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Combinatorics

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How Math Has Changed the Shape of Gerrymandering

June 1, 2023

New tools make it possible to detect hidden manipulation of maps.

A Very Big Small Leap Forward in Graph Theory

May 2, 2023

Four mathematicians have found a new upper limit to the “Ramsey number,” a crucial property describing unavoidable structure in graphs.

Why Mathematicians Re-Prove What They Already Know

April 26, 2023

It’s been known for thousands of years that the primes go on forever, but new proofs give fresh insights into how theorems depend on one another.

The Number 15 Describes the Secret Limit of an Infinite Grid

April 20, 2023

The “packing coloring” problem asks how many numbers are needed to fill an infinite grid so that identical numbers never get too close to one another. A new computer-assisted proof finds a surprisingly straightforward answer.

Mathematicians Find Hidden Structure in a Common Type of Space

April 12, 2023

In 50 years of searching, mathematicians found only one example of a “subspace design” in a vector space. A new proof reveals that there are infinitely more out there.

Surprise Computer Science Proof Stuns Mathematicians

March 21, 2023

For decades, mathematicians have been inching forward on a problem about which sets contain evenly spaced patterns of three numbers. Last month, two computer scientists blew past all of those results.

Coloring by Numbers Reveals Arithmetic Patterns in Fractions

March 15, 2023

In a recent paper, two mathematicians showed that a particular pattern is unavoidable when fractions are categorized.

Mathematicians Roll Dice and Get Rock-Paper-Scissors

January 19, 2023

Mathematicians have uncovered a surprising wealth of rock-paper-scissors-like patterns in randomly chosen dice.

Google Researcher, Long Out of Math, Cracks Devilish Problem About Sets

January 3, 2023

On nights and weekends, Justin Gilmer attacked an old question in pure math using the tools of information theory.

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