This is the webpage (warwick.ac.uk/meascombLink opens in a new window) of the research group "Finite and Descriptive Combinatorics", partially supported the ERC Advanced Grant 101020255 "Finite and Descriptive Combinatorics" (1 January 2022 - 31 December 2026).

Overview

In addition to the classical directions of extremal and probabilistic combinatorics (Turan function, Ramsey theory, etc), the group also explores emerging deep connections between combinatorics and other fields such as analysis, descriptive set theory, measured group theory, etc, with applications going both ways. One way of applying analytic techniques to finite graphs will be by means of graph limits (analytic objects of bounded complexity that capture asymptotic properties of large graphs). In the other direction, combinatorial techniques will be applied in search of "constructive'' solutions to some foundational mathematical problems, in particular building upon the recent remarkable results that one can split a 2-dimensional disk into ``definable'' pieces and re-arrange them to form a square.

Group Members

• Wanfang Chen (since 10/2023, visiting PhD student)
• Irene Gil Fernandez (since 10/2020) *
• Jan Grebik (10/2019-7/2023)
• Joseph Hyde (4/2022 - 7/2022)
• Jared Leon (since 10/2023)
• Xizhi Liu (since 4/2022)
• Matteo Mazzamurro (02/2022-01/2023) *
• Oleg Pikhurko (PI)
• Shumin Sun (since 10/2022) *
• Zhuo Wu (since 10/2021) *

* = co-advised PhD student

News

• 24-28 Jun'24: JG, Alexander Kechris, OP, Stevo Todorcevic, and Zoltán Vidnyánszky organise Workshop on Measurable Combinatorics, Erdos Center, Budapest
• 27 Jan - 3 Feb, 2024 JG is a co-organizing Winter School in Abstract Analysis 2024
• 20-24 Mar'23: Damien Gaboriau, Andrew Marks, OP and Anush Tserunyan organise Workshop on Borel and Measurable Combinatorics in Algebra and Dynamics, Fields Institute, Toronto
• Feb-Mar'23: OP serves on the Program Committee of Digital Theme UK-Ukraine Research Twinning Conference
• 28 Jan - 3 Feb, 2023 JG is a co-organizing Winter School in Abstract Analysis 2023
• Jan'23- : OP teaches at the weekly Math Challenge Club at St Augustine's Catholic Primary School, Kenilworth
• 26-27 Jan'23: OP serves on the Mathematics Review Panel of the Academy of Finland
• 18 Jan'23: Matteo Mazzamurro successfully defends his PhD viva. Congratulations, Matteo!!!
• Dec'22-Feb'23: OP serves on the Selection Committee of the MSCA4Ukraine programme
• Dec'22: Discovery magazine publishes an article about group's work on circle squaring
• Oct'22: JG wins the 2022 Mary Ellen Rudin Young Researcher Award. Congratulations, Jan!!!
• 14 Jun'22: JH organises Birmingham-Warwick One-Day Combinatorics Meeting
• Jun-Jul'22: OP serves on the hiring panel for the Professor Post in Discrete Maths and Computer Science at Warwick
• May'22- : OP serves on the committee of INI's programme "Solidarity for mathematicians: refugees of war"
• May'22: Group's work on circle squaring is mentioned in "Mathematics News Flash" of LMS Newsletter
• Mar'22: El Periodico publishes an article about group's work on circle squaring
• 10 Mar'22: OP serves on PhD committee of Xizhi Liu, who successfully defended his thesis "Extremal Hypergraph Problems". Congratulations, Xizhi!
• Feb'22: OP serves as reviewer of membership applications for IMTech
• Feb'22: Quanta publishes an article about group's work on circle squaring
• 13-19 Feb'22: JG, OP and Anush Tserunyan organise Oberwolfach Mini-Workshop "Descriptive Combinatorics, LOCAL Algorithms and Random Processes"
• 3-4 Feb'22: OP serves on the Mathematics Review Panel of the Academy of Finland
• 29 Jan - 5 Feb, 2022 JG is a co-organizing Winter School in Abstract Analysis 2022
• Jan'22: Some results co-authored by grouthere isp members are mentioned in Bogdan Grechuk's new book "Landscape of 21st Century Mathematics: Selected Advances, 2001-2020" 
• Dec'21: OP serves as expert evaluator for Postdoctoral Junior Leader Fellowships of the “la Caixa” Foundation
• 12 Oct - 7 Dec'21: JG lectures mini-course "Distributed computing, random processes and Borel combinatorics"
• JG and OP organise 2021-22 Warwick's Combinatorics Seminar
• 2-7 Aug'21: OP is a team leader of Warwick's team at the 28th International Mathematics Competition
• 14 Jul'21: OP was the internal examiner of Bogdan Alecu's PhD thesis that was successfully defended. Congratulations, Bogdan!
• Jul'21: JG was awarded Warwick's Faculty of Science Postdoctoral Prize. Congratulations, Jan!
• Apr'21: OP was awarded a 5-year ERC Advanced Grant for €1.58m (see also Warwick News, Ukraine Network)
• Dec'20-Aug'21: OP serves at the Program Committee of Eurocomb 2021
• 1 Dec'20: OP was the internal examiner of Yani Pehova's PhD thesis that was successfully defended. Congratulations, Yani!
• Nov'20: OP appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of IMTech
• JG and OP organise 2020-21 Warwick's Combinatorics Seminar
• 25-30 Jul'20: George Kontogeorgiou and OP are team leaders of Warwick's team at the 27th International Mathematics Competition
• 2 Jul'20: OP was an external examiner of Jan Corsten's PhD thesis at LSE, that was successfully defended. Congratulations, Jan!
• 5 May'20: Jan Grebik successfully defended his PhD thesis "Definable graphs". Congratulations!
• 25 Jan - 1 Feb, 2020 JG is a co-organizing Winter School in Abstract Analysis 2020
• 1 Jan'20: OP appointed to the Editorial Board of "Random Structures and Algorithms"
• 4 Nov'19: OP was an external examiner of François Pirot's PhD thesis at Radboud University, Nijmegen, that was successfully defended. Congratulations, François!

