Abstract LetXbe ann-element point set in thek-dimensional unit cube$$[0,1]^k$$ where$$k \ge 2$$ . According to an old result of Bollobás and Meir (Oper Res Lett 11:19–21, 1992) , there exists a cycle (tour)$$x_1, x_2, \ldots , x_n$$ through thenpoints, such that$$\left( \sum _{i=1}^n |x_i - x_{i+1}|^k \right) ^{1/k} \le c_k$$ , where$$|x-y|$$ is the Euclidean distance betweenxandy, and$$c_k$$ is an absolute constant that depends only onk, where$$x_{n+1} \equiv x_1$$ . From the other direction, for every$$k \ge 2$$ and$$n \ge 2$$ , there existnpoints in$$[0,1]^k$$ , such that their shortest tour satisfies$$\left( \sum _{i=1}^n |x_i - x_{i+1}|^k \right) ^{1/k} = 2^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ . For the plane, the best constant is$$c_2=2$$ and this is the only exact value known. Bollobás and Meir showed that one can take$$c_k = 9 \left( \frac{2}{3} \right) ^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ for every$$k \ge 3$$ and conjectured that the best constant is$$c_k = 2^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ , for every$$k \ge 2$$ . Here we significantly improve the upper bound and show that one can take$$c_k = 3 \sqrt{5} \left( \frac{2}{3} \right) ^{1/k} \cdot \sqrt{k}$$ or$$c_k = 2.91 \sqrt{k} \ (1+o_k(1))$$ . Our bounds are constructive. We also show that$$c_3 \ge 2^{7/6}$$ , which disproves the conjecture for$$k=3$$ . Connections to matching problems, power assignment problems, related problems, including algorithms, are discussed in this context. A slightly revised version of the Bollobás–Meir conjecture is proposed. 
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                            Finding solutions with distinct variables to systems of linear equations over $$\mathbb {F}_p$$
                        
                    
    
            Abstract Let us fix a primepand a homogeneous system ofmlinear equations$$a_{j,1}x_1+\dots +a_{j,k}x_k=0$$ for$$j=1,\dots ,m$$ with coefficients$$a_{j,i}\in \mathbb {F}_p$$ . Suppose that$$k\ge 3m$$ , that$$a_{j,1}+\dots +a_{j,k}=0$$ for$$j=1,\dots ,m$$ and that every$$m\times m$$ minor of the$$m\times k$$ matrix$$(a_{j,i})_{j,i}$$ is non-singular. Then we prove that for any (large)n, any subset$$A\subseteq \mathbb {F}_p^n$$ of size$$|A|> C\cdot \Gamma ^n$$ contains a solution$$(x_1,\dots ,x_k)\in A^k$$ to the given system of equations such that the vectors$$x_1,\dots ,x_k\in A$$ are all distinct. Here,Cand$$\Gamma $$ are constants only depending onp,mandksuch that$$\Gamma . The crucial point here is the condition for the vectors$$x_1,\dots ,x_k$$ in the solution$$(x_1,\dots ,x_k)\in A^k$$ to be distinct. If we relax this condition and only demand that$$x_1,\dots ,x_k$$ are not all equal, then the statement would follow easily from Tao’s slice rank polynomial method. However, handling the distinctness condition is much harder, and requires a new approach. While all previous combinatorial applications of the slice rank polynomial method have relied on the slice rank of diagonal tensors, we use a slice rank argument for a non-diagonal tensor in combination with combinatorial and probabilistic arguments. 
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                            - Award ID(s):
- 2100157
- PAR ID:
- 10364571
- Publisher / Repository:
- Springer Science + Business Media
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Mathematische Annalen
- Volume:
- 386
- Issue:
- 1-2
- ISSN:
- 0025-5831
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1-33
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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