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Exponential Algorithms for Knapsack ★★

Author(s): Lipton

Conjecture  

The famous 0-1 Knapsack problem is: Given $ a_{1},a_{2},\dots,a_{n} $ and $ b $ integers, determine whether or not there are $ 0-1 $ values $ x_{1},x_{2},\dots,x_{n} $ so that $$ \sum_{i=1}^{n} a_{i}x_{i} = b.$$ The best known worst-case algorithm runs in time $ 2^{n/2} $ times a polynomial in $ n $. Is there an algorithm that runs in time $ 2^{n/3} $?

Keywords: Algorithm construction; Exponential-time algorithm; Knapsack

Unsolvability of word problem for 2-knot complements ★★★

Author(s): Gordon

Problem   Does there exist a smooth/PL embedding of $ S^2 $ in $ S^4 $ such that the fundamental group of the complement has an unsolvable word problem?

Keywords: 2-knot; Computational Complexity; knot theory

Algorithm for graph homomorphisms ★★

Author(s): Fomin; Heggernes; Kratsch

Question  

Is there an algorithm that decides, for input graphs $ G $ and $ H $, whether there exists a homomorphism from $ G $ to $ H $ in time $ O(c^{|V(G)|+|V(H)|}) $ for some constant $ c $?

Keywords: algorithm; Exponential-time algorithm; homomorphism

Exact colorings of graphs ★★

Author(s): Erickson

Conjecture   For $ c \geq m \geq 1 $, let $ P(c,m) $ be the statement that given any exact $ c $-coloring of the edges of a complete countably infinite graph (that is, a coloring with $ c $ colors all of which must be used at least once), there exists an exactly $ m $-colored countably infinite complete subgraph. Then $ P(c,m) $ is true if and only if $ m=1 $, $ m=2 $, or $ c=m $.

Keywords: graph coloring; ramsey theory

Dividing up the unrestricted partitions ★★

Author(s): David S.; Newman

Begin with the generating function for unrestricted partitions:

(1+x+x^2+...)(1+x^2+x^4+...)(1+x^3+x^6+...)...

Now change some of the plus signs to minus signs. The resulting series will have coefficients congruent, mod 2, to the coefficients of the generating series for unrestricted partitions. I conjecture that the signs may be chosen such that all the coefficients of the series are either 1, -1, or zero.

Keywords: congruence properties; partition

The stubborn list partition problem ★★

Author(s): Cameron; Eschen; Hoang; Sritharan

Problem   Does there exist a polynomial time algorithm which takes as input a graph $ G $ and for every vertex $ v \in V(G) $ a subset $ \ell(v) $ of $ \{1,2,3,4\} $, and decides if there exists a partition of $ V(G) $ into $ \{A_1,A_2,A_3,A_4\} $ so that $ v \in A_i $ only if $ i \in \ell(v) $ and so that $ A_1,A_2 $ are independent, $ A_4 $ is a clique, and there are no edges between $ A_1 $ and $ A_3 $?

Keywords: list partition; polynomial algorithm

Long rainbow arithmetic progressions ★★

Author(s): Fox; Jungic; Mahdian; Nesetril; Radoicic

For $ k\in \mathbb{N} $ let $ T_k $ denote the minimal number $ t\in \mathbb{N} $ such that there is a rainbow $ AP(k) $ in every equinumerous $ t $-coloring of $ \{ 1,2,\ldots ,tn\} $ for every $ n\in \mathbb{N} $

Conjecture   For all $ k\geq 3 $, $ T_k=\Theta (k^2) $.

Keywords: arithmetic progression; rainbow

Reconstruction conjecture ★★★★

Author(s): Kelly; Ulam

The deck of a graph $ G $ is the multiset consisting of all unlabelled subgraphs obtained from $ G $ by deleting a vertex in all possible ways (counted according to multiplicity).

Conjecture   If two graphs on $ \ge 3 $ vertices have the same deck, then they are isomorphic.

Keywords: reconstruction

Finding k-edge-outerplanar graph embeddings ★★

Author(s): Bentz

Conjecture   It has been shown that a $ k $-outerplanar embedding for which $ k $ is minimal can be found in polynomial time. Does a similar result hold for $ k $-edge-outerplanar graphs?

Keywords: planar graph; polynomial algorithm

Approximation ratio for k-outerplanar graphs ★★

Author(s): Bentz

Conjecture   Is the approximation ratio for the Maximum Edge Disjoint Paths (MaxEDP) or the Maximum Integer Multiflow problem (MaxIMF) bounded by a constant in $ k $-outerplanar graphs or tree-width graphs?

Keywords: approximation algorithms; planar graph; polynomial algorithm

Approximation Ratio for Maximum Edge Disjoint Paths problem ★★

Author(s): Bentz

Conjecture   Can the approximation ratio $ O(\sqrt{n}) $ be improved for the Maximum Edge Disjoint Paths problem (MaxEDP) in planar graphs or can an inapproximability result stronger than $ \mathcal{APX} $-hardness?

