This self-contained monograph explores a new theory centered around boolean representations of simplicial complexes leading to a new class of complexes featuring matroids as central to the theory. The book illustrates these new tools to study the classical theory of matroids as well as their important geometric connections. Moreover, many geometric and topological features of the theory of matroids find their counterparts in this extended context. Graduate students and researchers working in the areas of combinatorics, geometry, topology, algebra and lattice theory will find this monograph appealing due to the wide range of new problems raised by the theory. Combinatorialists will find this extension of the theory of matroids useful as it opens new lines of research within and beyond matroids. The geometric features and geometric/topological applications will appeal to geometers. Topologists who desire to perform algebraic topology computations will appreciate the algorithmic potential of boolean representable complexes.

Pattern Recognition on Oriented Matroids covers a range of innovative problems in combinatorics, poset and graph theories, optimization, and number theory that constitute a far-reaching extension of the arsenal of committee methods in pattern recognition. The groundwork for the modern committee theory was laid in the mid-1960s, when it was shown that the familiar notion of solution to a feasible system of linear inequalities has ingenious analogues which can serve as collective solutions to infeasible systems. A hierarchy of dialects in the language of mathematics, for instance, open cones in the context of linear inequality systems, regions of hyperplane arrangements, and maximal covectors (or topes) of oriented matroids, provides an excellent opportunity to take a fresh look at the infeasible system of homogeneous strict linear inequalities – the standard working model for the contradictory two-class pattern recognition problem in its geometric setting. The universal language of oriented matroid theory considerably simplifies a structural and enumerative analysis of applied aspects of the infeasibility phenomenon. The present book is devoted to several selected topics in the emerging theory of pattern recognition on oriented matroids: the questions of existence and applicability of matroidal generalizations of committee decision rules and related graph-theoretic constructions to oriented matroids with very weak restrictions on their structural properties; a study (in which, in particular, interesting subsequences of the Farey sequence appear naturally) of the hierarchy of the corresponding tope committees; a description of the three-tope committees that are the most attractive approximation to the notion of solution to an infeasible system of linear constraints; an application of convexity in oriented matroids as well as blocker constructions in combinatorial optimization and in poset theory to enumerative problems on tope committees; an attempt to clarify how elementary changes (one-element reorientations) in an oriented matroid affect the family of its tope committees; a discrete Fourier analysis of the important family of critical tope committees through rank and distance relations in the tope poset and the tope graph; the characterization of a key combinatorial role played by the symmetric cycles in hypercube graphs. Contents Oriented Matroids, the Pattern Recognition Problem, and Tope Committees Boolean Intervals Dehn–Sommerville Type Relations Farey Subsequences Blocking Sets of Set Families, and Absolute Blocking Constructions in Posets Committees of Set Families, and Relative Blocking Constructions in Posets Layers of Tope Committees Three-Tope Committees Halfspaces, Convex Sets, and Tope Committees Tope Committees and Reorientations of Oriented Matroids Topes and Critical Committees Critical Committees and Distance Signals Symmetric Cycles in the Hypercube Graphs

From Pythagoreans to Hegel, and beyond, this book gives a brief overview of the history of the notion of graphs and introduces the main concepts of graph theory in order to apply them to philosophy. In addition, this book presents how philosophers can use various mathematical notions of order. Throughout the book, philosophical operations and concepts are defined through examining questions relating the two kinds of known infinities – discrete and continuous – and how Woodin’s approach can influence elements of philosophy. We also examine how mathematics can help a philosopher to discover the elements of stability which will help to build an image of the world, even if various approaches (for example, negative theology) generally cannot be valid. Finally, we briefly consider the possibilities of weakening formal thought represented by fuzziness and neutrosophic graphs. In a nutshell, this book expresses the importance of graphs when representing ideas and communicating them clearly with others.

This collection of high-quality articles in the field of combinatorics, geometry, algebraic topology and theoretical computer science is a tribute to Jiří Matoušek, who passed away prematurely in March 2015. It is a collaborative effort by his colleagues and friends, who have paid particular attention to clarity of exposition – something Jirka would have approved of. The original research articles, surveys and expository articles, written by leading experts in their respective fields, map Jiří Matoušek’s numerous areas of mathematical interest.