Math 582EA
Extremal and Probabilistic Combinatorics
David Wilson and Jacques Verstraete
Winter 2003, Monday/Wednesday/Friday 12:30-1:20
This is a one quarter course on the probabilistic method, pioneered by Paul
Erdös. The course will focus on simple yet powerful techniques used in
modern combinatorics. Some old and new applications to areas such as
Computer Science, Combinatorial Number Theory and Geometry will be
included. A highly recommended text is The Probabilistic Method by
N. Alon and J. Spencer.
The course itself has as prerequisites only a
knowledge of basic probability and analytic number theory.