Skip to main content

Unanswered Questions

3,090 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
19 votes
0 answers
769 views

A Linear Order from AP Calculus

In teaching my calculus students about limits and function domination, we ran into the class of functions $$\Theta=\{x^\alpha (\ln{x})^\beta\}_{(\alpha,\beta)\in\mathbb{R}^2}$$ Suppose we say that $...
19 votes
0 answers
1k views

coloring ${\mathbb Z}^k$

This question is related to but seems to be simpler than this one, so perhaps somebody can solve it. Question. Is there $k\ge 1$ and a coloring of vertices of the lattice ${\mathbb Z}^k$ in $k$ ...
18 votes
0 answers
566 views

What is the geometric intuition behind Wilf-Zeilberger theory?

This problem is somehow inspired by a bunch of impressive posts of combinatorial identities by T. Amdeberhan. Earlier this month I learnt from computer scientists that they have a generic algorithmic ...
18 votes
0 answers
432 views

An algebraic strengthening of the Saturation Conjecture

The Saturation Conjecture (proved by Knutson-Tao) asserts that $c_{n\mu,n\nu}^{n\lambda}\neq 0\Rightarrow c_{\mu,\nu}^{\lambda} \neq 0$, where $c$ denotes a Littlewood-Richardson coefficient and $n$ ...
18 votes
0 answers
380 views

Deforming a basis of a polynomial ring

The ring $Symm$ of symmetric functions in infinitely many variables is well-known to be a polynomial ring in the elementary symmetric functions, and has a $\mathbb Z$-basis of Schur functions $\{S_\...
17 votes
0 answers
365 views

Number of $F_p$-matrices ac=ca, bd = db , ad - da = cb - bc is polynomial in p ? ("Manin matrix variety" - normal ? Cohen–Macaulay ? )

Consider four $n\times n$ matrices $a,b,c,d$ over finite field $F_q$ (or $F_p$ for simplicity), such that they satisfy three equations: $ac=ca,bd=db, ad-da=cb-bc $. Thus an affine algebraic manifold ...
17 votes
0 answers
486 views

Does the Ackermann function count something?

Let $\mathrm{FinSet}$ be the category of finite sets. A finite set structure is a faithful functor $F\colon C\to \mathrm{FinSet}$ such that, for any $n\geq 1$, there are only finitely many isomorphism ...
17 votes
0 answers
585 views

Finite version special case Jacobi triple product formula

In this paper, Shanks uses the following formula: $$ \sum_{s=0}^{n-1}q^{s(2n+1)} \times \left( \prod_{k=s+1}^{n} \dfrac{1-q^{2k}}{1-q^{2k-1}}\right) = \sum_{s=1}^{2n} q^{\frac{s(s-1)}{2}}$$ to get a ...
17 votes
0 answers
1k views

Almost monochromatic point sets

There are many sort of equivalent theorems about monochromatic configurations in finite colorings, such as Van der Waerden, Hales-Jewett or Gallai's theorem, the latter of which states that in a ...
17 votes
0 answers
845 views

Ramsey's theorem for the first uncountable ordinal

Sierpiński proved that a version of Ramsey's theorem for colourings of pairs of countable ordinals fails miserably by comparing the ordering of $\omega_1$ with the linear ordering of (a subset of) the ...
17 votes
0 answers
974 views

What to do with results you found but cannot prove(outside your research area)?

Not sure if MathOverflow is still a place to discuss such things, but I'll give it a try. Tell me an alternative site, in case it is wrong here. I translated a representation-theory/combinatorial ...
17 votes
0 answers
532 views

Question about combinatorics on words

Let $\{a_1,a_2,...,a_n\}$ be an alphabet and let $\{u_1,...,u_n\}$ be words in this alphabet, and $a_i\mapsto u_i$ be a substitution $\phi$. Question: Is there an algorithm to check if for some $m,k$...
17 votes
0 answers
430 views

Need explicit formula for certain "$q$-numbers" involving gcd's

The question is motivated by yet another possible approach to a combinatorial problem formulated previously in "Special" meanders. I'm not giving details of the connection as I believe the ...
17 votes
0 answers
818 views

What's the big deal about $M_{13}$?

$M_{13}$ is the Mathieu groupoid defined by Conway in Conway, J. H. $M_{13}$. Surveys in combinatorics, 1997 (London), 1–11, London Math. Soc. Lecture Note Ser., 241, Cambridge Univ. Press, ...
17 votes
0 answers
420 views

Do the coefficients of these irreducible polynomials always become periodic?

Fix $n\in\mathbb N$ and a starting polynomial (or seed) $p_n=a_0+a_1x+\dots+a_nx^n$ with $a_k\in\mathbb Z\ \forall k$ and $a_0a_n\ne0$. Define $p_{n+1},p_{n+2},\dots$ recursively by $p_r = p_{r-1}+...

15 30 50 per page