CARMA Discrete Mathematics Seminar

3:00 pm

Monday, 7th Nov 2016

VG25, Mathematics Building


Prof. Brian Alspach

(CARMA, The University of Newcastle)

Hoffman-Singleton paper of 1964

Today's discrete mathematics seminar is dedicated to Mirka Miller. I am going to present the beautiful Hoffman-Singleton (1964) paper which established the possible values for valencies for Moore graphs of diameter 2, gave us the Hoffman-Singleton graph of order 50, and gave us one of the intriguing still unsettled problems in combinatorics. The proof is completely linear algebra and is a proof that any serious student in discrete mathematics should see sometime. This is the general area in which Mirka made many contributions.