3:30 pm, Seminar Hall
An invitation to Extremal Set Theory
Srivatsav Kunnawalkam Elayavalli
University of California, Berkeley.
06-01-16

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Abstract

In this talk, I shall give a broad introduction to the area of combinatorics called Extremal Set Theory. We shall start by assimilating a flavor of the problems in this area, and this shall be done by considering two classical theorems, "Sperner's theorem" and "Erdos-Ko Rado" theorem. We shall proceed to stating and demystifying the conjecture I am working on, independently conjectured by Miklos, Ahlswede, Aydinian, Khachatrian around the late 1990s and early 2000s. Much of fundamental combinatorial ideas (like basic properties of binomial coefficients, double counting, basic results in enumerative combinatorics) will be assumed of the audience for the sake of the talk's ambitions. Parts of this talk is collaborative work done by our team (Mr Wei Cheng Ng, Mr Song Yu, Mr Srivatsav KE, and Prof Dezso Miklos) and shall not be reproduced anywhere without our consent.