Special Colloquium
Florian Frick
Cornell
Intersections of Finite Sets: Geometry and Topology
Abstract: Given a collection of finite sets, Kneser-type problems aim to partition
this collection into parts with well-understood intersection pattern,
such as in each part any two sets intersect. Since Lovász' solution of
Kneser's conjecture, concerning intersections of all k-subsets of an n-set,
topological methods have been a central tool in understanding intersection
patterns of finite sets. We will develop a method that in addition to using
topological machinery takes the topology of the collection of finite sets
into account via a translation to a problem in Euclidean geometry.
This leads to simple proofs of old and new results.
Tuesday January 9, 2018 at 3:00 PM in SEO 636