Focusing on a very active area of mathematical research in the last decade, Combinatorics of Set Partitions presents methods used in the combinatorics of pattern avoidance and pattern enumeration in set partitions. Designed for students and researchers in discrete mathematics, the book is a one-stop reference on the results and research activities of set partitions from 1500 A.D. to today. Each chapter gives historical perspectives and contrasts different approaches, including generating functions, kernel method, block decomposition method, generating tree, and Wilf equivalences. Methods and definitions are illustrated with worked examples and MapleTM code. End-of-chapter problems often draw on data from published papers and the author’s extensive research in this field. The text also explores research directions that extend the results discussed. C++ programs and output tables are listed in the appendices and available for download on the author’s web page.

This book provides a self-contained introduction to modern set theory and also opens up some more advanced areas of current research in this field. The first part offers an overview of classical set theory wherein the focus lies on the axiom of choice and Ramsey theory. In the second part, the sophisticated technique of forcing, originally developed by Paul Cohen, is explained in great detail. With this technique, one can show that certain statements, like the continuum hypothesis, are neither provable nor disprovable from the axioms of set theory. In the last part, some topics of classical set theory are revisited and further developed in the light of forcing. The notes at the end of each chapter put the results in a historical context, and the numerous related results and the extensive list of references lead the reader to the frontier of research. This book will appeal to all mathematicians interested in the foundations of mathematics, but will be of particular use to graduates in this field.

Combinatorics is mathematics of enumeration, existence, construction, and optimization questions concerning finite sets. This text focuses on the first three types of questions and covers basic counting and existence principles, distributions, generating functions, recurrence relations, Pólya theory, combinatorial designs, error correcting codes, partially ordered sets, and selected applications to graph theory including the enumeration of trees, the chromatic polynomial, and introductory Ramsey theory. The only prerequisites are single-variable calculus and familiarity with sets and basic proof techniques. The text emphasizes the brands of thinking that are characteristic of combinatorics: bijective and combinatorial proofs, recursive analysis, and counting problem classification. It is flexible enough to be used for undergraduate courses in combinatorics, second courses in discrete mathematics, introductory graduate courses in applied mathematics programs, as well as for independent study or reading courses. What makes this text a guided tour are the approximately 350 reading questions spread throughout its eight chapters. These questions provide checkpoints for learning and prepare the reader for the end-of-section exercises of which there are over 470. Most sections conclude with Travel Notes that add color to the material of the section via anecdotes, open problems, suggestions for further reading, and biographical information about mathematicians involved in the discoveries.

This book includes nine articles representing a timely snapshot of the state of the art in the different areas of combinatorics.

Bijective proofs are some of the most elegant and powerful techniques in all of mathematics. Suitable for readers without prior background in algebra or combinatorics, Bijective Combinatorics presents a general introduction to enumerative and algebraic combinatorics that emphasizes bijective methods.The text systematically develops the mathematical

A CHOICE "Outstanding Academic Title," the first edition of this bestseller was lauded for its detailed yet engaging treatment of permutations. Providing more than enough material for a one-semester course, Combinatorics of Permutations, third edition continues to clearly show the usefulness of this subject for both students and researchers. The research in combinatorics of permutations has advanced rapidly since this book was published in a first edition. Now the third edition offers not only updated results, it remains the leading textbook for a course on the topic. Coverage is mostly enumerative, but there are algebraic, analytic, and topological parts as well, and applications. Since the publication of the second edition, there is tremendous progress in pattern avoidance (Chapters 4 and 5). There is also significant progress in the analytic combinatorics of permutations, which will be incorporated. •A completely new technique from extremal combinatorics disproved a long-standing conjecture, and this is presented in Chapter 4. •The area of universal permutations has undergone a lot of very recent progress, and that has been noticed outside the academic community as well. This also influenced the revision of Chapter 5. •New results in stack sorting are added to Chapter 8. •Chapter 9 applications to biology has been revised. The author’s other works include Introduction to Enumerative and Analytic Combinatorics, second edition (CHOICE "Outstanding Academic Title") and Handbook of Enumerative Combinatorics, published by CRC Press. The author also serves as Series Editor for CRC’s Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications.

A Unified Account of Permutations in Modern Combinatorics A 2006 CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title, the first edition of this bestseller was lauded for its detailed yet engaging treatment of permutations. Providing more than enough material for a one-semester course, Combinatorics of Permutations, Second Edition continues to clearly show the usefulness of this subject for both students and researchers and is recommended for undergraduate libraries by the MAA. Expanded Chapters Much of the book has been significantly revised and extended. This edition includes a new section on alternating permutations and new material on multivariate applications of the exponential formula. It also discusses several important results in pattern avoidance as well as the concept of asymptotically normal distributions. New Chapter An entirely new chapter focuses on three sorting algorithms from molecular biology. This emerging area of combinatorics is known for its easily stated and extremely difficult problems, which sometimes can be solved using deep techniques from seemingly remote branches of mathematics. Additional Exercises and Problems All chapters in the second edition have more exercises and problems. Exercises are marked according to level of difficulty and many of the problems encompass results from the last eight years.

Combinatorics, Second Edition is a well-rounded, general introduction to the subjects of enumerative, bijective, and algebraic combinatorics. The textbook emphasizes bijective proofs, which provide elegant solutions to counting problems by setting up one-to-one correspondences between two sets of combinatorial objects. The author has written the textbook to be accessible to readers without any prior background in abstract algebra or combinatorics. Part I of the second edition develops an array of mathematical tools to solve counting problems: basic counting rules, recursions, inclusion-exclusion techniques, generating functions, bijective proofs, and linear algebraic methods. These tools are used to analyze combinatorial structures such as words, permutations, subsets, functions, graphs, trees, lattice paths, and much more. Part II cover topics in algebraic combinatorics including group actions, permutation statistics, symmetric functions, and tableau combinatorics. This edition provides greater coverage of the use of ordinary and exponential generating functions as a problem-solving tool. Along with two new chapters, several new sections, and improved exposition throughout, the textbook is brimming with many examples and exercises of various levels of difficulty.

Analytic combinatorics aims to enable precise quantitative predictions of the properties of large combinatorial structures. The theory has emerged over recent decades as essential both for the analysis of algorithms and for the study of scientific models in many disciplines, including probability theory, statistical physics, computational biology, and information theory. With a careful combination of symbolic enumeration methods and complex analysis, drawing heavily on generating functions, results of sweeping generality emerge that can be applied in particular to fundamental structures such as permutations, sequences, strings, walks, paths, trees, graphs and maps. This account is the definitive treatment of the topic. The authors give full coverage of the underlying mathematics and a thorough treatment of both classical and modern applications of the theory. The text is complemented with exercises, examples, appendices and notes to aid understanding. The book can be used for an advanced undergraduate or a graduate course, or for self-study.

Many areas of current research activity in combinatorics and its applications, including graph theory, designs and probabilistic graphs, are surveyed in lectures presented at the 12th British Combinatorial Conference.