Papers

All papers (pre-publication versions) should be freely available from arxiv.org. Please contact one of the authors if you have difficulty accessing them.

1. L.Grabowski, A.Mathe, OP: Measurable equidecompositions for group actions with an expansion property, Journal of Eur Math Soc 24 (2022) 4277-4326.
2. A.Blumenthal, B.Lidicky, Y.Pehova, F.Pfender, OP and J.Volec: Sharp bounds for decomposing graphs into edges and triangles, Combin Prob Comput, 30 (2021) 271-287
3. H.Liu, OP and K.Staden: The exact minimum number of triangles in graphs of given order and size, Forum of Math, Pi 8 (2020) 144pp.
4. M.Kang, T.Makai and OP: Supersaturation Problem for the Bowtie, European J Comb 88 (2020) 103107.
5. JG and OP: Measurable versions of Vizing's theorem, Advances in Mathematics, 374 (2020) paper 107378, 40pp
6. J.Kim, H.Liu, OP and M.Sharifzadeh: Asymptotic Structure for the Clique Density Theorem, Discrete Analysis (2020) Paper 19, 26pp
7. OP: Borel Combinatorics of Locally Finite Graphs, in "Surveys in Combinatorics 2021" (edited by K.K.Dabrowski et al), the invited volume of the 28th British Combinatorial Conference, pages 267-319
8. C.T.Conley, JG and OP: Divisibility of Spheres with Measurable Pieces, accepted by L'Enseignement Mathematique, 34pp.
9. H.Liu, OP, M.Sharifzadeh and K.Staden: Stability from graph symmetrisation arguments with applications to inducibility, accepted by J London Math Soc, 41 pages
10. JG and I. Rocha: Fractional Isomorphism of Graphons, Combinatorica, 42 (2022) 365–404
11. JG: Approximate Schreier decorations and approximate Konig line coloring theorem, Annales Henri Lebesgue, 5 (2022) 303-315.
12. JG and Z. Vidnyánszky: Tall F_σ subideals of tall analytic ideals, accepted to PAMS, 5pp
13. JG and OP: Large Deviation Principles for Block and Step Graphon Random Graph Models, 17pp
14. O.Cooley, M.Kang and OP: On a question of Vera T. Sos about size forcing of graphons, Acta Mathematica Hungarica 168 (2022) 1-26
15. JG and Vasek Rozhon: Local Problems on Grids from the Perspective of Distributed Algorithms, Finitary Factors, and Descriptive Combinatorics (previous, now irrelevant, title: Of Toasts and Tails), 48pp
16. JG and V.Rozhon: Classification of Local Problems on Paths from the Perspective of Descriptive Combinatorics, extended abstract accepted at EUROCOMB2021, 34pp
17. OP and K.Staden Stability for the Erdos-Rothschild problem, Forum of Math, Sigma 11 (2023) Paper e23, 43 pages
18. OP and K.Staden Exact solutions for the Erdos-Rothschild problem, 53pp
19. S. Brandt, Y. Chang, JG, C. Grunau, V. Rozhoň, Z. Vidnyánszky Local Problems on Trees from the Perspectives of Distributed Algorithms, Finitary Factors, and Descriptive Combinatorics, 13th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference, Art. No. 29, 26 pp., LIPIcs. Leibniz Int. Proc. Inform., 215, Schloss Dagstuhl. Leibniz-Zent. Inform., Wadern, 2022.
20. IGF, J.Kim, H.Liu, OP New lower bounds on kissing numbers and spherical codes in high dimensions, 20pp
21. S. Brandt, Y. Chang, JG, C. Grunau, V. Rozhoň, Z. Vidnyánszky On Homomorphism Graphs, 21pp
22. V.Falgas-Ravry, OP, E.Vaughan, J.Volec The codegree threshold of K4-, J London Math Soc 107 (2023) 1660-1691
23. A.Mathe, J.Noel, OP Circle Squaring with Pieces of Small Boundary and Low Borel Complexity, 49 pages
