ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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Chapter 2 contains a Tura ́n-type problem for cycles in dense graphs. The main result in this chapter gives a tight bound for the minimum degree of a graph which guarantees existence of disjoint cycles in the case of dense graphs. This, in particular, answers in the affirmative a question of Faudree, Gould, Jacobson and Magnant in the case of dense graphs.
In Chapter 3, similar problems for trees are investigated. Recently, Faudree, Gould, Jacobson and West studied the minimum degree conditions for the existence of certain spanning caterpillars. They proved certain bounds that guarantee existence of spanning caterpillars. The main result in Chapter 3 significantly improves their result and answers one of their questions by proving a tight minimum degree bound for the existence of such structures.
Chapter 4 includes another Tur ́an-type problem for loose paths of length three in a 3-graph. As a corollary, an upper bound for the multi-color Ramsey number for the loose path of length three in a 3-graph is achieved.
for integer or rational solutions of algebraic equations. Pythagorean triangles are
an early instance. Diophantus of Alexandria wrote the first related treatise in the
fourth century; it was an area extensively studied by the great mathematicians of the seventeenth century, including Euler and Fermat.
The modern approach is to treat the equations as defining geometric objects, curves, surfaces, etc. The theory of elliptic curves (or curves of genus 1, which are much used in modern cryptography) was developed extensively in the twentieth century, and has had great application to Diophantine equations. This theory is used in application to the problems studied in this thesis. This thesis studies some curves of high genus, and possible solutions in both rationals and in algebraic number fields, generalizes some old results and gives answers to some open problems in the literature. The methods involve known techniques together with some ingenious tricks. For example, the equations $y^2=x^6+k$, $k=-39,\,-47$, the two previously unsolved cases for $|k|<50$, are solved using algebraic number theory and the ‘elliptic Chabauty’ method. The thesis also studies the genus three quartic curves $F(x^2,y^2,z^2)=0$ where F is a homogeneous quadratic form, and extend old results of Cassels, and Bremner. It is a very delicate matter to find such curves that have no rational points, yet which do have points in odd-degree extension fields of the rationals.
The principal results of the thesis are related to surfaces where the theory is much less well known. In particular, the thesis studies some specific families of surfaces, and give a negative answer to a question in the literature regarding representation of integers n in the form $n=(x+y+z+w)(1/x+1/y+1/z+1/w).$ Further, an example, the first such known, of a quartic surface $x^4+7y^4=14z^4+18w^4$ is given with remarkable properties: it is everywhere locally solvable, yet has no non-zero rational point, despite having a point in (non-trivial) odd-degree extension fields of the rationals. The ideas here involve manipulation of the Hilbert symbol, together with the theory of elliptic curves.
This dissertation defines a partially-ordered set on equivalence classes of certain saturated chains of T(n) called the Tamari Block poset, TB(lambda). It further proves TB(lambda) is a graded lattice. It then shows for lambda = (n-1,...,2,1) TB(lambda) is anti-isomorphic to the Higher Stasheff-Tamari orders in dimension 3 on n+2 elements. It also investigates enumeration questions involving TB(lambda), and proves other structural results along the way.
A few years ago, Bergeron and Préville-Ratelle generalized the Tamari lattices to the m-Tamari lattices. The original Tamari lattices T(n) are the case m=1. I establish a bijection between maximum length chains in the m-Tamari lattices and standard m-shifted Young tableaux. Using Thrall’s formula, I thus derive the formula for the number of maximum length chains in T(n).
For each i greater or equal to -1 and for all n greater or equal to 1, I define C(i,n) to be the set of maximal chains of length n+i in T(n). I establish several properties of maximal chains (treated as tableaux) and identify a particularly special property: each maximal chain may or may not possess a plus-full-set. I show, surprisingly, that for all n greater or equal to 2i+4, each member of C(i,n) contains a plus-full-set. Utilizing this fact and a collection of maps, I obtain a recursion for the number of elements in C(i,n) and an explicit formula based on predetermined initial values. The formula is a polynomial in n of degree 3i+3. For example, the number of maximal chains of length n in T(n) is n choose 3.
I discuss current work and future plans involving certain equivalence classes of maximal chains in the Tamari lattices. If a maximal chain may be obtained from another by swapping a pair of consecutive edges with another pair in the Hasse diagram, the two maximal chains are said to differ by a square move. Two maximal chains are said to be in the same equivalence class if one may be obtained from the other by making a set of square moves.