Richard
Anstee
- Professor, also Associate member of Computer
Science Department
- Background:
- B.Math.,
Waterloo (1976)
- Ph.D.,
Caltech (1980)
- NSERC
PDF, Waterloo (1980-1982)
- NSERC
URF, Waterloo (1982-1984)
- Office
Location: Mathematics Annex, 1114
- Office
Telephone: (604) 822-6105
- Email
Address: anstee at math dot ubc dot ca
- Department
Telephone: (604) 822-2666; Fax: (604) 822-6074
Courses
Math 223 Section 101 Sep 2006 (Sept, 2004)
Math 340 Section 201 Jan 2006 (Jan , 2006)
Math 523 Section 201 Jan 2006 (Jan , 2006)
Careers Information for Undergraduates
Careers blurb
Research Interests
Discrete Mathematics, Extremal Set Theory, Graph Theory, Matching Theory
Shattered Sets
The following Java applet was written by Nima Kamoosi (NSERC USRA summer
2002) to display the shattered sets associated with a set system. I have difficulty getting it to run on all systems; it was written with Java 2.
applet
Forbidden Configurations
I am posting a draft survey article on Forbidden Configurations that collects a number of published results together, highlights the recent conjecture of Sali and myself, and identifies some other open problems. This is a work in progress at this stage and any comments are welcomed.
A survey of Forbidden Configuration results (pdf file)
Research in Progress
Discrete
Mathematics has burgeoned as an area of research in the last 70 years. Discrete
Mathematics is characterized by the study of problems with a discrete rather
than continuous structure. One seeks structural information of special
combinatorial objects as well as studying their enumeration. Also one seeks efficient
algorithms for finding optimal combinatorial objects. There is a stimulating interface with
application areas in computer science and operations management that has
provided motivation and problems for research. And increasingly there is a discrete mathematics component in other areas of Mathematics.
Matching theory is an important foundational topic in combinatorial
optimization. An optimal degree constrained subgraph of a given graph is
sought. The simplest case seeks to match vertices in pairs. I have obtained
efficient strongly polynomial algorithms using the fact that fractional degree
constrained subgraphs can easily be obtained via network flows. I have obtained
some simplified existence theorems this way which have been useful in some
graph decomposition problems of a design theory nature. I have recently explored the extent to which certain graphs are robust with respect to the property of having a perfect matching under vertex deletion. Of course not all vertex deletions are allowable such as the need to delete an even number of vertices, avoiding deleting all neighbours of a vertex and, if the graph is bipartite, deleting the same number of vertices from each part.
I have considered some extremal problems of the following type. Given a
family of subsets of a set of size n where
the family satisfies certain specified properties, determine the maximum
possible number of subsets in the family as a function of n. For certain specified properties, exact best
possible bounds have been obtained and sometimes the structure of families
achieving the bounds are elucidated. In other cases asymptotically best
possible bounds are obtained. The main current problem is establishing a conjecture on what properties of the forbidden configuration drive the asymptotics. This has been joint work with a number of authors
(Tank Aldred, Laura Dunwoody, Jerry Griggs, Martin Farber, Ron Ferguson, Balin Fleming, Zoltan Furedi, Nima Kamoosi, Peter Keevash, U.S.R.
Murty, L. Ronyai, Chris Ryan, and Attila Sali). A great many combinatorial structures have
forbidden substructures and the results above find application in other
combinatorial problems.
Graph theory is a central area in combinatorics. A variety of problems are
considered such as examining the structure of certain classes of graphs. With
Martin Farber results were obtained concerning the class of bridged graphs. These
are graphs which contain no cycle of length greater than three as an isometric
subgraph. With J. Pryzytcki and D. Rolfsen, results of Tutte on rotors in
graphs and chromatic polynomials were extended to mutations of knots and knot
polynominals. Recent work has found fast algorithms for determining diameter
critical graphs.
Work in progress
- R.P. Anstee, Balin Fleming, Zoltan Furedi and Attila Sali. Color critical hypergraphs and forbidden configurations, submitted to Discrete math and Theoretical Computer Science, 6pp.
- R.P. Anstee, N. Kamoosi, Small Forbidden Configurations III, preprint, 20pp.
- R.P. Anstee, J. Madden, Finding d-critical spanning subgraphs, preprint, 10pp.
- R.P. Anstee, Some problems concerning forbidden configurations, preprint, 10pp.
- R.P. Anstee, A survey of forbidden configuration results, preprint, 36pp.
- R.P. Anstee, Yunsun Nam, Included and Excluded edges for regular factors.
- R.P. Anstee, Peter Keevash, Pairwise intersections and forbidden configurations, submitted to European J. of Combin.
Publications
- R.P.
Anstee, R. A. Sali, Small Forbidden Configurations IV, Combinatorica , 25(2005),
503-518.
- R.P.
Anstee, R. Ferguson, J.R. Griggs, Circular Permutations with low
discrepancy k-sums, J. of Combinatorial Theory (A) ,
100(2002),
302-321.
- R.P.
Anstee, L. Ronyai, A. Sali, Shattering News, Graphs and Combinatorics,
18(2002),59-73.
- R.P.
Anstee, R. Ferguson, A. Sali, Small Forbidden Configurations II, Electronic
Journal of Combinatorics Vol 8(1), 2001, R4(25pp).
- R.P.