24. E.Csoka, L.Grabowski, A.Mathe, OP, K.Tyros Moser-Tardos Algorithm with small number of random bits, 31pp.
25. JG, R. Greenfeld, V. Rozhoň, T. Tao Measurable tilings by abelian group actions, accepted by IMRN, 25pp.
26. S. Brandt, Y. Chang, JG, C. Grunau, V. Rozhoň, Z. Vidnyánszky Deterministic Distributed algorithms and Descriptive Combinatorics on Δ-regular trees, 47pp.
27. IGF, JH, H.Liu OP, ZW Disjoint isomorphic balanced clique subdivisions, J Comb Th (B) 161 (2023) 417-436
28. J. Hou, H. Li, XL, D. Mubayi, Y. Zhang Hypergraphs with infinitely many extremal constructionsLink opens in a new window, Discrete Analysis 2023:18, 34 pp
29. XL, S. Mukherjee Tight query complexity bounds for learning graph partitionsLink opens in a new window, 35th Annual Conference of Learning Theory (COLT), 2022, 12pp
30. JH Towards the 0-statement of the Kohayakawa-Kreuter conjecture, Combinatorics, Probability and Computing 23 (2023) 225–268
31. XL and OP Hypergraph Turan densities can have arbitrarily large algebraic degree, J Comb Th (B) 161 (2023) 407-416
32. S.Cambie, Y.Dong and MM Extremal values of degree-based entropies of bipartite graphs, 13pp
33. S.Cambie and MM Resolution of Yan's conjecture on entropy of graphs, accepted by MATCH, 9pp
34. S.Cambie and MM Extremal entropy for graphs with given size, 8pp.
35. IGF and H.Liu How to build a pillar: a proof of Thomassen's conjecture, 16pp
36. IGF, J.Kim, Y.Kim, H.Liu Nested cycles with no geometric crossings, to appear in Proceedings of the American Mathematical Society, 10pp
37. JG, Z. Vidnyánszky Ramsey, expanders, and Borel chromatic numbers, 11pp
38. S.Glock, F.Joos, J.Kim, M.Kuhn, L.Lichev and OP On the (6,4)-problem of Brown, Erdos and Sos, 11pp
39. OP and XL Finite Hypergraph Families with Rich Extremal Turan Constructions via Mixing Patterns, 57pp
40. ZW Positive co-degree Turan number for C5 and C5- , 8 pages
41. OP On the limit of the positive l-degree Turan problem, 14pp
42. J. Hou, H. Li, XL, L.-T. Yuan, and Y. Zhang A step towards a general density Corradi–Hajnal TheoremLink opens in a new window, 32pp
43. A.Grzesik, D.Kral and OP Forcing Generalized Quasirandom Graphs Efficiently, accepted by Combin Prob Comput, 20pp (Extended abstract)
44. JG Measurable Vizing's theorem, 25pp.
45. SS Tilings in quasi-random k-partite hypergraphs, 22pp
46. C.T.Conley, JG and OP Local version of Vizing's theorem for multi-graphs, 9pp
47. Y. Chen, XL, J. Nie, and J. Zeng, Random Turan and counting results for general position sets over finite fields, 28pp
48. XL and J. Song, Exact results for some extremal problems on expansions I,Link opens in a new window 33pp+appendix
49. XL and J. Song, Hypergraph anti-Ramsey theorems,Link opens in a new window 14pp
50. J. Hou, C. Hu, H. Li, XL, C. Yang, and Y. Zhang, Toward a density Corradi-Hajnal theorem for degenerate hypergraphs, 37pp
51. J. Hou, C. Hu, H. Li, XL, C. Yang, and Y. Zhang, Many vertex-disjoint even cycles of fixed length in a graph, 12pp
52. XL and OP A note on extremal constructions for the Erdos-Rademacher problem, 13pp
53. JG and OP Large deviation principles for graphon sampling, 42pp.
54. J. Hou, XL, and H. Zhao Faster coloring and embedding in dense hypergraphs via stabilityLink opens in a new window, 21pp.
55. C. Helliar and XL A generalized Turan extension of the Deza-Erdos-Frankl Theorem, 12pp.

