unit side rhombus in the plane, with a transcendental diagonal, e.g. $A = (\alpha,...
- 16.8k
35
votes
0
answers
940
views
Orthogonal vectors with entries from $\{-1,0,1\}$
Let $\mathbf{1}$ be the all-ones vector, and suppose $\mathbf{1}, \mathbf{v_1}, \mathbf{v_2}, \ldots, \mathbf{v_{n-1}} \in \{-1,0,1\}^n$ are mutually orthogonal non-zero vectors. Does it follow that $...
- 5,937
32
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The easily bored sequence
If we want to compare the repetitiveness of two finite words, it looks reasonable, first of all, to consider more repetitive the word repeating more times one of its factors, and secondarily to ...
- 4,331
32
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Vertex coloring inherited from perfect matchings (motivated by quantum physics)
Added (19.01.2021): Dustin Mixon wrote a blog post about the question where he reformulated and generalized the question.
Added (25.12.2020): I made a youtube video to explain the question in detail.
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32
votes
0
answers
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Minimal number of intersections in a convex $n$-gon?
For a convex polygon $P$, draw all the diagonals of $P$ and consider the intersection points made by those diagonals. Let $f(n)$ be the minimal number of such intersections where $P$ ranges over all ...
- 1,429
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A Combinatorial Abstraction for The "Polynomial Hirsch Conjecture"
Consider $t$ disjoint families of subsets of {1,2,…,n}, ${\cal F}_1,{\cal F_2},\dots {\cal F_t}$ .
Suppose that
(*)
For every $i \lt j \lt k$
and every $R \in {\cal F}_i$, and $T \in {\cal F}_k$,
...
CommunityBot
- 1
29
votes
0
answers
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Linking formulas by Euler, Pólya, Nekrasov-Okounkov
Consider the formal product
$$F(t,x,z):=\prod_{j=0}^{\infty}(1-tx^j)^{z-1}.$$
(a) If $z=2$ then on the one hand we get Euler's
$$F(t,x,2)=\sum_{n\geq0}\frac{(-1)^nx^{\binom{n}2}}{(x;x)_n}t^n,$$
on the ...
CommunityBot
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29
votes
0
answers
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Why do polytopes pop up in Lagrange inversion?
I'd be interested in hearing people's viewpoints on this. Looking for an intuitive perspective. See Wikipedia for descriptions of polytopes and the Lagrange inversion theorem/formula (LIF) for ...
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27
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A conjecture about inclusion–exclusion
$\newcommand\calF{\mathcal{F}}
\def\cupdot {\stackrel{\bullet}{\cup}}
\def\minusdot {\stackrel{\bullet}{\setminus}}$This post presents a conjecture that we have with some colleagues. It is about ...
- 23.2k
27
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0
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888
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A question on simultaneous conjugation of permutations
Given $a,b\in S_n$ such that their commutator has at least $n-4$ fixed points, is there an element $z\in S_n$ such that $a^z=a^{-1}$, and $b^z=b^{-1}$? Here $a^z:=z^{-1}az$.
Magma says that the ...
- 33.4k
26
votes
0
answers
903
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Which sets of roots of unity give a polynomial with nonnegative coefficients?
The question in brief: When does a subset $S$ of the complex $n$th roots of unity have the property that
$$\prod_{\alpha\, \in \,S} (z-\alpha)$$
gives a polynomial in $\mathbb R[z]$ with ...
- 13.3k