10:30 am - 12:30 pm
Room: Section B
Probabilistic methods continue to impact discrete mathematics in ever-impressive ways. Central topics include threshold functions, rapidly mixing Markov chains, and almost-sure convergence. Applications have included, e.g., good randomized algorithms for approximating the permanent of a 0-1 matrix, or in graph-theoretic terms, the number of perfect matchings in a bipartite graph. This minisymposium will provide a timely snapshot of the central topics listed above, as they relate to families of multisets, graph pebbling, graph coloring, Ramsey theory, and the infinite random graph. It is hoped that the cross-section of discrete mathematics falling within this scope will be of broad appeal to the conference attendees.
Organizers: P. Mark Kayll