Talks Given/Forthcoming

2019

• 11 Oct: OP, Workshop "Measurable, Borel, and Topological Dynamics", CIRM
• 4 Nov: OP, Workshop "Structure, Sparsity and Randomness", Radbound University, Nijmegen
• 6 Nov: OP, Old Codger's One-Day Combinatorics Colloquium, Reading
• 21 Nov: OP, 3in1 Workshop on Graph Theory, Doslonce, Poland
• 18 Dec: JG, Seminar on Reckoning, Institute of Mathematics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
• 20 Dec: JG, Combinatorial group seminar, Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

2020

• 7 Jan: JG, DIMAP seminar, Warwick University
• 14 Jan: OP, Warwick Maths Society
• 30 Jan: OP, ACO Seminar, Carnegie Mellon University
• 11 Feb: OP, seminar, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
• 11 Feb: JG, STUK5 mini-talk, Royal Society building, London
• 17 Feb: OP, Krakow Combinatorics Seminar
• 11 Mar: JG, Algebra and Geometry Seminar, Lancaster University
• 20 May: JG, Caltech logic (online) seminar, Caltech
• 27 Jul: OP, Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics Webinar
• 4 & 7 Aug: JG, Midsummer Combinatorial Workshop XXIV, Charles University, Prague
• 21 Oct: JG, Probability seminar (online), UBC
• 10 Nov: OP, UIUC Graph Theory and Combinatorics Seminar
• 23 Nov: JG, Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics Webinar
• 27 Nov: OP, TU Graz Combinatorics and Optimization Seminar
• 18 Dec: OP, Combinatorics Seminar of Shandong University

2021

• 11 Jan: OP, Combinatorics Seminar, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• 22 Feb: OP, Caltech Logic Seminar
• 10 Mar: JG, UBC probability seminar
• 5 May: IGF, LIMDA Seminar, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
• 19 May: IGF, Warwick Postgraduate Seminar
• 1 Jun: JG, Florida Logic seminar
• 7 Jun: IGF, (Online) Young Researchers in Mathematics Conference, UK
• 21 Jun: OP, Colloquium Discrete Mathematics and Probability, TU-Graz
• 23 Jun: OP, Mini-symposium on Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics, 8th European Congress of Mathematics
• 5-9 Jul: OP, the Richard Rado Lecture at the 28th British Combinatorial Conference
• 26 Jul: IGF, Summer school "Matemáticas: mucho más que números", Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain
• 6-10 Sep: JG, EUROCOMB 2021, Barcelona
• 7 Sep: IGF, EUROCOMB 2021, Barcelona
• 11 Oct: JG, DIMAP seminar, Warwick University
• 14 Oct: IGF, Discrete Seminar, Umeå University, Sweden
• 26 Oct: IGF, First Workshop on Developments in Combinatorics, Shandong University, China
• 8 Nov: JG, Descriptive Dynamics and Combinatorics Seminar, McGill University
• 12 Nov: IGF, PhD Seminar on Combinatorics, Games and Optimisation, London School of Economics
• 30 Nov: OP, Warwick Maths Society

2022

• 12 Jan: JG, Combinatorial group seminar, Institute of Computer Science of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
• 7-11 Feb: OP, Workhop "Logic and Random Discrete Structures", Dagstuhl
• 16 Feb: IGF, PG Forum, Lancaster University
• 3 Mar: JG, Algorithms Seminar, Oxford
• 9 Mar: IGF, Warwick Postgraduate Seminar
• 10 Mar: IGF, Combinatorics Seminar, University of Birmingham
• 4-6 Apr: OP, IBS ECOPRO Opening Conference, Daejeon, Korea
• 27 Apr: XL, Warwick Combinatorics Seminar
• 16-20 May: OP, Workshop "Graphs, Groups, Stochastic Processes", Budapest
• 27 Jun - 1 Jul: OP, Third Southwestern German Workshop on Graph Theory, Heildelberg
• 27 Jun - 2 Jul: JG, Descriptive graph theory, San Jose
• 29 Jun: XL, IBS Virtual Discrete Math Colloquium, Korea.
• 4 Jul: IGF, Discrete Mathematics Days 2022, Universidad de Cantabria, Spain
• 8 Jul: XL, The Second Armenian Workshop On Graphs, Combinatorics, Probability, and their application to machine learning, Armenia.
• 20 Jul: XL, Seminar, Data Science Institute, Shangdong University, Jinan, China.
• 8-12 Aug: OP, Conference on Recent Advances in Probabilistic and Extremal Combinatorics, Ascona, Switzerland
• 16 Aug: JG, Workshop on Random Graphs, Combinatorial Limits, Stochastic Processes, Budapest, Hungary
• 18-24 Sep: OP, 9th Polish Combinatorial Conference, Bedlewo
• 28 Oct: JG, Nankai Logic Colloquium (online), Nankai University, China

2023

• 1-7 Jan: OP, Workshop "Combinatorics", Oberwolfach
• 3 Feb: SS, Combinatorics Seminar, Warwick
• 8 Feb: IGF, VI Congreso de jóvenes investigadores de la RSME, Universidad de León, Spain
• 28 Feb: OP, Seminar in Discrete Mathematics, Tsinghua University, Beijing
• 5 Mar: JG, SEALS 2023, University of Florida, Florida
• 6 Mar, JG, Colloquium, University of Florida, Florida
• 7 Mar, JG, Logic seminar, University of Florida, Florida
• 13-17 Mar: OP, Measure Group Theory workshop,Link opens in a new window Centre de Recherches Mathématiques (CRM), Montréal
• 15-18 Mar: JG, 56th Spring Topology and Dynamical Systems Conference (STDC), online,
• 20-24 Mar: JG, Workshop on Borel and Measurable Combinatorics in Algebra and Dynamics, Fields Institute, Toronto
• 26-30 Mar: OP, UA DIGITAL 2023, online
• 27-29 Mar: ZW, Postgraduate Combinatorial Conference, Birmingham
• 17 Mar: XL, Seminar, School of Mathematical Sciences, East China Normal University (ECNU), Shanghai, China.
• 20 Mar: XL, Seminar, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China, online.
• 16-17 Apr: XL, Seventh Workshop on Graph Theory and Combinatorics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), Shanghai, China.
• 19 Apr: XL, SCMS Combinatorics Seminar, Shanghai, China.
• 3 May: JG, Caltech logic seminar, Caltech ,US.
• 11 May: ZW, Postgraduate Seminar, Warwick
• 22-26 May: JG, Measured Group Theory, Stochastic Processes on Groups and Borel Combinatorics, CIRM, Luminy
• 28-31 May: OP, Conference "Spherical packings, coverings and spherical codes" (SPCSC 2023), Sofia
• 17-21 July: JG, The 37th Summer Conference on Topology and Its Applications, Youngstown, Ohio
• 10 Aug: XL, Combinatorics seminar, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
• 21-25 Aug: XL, Summer school on 'Design and Coding-Related Research'. Suzhou University, Jiangsu, China
• 21-25 Aug: OP, Conference "Descriptive set theory & dynamics", Banach Centre, Warsaw
• 28 Aug - 1 Sep: OP, Eurocomb 2023, Prague
• 14 Dec: OP, LIMDA Seminar, UPC Barcelona

2024

• 29-30 Jan: OP, Workshop on the Foundations of Computation, Sheffield
• 1 Feb: SS, Combinatorics Seminar, Birmingham
• 13 Feb: OP, Combinatorial Theory Seminar, Oxford
• 01 Mar: XL, A Spring Day of Combinatorics, Birmingham
• 8-12 Jul: OP, Extremal Graphs and Hypergraphs, Institut Mittag-Leffler, Djursholm, Sweden

Research visitors

• 9-12 November 2021: Łukasz Grabowski (Lancaster University)
• 10-12 May 2022: Péter Pál Pach (Budapest University of Technology and Economics)
• 16-22 October 2022: Dan Kral' (Masaryk University)
• 16-22 October 2022: Daniel Ilkovic (Masaryk University)
• 15-20 January 2023: Jan Volec (Technical University Prague)
• 4-18 February 2023: Clinton Conley (Carnegie Mellon University)
• 18-21 February 2023: Mihyun Kang (TU-Graz)