Courses:

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A paper of 6-12 pages related to algebraic combinatorics is due on the last class. The paper should be printed in some flavor of TeX (e.g., LaTeX). It is strongly recommended that all figures be drawn with some graphics package (such as xfig) that can be incorporated into LaTeX, the reason being that knowing how to do this will prove invaluable for your future career.

The paper need not have any original mathematics, but it should consist of more than paraphrasing from a single source. There should be a bibliography with at least two references. You can choose any topic related to algebraic combinatorics, but your topic needs to be approved in advance. In particular, the paper must involve some algebra (linear algebra, groups, rings, fields, ...). Therefore please let me know (in person or by email) your proposed paper topic. Include a couple of sentences about what material you plan to cover.

Some suggestions for paper topics, along with ideas for sources:

Stanley, Richard P. Combinatorics and Commutative Algebra. 2nd ed. Boston, MA: Birkhäuser, 1996. ISBN: 0817638369 and 3764338369.

Miller, Ezra, and Bernd Sturmfels. Combinatorial Commutative Algebra. New York, NY: Springer, c2005. ISBN: 0387223568.

My book Combinatorics and Commutative Algebra has many possible topics, as does Combinatorial Commutative Algebra by Miller and Sturmfels.

Graham, R. L., M. Grötschel, and L. Lovász, eds. Handbook of Combinatorics. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 0262071711.

The article "Topological methods" by Anders Björner in Handbook of Combinatorics, vol. 2, pp. 1819-1872, is a good place to get started.

Graham, R. L., M. Grötschel, and L. Lovász, eds. Handbook of Combinatorics. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 0262071711.

See the articles "Tools from linear algebra" by C. D. Godsil, pp. 1707-1748, and "Tools from higher algebra" by Noga Alon, pp. 1749-1783, in Handbook of Combinatorics, vol. 2.

Cvetković, Dragoš M. Spectra of Graphs: Theory and Application. 3rd ed. Edited by Dragoš M. Cvetković, Michael Doob, and Horst Sachs. New York, NY: Academic Press, 1979. ISBN: 0121951502.

Biggs, Norman, ed. Algebraic Graph Theory. 2nd ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1993. ISBN: 0521458978.

A huge topic. The book Spectra of Graphs, 3rd ed., by Cvetkovic, Doob, and Sachs will get you into the literature. The book Algebraic Graph Theory by Biggs also has a lot of information.

Stein, Sherman K. Algebra and Tiling: Homomorphisms in the Service of Geometry. Edited by Sherman K. Stein and Sándor Szabó. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America, 1994. ISBN: 0883850281.

See Algebra and Tiling by S. K. Stein and S. Szabó. I hope to cover some of these topics in class.

Graham, R. L., M. Grötschel, and L. Lovász, eds. Handbook of Combinatorics. Vol. 1. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. ISBN: 0262071703.

This includes such topics as permutation groups, association schemes, block designs, and codes. See Chapters 12-16 in Handbook of Combinatorics, vol. 1.