Combinatorics

46 problems

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Hadwiger conjecture

A graph that needs many colors is predicted to contain a correspondingly large complete graph after edges are contracted and vertices removed.

Hadwiger–Nelson problem

How many colors are needed to color every point of the plane so that points exactly one unit apart always have different colors?

Hadamard matrix conjecture

Square matrices of plus and minus ones can have mutually orthogonal rows. The conjecture predicts one for every size divisible by four.

Union-closed sets conjecture

If a finite collection of sets contains every union of two of its members, must some element occur in at least half the sets?

Lonely runner conjecture

Runners start together on a circular track at different constant speeds. Each is predicted to eventually be well separated from all the others.

Erdős–Hajnal conjecture

Forbidding one fixed induced graph is predicted to force a large group of vertices that are all connected to each other or all disconnected.

Diagonal Ramsey numbers

Color every edge of a complete graph red or blue. How many vertices force k vertices whose connecting edges all have the same color?

Graceful tree conjecture

Every tree is predicted to admit vertex numbers whose differences across edges are all distinct and fill the required range.

Rota’s basis conjecture

Given n bases of an n-dimensional space, can their vectors always be rearranged into n new bases, each taking one vector from every original base?

Graph reconstruction conjecture

Delete each vertex of a graph in turn and keep the resulting graphs without labels. Does this collection determine the original graph?

Erdős–Ulam problem

Can points be dense throughout the plane while every distance between two of them is rational?

Small-Set Expansion hypothesis

Is it computationally hard to distinguish a graph with a small nearly isolated set from one where every equally small set strongly expands?