Keywords: approximation algorithms; Disjoint paths; planar graph; polynomial algorithm

Beneš Conjecture (graph-theoretic form) ★★★

Author(s): Beneš

Problem  ($ \dag $)   Find a sufficient condition for a straight $ \ell $-stage graph to be rearrangeable. In particular, what about a straight uniform graph?
Conjecture  ($ \diamond $)   Let $ L $ be a simple regular ordered $ 2 $-stage graph. Suppose that the graph $ L^m $ is externally connected, for some $ m\ge1 $. Then the graph $ L^{2m} $ is rearrangeable.

Keywords:

Seymour's self-minor conjecture ★★★

Author(s): Seymour

Conjecture   Every infinite graph is a proper minor of itself.

Keywords: infinite graph; minor

Perfect 2-error-correcting codes over arbitrary finite alphabets. ★★

Author(s):

Conjecture   Does there exist a nontrivial perfect 2-error-correcting code over any finite alphabet, other than the ternary Golay code?

Keywords: 2-error-correcting; code; existence; perfect; perfect code

Are there an infinite number of lucky primes?

Author(s): Lazarus: Gardiner: Metropolis; Ulam

Conjecture   If every second positive integer except 2 is remaining, then every third remaining integer except 3, then every fourth remaining integer etc. , an infinite number of the remaining integers are prime.

Keywords: lucky; prime; seive

Something like Picard for 1-forms ★★

Author(s): Elsner

Conjecture   Let $ D $ be the open unit disk in the complex plane and let $ U_1,\dots,U_n $ be open sets such that $ \bigcup_{j=1}^nU_j=D\setminus\{0\} $. Suppose there are injective holomorphic functions $ f_j : U_j \to \mathbb{C}, $ $ j=1,\ldots,n, $ such that for the differentials we have $ {\rm d}f_j={\rm d}f_k $ on any intersection $ U_j\cap U_k $. Then those differentials glue together to a meromorphic 1-form on $ D $.

Keywords: Essential singularity; Holomorphic functions; Picard's theorem; Residue of 1-form; Riemann surfaces

The robustness of the tensor product ★★★

Author(s): Ben-Sasson; Sudan

Problem   Given two codes $ R,C $, their Tensor Product $ R \otimes C $ is the code that consists of the matrices whose rows are codewords of $ R $ and whose columns are codewords of $ C $. The product $ R \otimes C $ is said to be robust if whenever a matrix $ M $ is far from $ R \otimes C $, the rows (columns) of $ M $ are far from $ R $ ($ C $, respectively).

The problem is to give a characterization of the pairs $ R,C $ whose tensor product is robust.

Keywords: codes; coding; locally testable; robustness

Schanuel's Conjecture ★★★★

Author(s): Schanuel

Conjecture   Given any $ n $ complex numbers $ z_1,...,z_n $ which are linearly independent over the rational numbers $ \mathbb{Q} $, then the extension field $ \mathbb{Q}(z_1,...,z_n,\exp(z_1),...,\exp(z_n)) $ has transcendence degree of at least $ n $ over $ \mathbb{Q} $.

Keywords: algebraic independence

Beneš Conjecture ★★★

Author(s): Beneš

Let $ E $ be a non-empty finite set. Given a partition $ \bf h $ of $ E $, the stabilizer of $ \bf h $, denoted $ S(\bf h) $, is the group formed by all permutations of $ E $ preserving each block of $ \mathbf h $.

Problem  ($ \star $)   Find a sufficient condition for a sequence of partitions $ {\bf h}_1, \dots, {\bf h}_\ell $ of $ E $ to be complete, i.e. such that the product of their stabilizers $ S({\bf h}_1) S({\bf h}_2) \dots S({\bf h}_\ell) $ is equal to the whole symmetric group $ \frak S(E) $ on $ E $. In particular, what about completeness of the sequence $ \bf h,\delta(\bf h),\dots,\delta^{\ell-1}(\bf h) $, given a partition $ \bf h $ of $ E $ and a permutation $ \delta $ of $ E $?
Conjecture  (Beneš)   Let $ \bf u $ be a uniform partition of $ E $ and $ \varphi $ be a permutation of $ E $ such that $ \bf u\wedge\varphi(\bf u)=\bf 0 $. Suppose that the set $ \big(\varphi S({\bf u})\big)^{n} $ is transitive, for some integer $ n\ge2 $. Then $$ \frak S(E) = \big(\varphi S({\bf u})\big)^{2n-1}. $$

Keywords:

Frankl's union-closed sets conjecture ★★

Author(s): Frankl

Conjecture   Let $ F $ be a finite family of finite sets, not all empty, that is closed under taking unions. Then there exists $ x $ such that $ x $ is an element of at least half the members of $ F $.

Keywords: