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COMBINATORIAL MATHEMATICS Operations and Summations: 132. Snake Oil: 137. Further
Applications (optional): 139. Exercises: 141.
c Douglas B. West 3.3. Exponential Generating Functions. 146
Modeling Labeled Structures: 147. EGF Analogues of OGF
Preface viii Applications: 152. The Exponential Formula: 155. The La-
grange Inversion Formula (optional): 158. Exercises: 162.
3.4. Partitions of Integers. 169
Chapter 0 – Introduction 2 Generating Function Methods: 169. Ferrers Diagrams: 173.
Sets, Functions, and Relations: 3. Graphs: 5. Discrete Prob- Bulgarian Solitaire (optional): 176. Distribution Models (sum-
ability: 9 Other Discrete Structures: 11. Complexity: 13. mary): 178. Exercises: 182.
Ranked and Graded Posets: 656. Symmetric Chain Decompo- Chapter 15 – Linear Algebra. 848
sitions: 658. LYM and Sperner Properties: 664. Products of
LYM Orders (optional): 668. Exercises: 671. 15.1. Dimension and Polynomials. 848
12.3. Linear Extensions & Dimension. 677 The Polynomial Method: 848. Families with Restricted In-
Order Dimension. 677. Computation and Bounds: 681. Bi- tersections: 853. Combinatorial Nullstellensatz: 859. The
partite Posets: 685. Exercises: 692. Alon–Tarsi Theorem: 864. Other Applications to Graphs: 869.
12.4. Special Families of Posets. 696 Exercises: 872.
Semiorders and Interval Orders: 696. Lattices: 700. Dis- 15.2. Matrices. 876
tributive Lattices: 704. Correlational Inequalities: 709 The Determinants and Related Topics: 876. Cycle Space and Bond
XYZ Inequality: 714. Exercises: 717. Space: 883. Permanents and Planar Graphs: 885. Möbius
Inversion: 889. Exercises: 897.
Chapter 13 – Combinatorial Designs. 724 15.3. Eigenvalues. 901
Spectra of Graphs: 902. Eigenvalues and Graph Parame-
13.1. Arrangements. 724
ters: 904. Regular and Strongly Regular Graphs: 907. Lapla-
Latin Squares: 724. Block Designs: 728. Symmetric Designs: 731.
cian Eigenvalues: 912. Exercises: 918.
Hadamard Matrices: 735. Exercises: 740.
13.2. Projective Planes. 742
Relation to Designs: 743. Applications to Extremal Prob-
lems: 747. Difference Sets: 754. Exercises: 758. Chapter 16 – Geometry and Topology. 922
13.3. Further Constructions. 761
Steiner Triple Systems: 762. Constructions of Other Designs: 767. 16.1. Graph Drawings. 922
Resolvable Designs and Other Tools: 768. The Euler Conjec- Embeddings on Grids: 922. Crossing Number: 930. Exer-
ture (optional): 772. Exercises: 776. cises: 938.
16.2. Combinatorial Topology. 940
Sperner ’s Lemma and Bandwidth: 940. Equivalent Topologi-
Part IV — Methods 779 cal Lemmas: 944. The Borsuk–Ulam Theorem: 949. Kneser
Conjecture & Gale ’s Lemma: 955. Ham Sandwiches & Bisec-
tions: 960. Borsuk’s Conjecture: 963. Exercises: 965.
Chapter 14 – The Probabilistic Method. 780 16.3. Volumes and Containment. 968
14.1. Existence and Expectation. 780 Monotone Subsequences: 968. Balanced Comparisons: 970.
Probability Spaces and Inequalities: 781. Existence Argu- Containment Orders: 976. Exercises: 982.
ments: 783. Random Variables: 787. Exercises: 792.
14.2. Refinements of Basic Methods. 797 Appendix 1 - Glossary of Terms 984
Deletions and Alterations: 797. The Symmetric Local Lemma: 801.
The General Local Lemma: 814. Exercises: 809. Appendix 2 - Summary of Notation 1012
14.3. Moments and Thresholds. 811
Appendix 3 - Hints to Exercises (later)
“Almost Always”: 812. Threshold Functions: 816. Sharp
Thresholds (optional): 820. Evolution and Graph Parame- Appendix 4 - References (later)
ters: 824. Exercises: 830.
14.4. Concentration Inequalities. 834 Appendix 5 - Author Index (later)
Chebyshev and Chernoff Bounds: 834. Martingales: 839. Ex-
ercises: 847. Index (presently just to Definitions) 1018
viii Preface ix
graph theory and in “other ” combinatorics. Below I will describe the in Part I there is little need for graph-theoretic material beyond the basic
extractions needed to separate the topics. concepts of trees and isomorphism, which appear in Chapter 0.
At schools with advanced courses in combinatorics, a one-semester Part I presents the basic techniques involving bijective arguments,
core course is appropriate. To facilitate use in such courses, I have desig- generating functions, recurrence relations, and the inclusion-exclusion
nated some sections and subsections as “optional”, and within others the principle. Inclusion/exclusion is expanded via the notion of signed invo-
items marked “*” are optional. This is material that is more technical or lutions, leading to more recent material. Young tableaux and the elemen-
advanced and can be skipped at first reading without loss of continuity. tary aspects of P ólya-Redfield counting appear here from a combinatorial
This also holds for “Remark” items that describe additional results. point of view. Deeper algebraic aspects of enumeration are omitted.
Parts I and II concisely present the basic material taught in most Graph theory has become a huge subject; selecting fundamental
undergraduate courses on combinatorics and graph theory, with a deeper core material is difficult. Part II pursues central themes of elementary
point of view for graduate students. Students with prior exposure to the graph theory while reaching important and classical results. Many large
subject also benefit from this discussion. Classical topics in graph theory topics are mentioned at most in passing or in exercises; these include di-
reside in Part II, but interactions between graphs and other topics and ameter, encodings, domination, decomposition, packings, genus, minors,
techniques appear at various places in other chapters. nowhere-zero flows, generalized colorings, and structure of special fami-
Later topics are more independent, but the order of presentation lies. Some aspects of graph theory that are closely related to other topics
here works well. Part III can be viewed as a third introductory area; it appear as applications in later chapters.
considers basic questions about sets and order relations. The methods Part III explores perhaps our most general structural object: fam-
of Part IV are then applied to questions that arise in the combinatorial ilies of sets. Viewed as hypergraphs, this includes graphs and most of
contexts introduced in Parts I–III. the other structures we study. In Part III, three loosely related aspects
In a two-semester sequence that assumes no prior combinatorics and of set systems are considered: Ramsey theory, extremal set theory, and
treats the second semester as optional, one might in the first semester dis- structural aspects of partially ordered sets. Omitted are many aspects of
cuss most of the material not designated optional in Chapters 1–10, plus algebraic combinatorics that grow out of partially ordered sets and enu-
early portions of Chapters 12, 13, and 14. This is about half of the text. merative problems.
I have taken this approach in a one-semester introduction that prepares Part IV develops methods from probability, algebra, and geometry
students for four independent advanced courses. and applies them to questions concerning graphs and sets. Also there are
The many exercises apply material in the text and/or explore further some combinatorial applications to geometric questions. With the focus
concepts. I have tried to indicate difficulty by marking easier problems on methods and interaction, it is helpful to have available the terminol-
with (−) and harder problems with (+). Problems of intermediate dif- ogy and basic results of graph theory and enumeration.
ficulty that are particularly interesting or instructive are marked with Many topics omitted here are explored at length in The Art of Com-
(♦). There is much ambiguity in these designations, partly because the binatorics. Some of these also appear in my earlier Introduction to Graph
difficulty of finding a solution is not proportional to its length or its com- Theory, which is a more detailed introduction to elementary graph the-
plexity. Thus these designations should be taken lightly. ory than is presented here.
graphs and trees for Cayley ’s Formula in Section 1.3 and the counting of eminent researchers who delivered a short course for engineers at UCLA
isomorphism classes in Section 4.2. The discussion of chromatic polyno- (Applied Combinatorial Mathematics, 1964).
