Methods and Challenges in Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics (15w5008)


Penny Haxell (University of Waterloo)

(Tel Aviv University)

(ETH - Zurich)


The Banff International Research Station will host the "Methods and Challenges in Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics" workshop from August 23rd to August 28th, 2015.

Combinatorics, sometimes also called discrete mathematics, is a branch
of mathematics focusing on the study of discrete objects and their
properties. Although combinatorics is probably as old as the human
ability to count, the field experienced tremendous growth during the
last fifty years and is one of the most active areas in mathematics today.
It has many connections to other scientific and mathematical
disciplines, and countless practical applications, ranging from designing
computer hardware to modeling complex social networks.

Is it true that in any company of six people there are either three
mutual acquaintances or three mutual strangers?
Can the countries of any map on a globe be colored with at most four
colors so that no two countries that share a common boundary have the
same color? Is it possible to traverse all major cities of some
country by road, visiting each city only once? If each link of a complex
telephone network fails with probability p, what is the probability
that Alice will not be to have a phone conversation with her friend
Bob? Questions of this type are in the heart of modern combinatorics.
The workshop will discuss some of latest developments in these fields,
their connections and applications, and recently emerged research