Anstee, J. Demetrovics, G.O.H. Katona, A. Sali, Low Discrepancy Allocation
of Two Dimensional Data, in Foundations of Information and Knowledge
Systems, Proceedings of 1st FoIKS, Burg, Germany, Lecture Notes in
Computer Science, v1762, Springer, 2000, 1-12.
- R.P.
Anstee, On a Conjecture Concerning Forbidden Submatrices, J. Combin.
Math and Combin. Comp. 32(2000), 185-192.
- R.P.
Anstee, V. Rumchev, Asymptotic Reachable Sets for Discrete-Time Positive
Linear Systems, Systems Science 25(1999), 41-48.
- R.P.
Anstee, Yunsun Nam: Convexity of Degree Sequences, J. Graph Theory, 30(1999),
147-156.
- R.P.
Anstee, Yunsun Nam: More Sufficient Conditions for a graph to have
factors, Discrete Math. 184(1998), 15-24.
- R.P.
Anstee, L. Caccetta: Orthogonal Matchings, Discrete Math. 179(1998),
37-47.
- R.P.
Anstee, L. Caccetta: Recognizing Diameter Critical Graphs, in Combinatorics,
Complexity and Logic: Proceedings of Discrete Mathematics and Theory of
Computer Science '96, Springer, 1997, 105-112.
- R.P.
Anstee, J.R. Griggs and A. Sali: Small Forbidden Configurations Graphs
and Combinatorics, 13(1997), 97-118.
- R.P.
Anstee, A. Sali: Sperner families of bounded VC-dimension, Discrete
Math. 175(1997), 13-21.
- R.P.
Anstee: Dividing a graph by degrees, J. Graph Theory, 23(1996),
377-384.
- R.P.
Anstee, J.R. Griggs: An application of Matching Theory to edge colourings,
Discrete Math. 156(1996), 253-256.
- R.P.
Anstee: Forbidden Configurations: Induction and Linear Algebra, European
J. Of Combin. 16(1995), 427-438.
- R.E.L.
Aldred, R.P. Anstee: On the density of sets of divisors, Discrete
Math. 137(1995), 345-349.
- R.P.
Anstee: Minimum vertex weighted deficiency of (g,f)-factors, Discrete
Appl. Math. 44(1993), 247-260.
- R.P.
Anstee: Matching Theory: Fractional to Integral, N.Z. J. of Math. 21(1992),
17-32.
- R.P.
Anstee: Simplified Existence Theorems for (g,f)-factors, Discrete
Appl. Math. 27(1990), 29-38.
- R.P.
Anstee: Forbidden Configurations, determinants and discrepancy, European
J. of Combin. 11(1990), 15-19.
- R.P.
Anstee, J.H. Przytycki and D. Rolfsen: Knot Polynomials and generalized
mutation, Topology and its Applics. 32(1989),
237-249.
- R.P.
Anstee: A Forbidden Configuration Theorem of Alon,'' J. of
Combinatorial Theory Ser.A 47(1988), 16-27.
- R.P.
Anstee, M. Farber: On Bridged Graphs and Cop-win Graphs, J. of
Combinatorial Theory (B) 44(1988), 22-28.
- R.P.
Anstee: A Polynomial Algorithm for b-Matching:
An Alternative Approach,'' Information Processing Letters 24(1987),
153-157.
- R.P.
Anstee, Z. Furedi: Forbidden Submatrices, Discrete Math 62(1986),
225-243.
- R.P.
Anstee: Invariant Sets of Arcs in Network Flow Problems, Discrete
Applied Math. 13(1986), 1-7.
- R.P.
Anstee: General Forbidden Configuration Theorems, J. of Combinatorial
Theory (A) 40(1985), 108-124.
- R.P.
Anstee, U.S.R. Murty: Matrices with Forbidden Subconfigurations, Discrete
Math. 54(1985), 113-116.
- R.P.
Anstee: An Algorithmic Proof of Tutte's f-factor Theorem, J. of
Algorithms 6(1985), 112-131.
- R.P.
Anstee, M. Farber: Characterizations of Totally Balanced Matrices, J.
of Algorithms 5(1984), 215-230.
- R.P.
Anstee, Hypergraphs with no special cycles, Combinatorica 3(1983),
141-146.
- R.P.
Anstee, The Network Flows approach for matrices with given row and column
sums, Discrete Math. 44(1983), 125-138.
- R.P.
Anstee, Extensions of the notion of conformality in hypergraphs, Congressus
Numerantium 39(1983), 82-88.
- R.P.
Anstee, Properties of a class of (0,1)-matrices covering a given matrix, Can.
J. Math. 34(1982), 438-453.
- R.P.
Anstee, Triangular (0,1)-matrices with prescribed row and column sums, Discrete
Math. 40(1982), 1-10.
- R.P.
Anstee, Properties of (0,1)-matrices without certain configurations, J.
of Combinatorial Theory (A) 31(1981), 256-269.
- R.P.
Anstee, Properties of (0,1)-matrices with no triangles, J. of
Combinatorial Theory (A) 29(1980), 186-198.
- R.P.
Anstee, Marshall Hall Jr., John G. Thompson, Planes of Order 10 do not
have a collineation of order 5, J. of Combinatorial Theory (A) 29(1980),
39-58.
- R.P.
Anstee, An analogue of group divisible designs for Moore Graphs, J. of
Combinatorial Theory (B) 30 (1980), 11-20.
- R.P.
Anstee, Properties of (0,1)-matrices with forbidden configurations,
Proceedings of Joint Canada-France Combinatorial Colloquium, Annals of
Discrete Math. 9 (1980), 177-179.