Bootstrap percolation is a process defined on a graph. In the first round, an initial set of infected vertices is selected. In subsequent rounds, uninfected vertices become infected if they are adjacent to at least r infected vertices. Once infected vertices remain infected. We are interested in the r-percolation number, the size of a minimum r-percolating set of a graph G, which is denoted m(G, r). Beginning with a simple lemma about 2-percolation in strongly regular graphs, we work our way towards determining the 2- percolation numbers of three infinite families of diameter 2, 2-connected graphs: conference graphs (which include Paley graphs), complementary prisms of Paley graphs, and those McKay-Miller-Sir ˇ a´n graphs which are built ˇ up from complementary prisms of Paley graphs. (Joint work with Rayan Ibrahim and Hudson LaFayette).

This talk investigates the chain of mathematical and historical events that led to the discovery of an intriguing and remarkable connection between two seemingly distinct areas of mathematics—a link that had gone unnoticed for over 1500 years. It encompasses number theory, algebra, combinatorics, and projective geometry, and includes contributions from mathematicians of all kinds, from the most distinguished to the relatively unknown.

Adrian Rice is the Dorothy and Muscoe Garnett Professor of Mathematics at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, where his research focuses on 19th- and early 20th-century British mathematics. In addition to papers on various aspects of the history of mathematics, his books include Mathematics Unbound: The Evolution of an International Mathematical Research Community, 1800–1945 (with Karen Hunger Parshall), Mathematics in Victorian Britain (with Raymond Flood and Robin Wilson), and Ada Lovelace: The Making of a Computer Scientist(with Christopher Hollings and Ursula Martin). He is a five-time recipient of awards for outstanding expository writing from the Mathematical Association of America, and in 2021 he was awarded the Catherine Richards Prize by the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications.

The generalized singular value decomposition (GSVD) helps us to compare and contrast the row spaces of two given matrices A and B. In particular, it identifies linear subspaces that are (a) exclusive to A, (b) exclusive to B, and (c) common to A and B. We will illustrate the GSVD through a novel application to low-rank matrix completion, show how the result can be highly sensitive to certain discrete parameters, and suggest a potential open problem related to enumerative geometry and Young’s lattice

The Dani-Mainkar construction assigns to each graph a 2-step nilpotent Lie algebra. Since two graphs are isomorphic if and only if the corresponding 2- step nilpotent Lie algebras are, one obtains a sort of dictionary between these two seemingly unrelated corners of mathematics. In this talk we describe a purely Lie-theoretic interpretation of independent sets of graphs that is compatible with the Dani-Mainkar construction. In particular, using graph theoretic-ideas as guiding principle, we are able to establish upper and lower bounds for the independence number of an arbitrary (not necessarily of DaniMainkar type) 2-step nilpotent Lie algebra. This is joint work with Daniele Grandini and the students from the 2024 NSF REU hosted by VCU.

A nonnegative n-by-n matrix is irreducible if its corresponding directed graph is strongly connected. The Perron-Frobenius theorem guarantees that an irreducible matrix has a unique (up to scaling) positive eigenvector with eigenvalue equal to the spectral radius. Multiplicatively topical maps are orderpreserving and homogeneous maps on the cone of nonnegative vectors in Rn that generalize nonnegative matrices. We’ll look at combinatorial and hypergraph conditions analogous to irreducibility for topical maps that guarantee existence and uniqueness of positive eigenvectors. We’ll also discuss examples of topical maps including max-algebra linear transformations and an example from XKCD.

A set of vertices of a graph is said to be in general position if no three vertices from the set lie on a common shortest path. Recently Klavzar, Rall and Yero generalized this notion by defining a set of vertices to be in general d-position if no three vertices from the set lie on a common shortest path of length at most d. We generalize this notion further by defining a set of vertices to be in k-general d-position if no k vertices of the set lie on a common shortest path of length at most d. The k-general d-position number of a graph is the largest cardinality of a k-general d-position set. We will discuss some bounds on the k-general d-position number of a graph and the computation of the kgeneral d-position number of finite paths and cycles. Along the way we will establish that the maximally even subsets of cycles, which were introduced in Clough and Douthett’s work on music theory, provide the largest possible kgeneral d-position sets in n-cycles. We also prove a formula for the k-general d-position number of certain thin finite grids, providing a partial answer to a question asked by Klavzar, Rall and Yero.

The Alternating Sign Matrix Polytope, ASMn is the convex hull of n × n matrices whose entries are 0, 1, and -1, whose non-zero entries alternate in sign, and whose row and column sums are 1. These polytopes were initially defined by Striker, and by Behrend and Knight. Brualdi and Dahl, as well as Lascoux, initiated the study of paths in the graph of the ASMn polytope. As with the earlier authors, we are looking for an upper bound on the distance in the graph from an ASM to the nearest permutation matrix. We will also investigate the combinatorial properties of faces of the ASM polytope.

Graphs have determinants. Their theory includes Sachs’ subgraphs and the Sachs’ determinant formula. We apply this to get a new product formula:

Let G be a graph with maximum critical independent set Ic. If X = Ic ∪ N(Ic), and Xbar = V(G) − X, then det(G) = det(G[X]) · det(G[Xbar].

Starting in dimensions 1 and 2 with the interval and the square, the binary partition polytope Bn of dimension n (> 2) is a polytope which “looks like” the lattice of faces of the binary partition polytope of dimension n − 1. The faces of Bn−1 and the vertices of Bn correspond to the (integer) partitions of 2 n into powers of 2. It is an open problem to devise a “good” way to compute the lattice operations (“join” and “meet”) on the binary partitions.

I explain and demonstrate (with video clips) my latest project, a pop-up book about how to visualize the tesseract and other n-dimensional cubes. I also discuss the mathematics that underlies some of the book’s pop-up mechanisms.

We introduce the problem of finding the size and structure of the largest intersecting family of paths in a graph. A family of sets (in this case, vertices of paths) is called intersecting if every pair of its members share an element. An intersecting family is called a star if some element is in every member of the family. The classic Erdős-Ko-Rado Theorem (1938, 1961) states, in the simplest case, that any intersecting family of r-subsets of {1, 2, ..., n}, when r ≤ n/2 , has size at most (n−1, r−1) and, when r < n/2, satisfies equality if and only if it is a star. In work with Neal Bushaw and former student James Danielsson, we prove analogous structural results for families of r-paths of a graph for several infinite classes of graphs.

Graph pebbling is a game played on graphs with pebbles on their vertices. A pebbling move removes two pebbles from one vertex and places one pebble on an adjacent vertex. The pebbling number π(G) is the smallest t so that from any initial configuration of t pebbles it is possible, after a sequence of pebbling moves, to place a pebble on any given target vertex. Given any target or ’root’ vertex in the graph and any initial configuration of n pebbles on the graph, it is possible, after a possibly-empty series of pebbling moves, to reach a new configuration in which the designated root vertex has one or more pebbles. The first part of this talk considers the pebbling number of Kneser graphs, and gives positive evidence for the conjecture that every Kneser graph has pebbling number equal to its number of vertices and shows some new results and improved bounds. The second part of the talk will concentrate on target pebbling and show some techniques used to find extremal configurations and the target pebbling number in trees.