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Arithmetic Combinatorics

In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on topics in arithmetic combinatorics, with a number of deep and exciting discoveries in the offing.

Arithmetic Combinatorics

In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on topics in arithmetic combinatorics, with a number of deep and exciting discoveries in the offing. In some sense, this area is closely aligned with Ramsey theory and number theory, but recent work shows connections with real and complex analysis, as well. Furthermore, the roots of arithmetic combinatorics go back many years. In this section, we present a brief overview of this rich and rapidly changing area.

Recall that an increasing sequence \(a_1\lt a_2\lt a_3\lt \dots\lt a_t)\) of integers is called an arithmetic progression when there exists a positive integer \(d\) for which \(a_{i+1}-a_i=d\), for all \(i=1,2,\dots,t-1\). The integer \(t\) is called the length of the arithmetic progression.

Material will be added here.

Symbols used here

i
imaginary unit
i² = −1.
\leq,\ \geq
less/greater than or equal
Inequalities that allow equality; < and > exclude it.
n!
factorial
n × (n−1) × … × 1; the number of orderings of n things. 0! = 1.
\binom{n}{k}
binomial coefficient, "n choose k"
Number of k-element subsets of n things: n!/(k!(n−k)!).
\sum_{k=1}^{n} a_k
summation
Add a_k for k = 1 up to n.
\prod_{k=1}^{n} a_k
product
Multiply a_k for k = 1 up to n.
\emptyset,\ |A|
empty set, cardinality
The set with no elements; the number of elements of A.

Questions people ask

Permutation or combination?

Ask whether order matters. A lock code is a permutation (order matters); a hand of cards is a combination (it does not).

What is a graph in this sense?

Dots (vertices) joined by lines (edges) — not a plot. Road maps, social networks and molecules are graphs; questions like "is there a route" and "how few colours" are graph theory.

Essayez votre propre

Parts of this page are adapted from Keller & Trotter, Applied Combinatorics (CC BY-SA 4.0). Condensed and re-explained here; errors are ours.

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