Harwit and Sloane conjectured that every nonsingular entrywise-nonnegative matrix $A\in\mathbb R^{n\times n}$ satisfies $\|A^{-1}\|_F\ge 2n(n+1)^{-1}\|A\|_{\max}^{-1}$, with equality precisely for positive multiples of $S$-matrices. Cheng proved the conjecture in odd dimensions, while Frankel and Urschel proved the even-dimensional case for $n\ge1000$. We complete the remaining even-dimensional cases. Starting from the structural identities in Frankel--Urschel Lemma 2.1, we derive an exact global defect budget and combine binary rounding with Gram projection. A refined ten-row obstruction handles every even $n\ge66$; a finite exact calculation handles $4\le n\le64$, $n\ne6$; and a separate multi-column energy argument treats $n=6$. The order-two case follows from a direct calculation. The new even-dimensional proof has been formalized in Lean 4, with Frankel--Urschel Lemma 2.1 as its sole external mathematical input. Together with Cheng's odd-dimensional theorem, this proves the S-matrix conjecture in every dimension.
For $m\geq 2$, let $c_p(m)$ be the all-dimensional best constant in $$ \left\|\sum_{k=1}^m A_k\right\|_p \leq c_p(m)\left\|\sum_{k=1}^m |A_k|\right\|_p. $$ Tang and Zhang conjectured an explicit formula for every finite $p>1$. We disprove the conjecture with two explicit real $2\times 2$ rank-one matrices at $p=3/2$. The comparison is certified by seven strict rational inequalities and, in particular, places the attained ratio above $207/200$, while the conjectured constant lies below $207/200$. On the positive side, we prove the conjectured sharp bound for every family of rank-at-most-one summands when $2\leq p<\infty$, and classify all equality cases. We also prove the corresponding endpoint statement for $p=\infty$. Finally, for arbitrary complex matrices, we establish the conjectured sharp constant in the case $m=2$, $p=4$.
Two permutations $\sigma,\tau\in S_n$ are called disjoint if the composition $\sigma\tau^{-1}$ has no fixed point. If a family $\mathcal F\subseteq S_n$ contains no $s$ pairwise disjoint permutations, then a simple averaging argument gives $|\mathcal F|\leq(s-1)(n-1)!$. Inozemtsev, Kolupaev and Kupavskii characterized the equality cases in the range $s\leq n/(2^{17}\log n).$ We characterize all equality cases throughout the range $2\le s\le n$: equality holds if and only if $\mathcal F$ is a union of $(s-1)$ pairwise disjoint $1$-cosets. We also prove the linear statement underlying this classification: a real-valued function on $S_n$ has constant sum on every one-factorization if and only if it lies in the span of the indicators of the $1$-cosets. The proof is combinatorial and applies to every order, with a few small orders handled separately.
We study real multilinear forms with coefficients in $\{-1,1\}$ on finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Every trilinear sign form on $\ell_2^r\times\ell_2^n\times\ell_2^n$ has norm at least $\sqrt n$. Writing $K_{r,n}$ for the least norm divided by $\sqrt n$, we prove that $K_{r,n}=1$ exactly when a Hadamard matrix of order $n$ exists and $r\le\rho(n)$, where $\rho$ is the Hurwitz--Radon function. If equality fails, we obtain an explicit gap above $\sqrt n$. We also prove two asymptotic results. If $1\le m_n\le n$ and $\limsup r_n/\log_2 n<2$, there are sign forms on $\ell_2^{r_n}\times\ell_2^{m_n}\times\ell_2^n$ with norm $(1+o(1))\sqrt n$. In the square case, if $r\ge2\lceil\log_2(8n)\rceil$, then $K_{r,n}-1\ge c(1+\log_2 n)^{-4}$. We also prove a fourth-moment estimate in every fixed multilinear order, characterize equality, and give exact and asymptotic constructions.
Let $\mu$ be a log-concave probability measure on $\mathbb R^n$ and let $f\colon\mathbb R^n\to\mathbb R^k$ be a polynomial mapping of degree at most $d$. We show that \[ \mu(f\in A) \le C\bigl(\lambda_k(A)\bigr)^{\frac{1}{k(d-1)+1}} \] for every Borel set $A\subset\mathbb R^k$ whenever the image measure $\mu\circ f^{-1}$ is absolutely continuous. The constant $C$ is independent of the dimension $n$, and the exponent $\frac{1}{k(d-1)+1}$ is sharp. This extends the scalar Carbery--Wright inequality and answers, in the log-concave setting, a question raised by Avni, Glazer, and Larsen. In addition, we show that the density of $\mu\circ f^{-1}$, whenever it exists, belongs to the Nikolskii--Besov space $B^{\frac{1}{k(d-1)+1}}_{1,\infty}(\mathbb R^k)$, with a dimension-free bound for the corresponding norm. A central difficulty in passing from scalar polynomials to vector-valued polynomial mappings is the lack of a suitable nondegeneracy parameter quantifying absolute continuity of $\mu\circ f^{-1}$, as the variance does in the scalar case. Natural candidates such as the covariance matrix or the Jacobian matrix either fail to characterize this property or do not lead to dimension-free estimates. We identify such a parameter and define it to be the covariance matrix of the vector formed by the monomials of degree up to $d^{k-1}$ in the normalized components of $f$. The dimension-free nature of our results allows us to extend Kusuoka's absolute continuity criterion for Gaussian polynomial random vectors to the log-concave setting. Moreover, in this setting, we obtain estimates relating convergence in distribution to convergence in total variation for polynomial random vectors.
The Johnson--Lindenstrauss lemma asserts that every set of $n$ points in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space embeds into $O(\varepsilon^{-2}\log n)$-dimensional Euclidean space with distortion at most $1+\varepsilon$. Larsen and Nelson conjectured that the optimal target dimension throughout the full range of the parameters $n,d, \varepsilon$ is \[ \Theta\left(\min\left\{d,n-1,\frac{\log(2+\varepsilon^2n)}{\varepsilon^2}\right\}\right). \] We resolve this conjecture in the affirmative. In fact, we prove the stronger statement that the upper bound is attained by a linear map. The matching lower bound, due to Larsen--Nelson and Alon--Klartag, holds even for nonlinear embeddings.
We show that the weak Markus--Yamabe conjecture fails in every dimension $n\geq14$. We first prove a chain realization theorem: every polynomial Keller map $F=\I+H$ of $\R^n$ with component degrees $d_1,\ldots,d_n$ yields an explicit polynomial vector field on $\R^N$, with $N=\sum_i\max(d_i,2)-n$, whose Jacobian matrix has spectrum $\{-1\}$ at every point and whose singularities are in bijection with any prescribed fiber of $F$. Applied to the recent counterexample to the Jacobian conjecture, this gives a Hurwitz vector field of degree seven on $\R^{14}$ with three rational singularities. A rank-reduced dehomogenization of the associated cubic stabilization gives, independently, a Hurwitz field of degree three on $\R^{18}$. The dimensions $3\leq n\leq13$ remain open.
Álvaro Castañeda, Gerardo Honorato, Francisco Valenzuela-Henríquez· 1 citation
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