mials in Section 4.1 is an application of inclusion-exclusion that can be The text has benefitted by comments from many users and review-
skipped. Part II can be skipped completely; the language of matching and ers, including numerous students. Special thanks go to Garth Isaak and
coloring can be introduced as needed. In Part III, one can skip the graph- Art Benjamin, who used the book several times in pre-publication ver-
theoretic applications of the Pigeonhole principle in Section 10.1, graph sions. Ira Gessel and Jay Goldman contributed many corrections and
Ramsey Theory in 10.2, and Turán’s Theorem and edge-coloring in 11.1. insightful comments concerning Part I. John Ganci gave the book an ex-
If time remains, one can include techniques from Chapter 14 or 15 or ma- tremely thorough reading, catching many glitches. Other reviewers con-
terial on designs from Chapter 13. The material on linear extensions and tributing insightful comments have included Martin Aigner, Mike Al-
containment orders in Chapter 16 is appealing but advanced. bertson, Lowell Beineke, Miklós Bóna, Graham Brightwell, Lynne But-
In a graph theory course, one would cover all of Part II, which does ler, Jerry Griggs, Mike Jacobson, Jenő Lehel, Herbert Maier, Michael
not require Part I except for occasional binomial coefficients and simple Molloy, Chris Rodger, Bruce Rothschild, László Szekely, and Wal Wallis.
bijective arguments (counting two ways). From Part III one could use the I also thank generations of students who have labored with slowly
material on extremal graph theory (Ramsey, Turán). Chapter 14 should evolving iterations of this material. Students who pointed out numerous
be included, since probabilistic techniques are so effective with graphs. typos include Shivi Bansal, Alfio Giarlotta, Farzad Hassanzadeh, Bill
The material on matroids in Chapter 11 also would be appropriate, since K innersley, Darren Narayan, Radhika Ramamurthi, Michael Santana,
only basic terminology associated with the containment order on subsets Prasun Sinha, and Reza Zamani. I apologize to many others I have for-
of a set is needed from Part III. gottten to mention over the long years of development.
A course on methods of combinatorics would be appropriate for stu- This book has been typeset using TEX. The scientific community
dents who enter having some familiarity with basic enumeration and the owes a vast debt to Donald E. Knuth, the creator of TEX. With brilliance,
terminology of graphs. Such a course might start with Chapter 10. These foresight, and generosity, he has provided a common language for the
chapters on the average are longer than those in Parts I and II. Other ma- publication and communication of technical material that is now used all
terial can be added as time and taste permit. over the world. Besides its versatility and free availability, the incredible
genius of it is that it runs amazingly fast.
Chris Hartman taught me perl, which I used to convert earlier
Acknowledgments groff files to TEX. The fonts were developed by Stephen Hartke, who
patiently made it possible to use them with plain TEX instead of LATEX.
When C.L. Liu heard in the mid-1980’s that I was accumulating text
material on combinatorics, he showed me the lecture notes he had pub-
Feedback
lished as Topics in Combinatorial Mathematics (Math. Assoc. of America,
1972). These came from a summer seminar at Williams College in 1972
I eagerly welcome comments on all aspects of this book. This includes
and were used in the combinatorics graduate course at the University of
selection and presentation of topics, errors in mathematics, attribution,
Illinois that I inherited from him. He proposed that we work them into
or typography, missing items from the glossary or index (which presently
a polished textbook; thus began The Art of Combinatorics. As described
are only in rough form), etc. Please send comments to
earlier, that project grew beyond the confines of a single volume, and the
present core text is closer to what Liu had in mind (probably still twice west@math.uiuc.edu
as big). I thank him for the suggestion that started the process.
Also worthy of mention is Liu’s earlier book Introduction to Com- Douglas B. West
binatorial Mathematics (McGraw-Hill, 1968), which in 1972 introduced west@math.uiuc.edu
me to combinatorics. This book established the overall shape and sub- Urbana, IL
ject matter for modern courses in combinatorics. Before it (at least in
the U.S.) there was not much more than a compilation of chapters from