A captivating introduction to key results of discrete mathematics through the work of Paul Erdős, blended with first-hand reminiscences.

Paul Erdős published more papers during his lifetime than any other mathematician, especially in discrete mathematics. He had a nose for beautiful, simply-stated problems with solutions that have far-reaching consequences across mathematics. This captivating book, written for students, provides an easy-to-understand introduction to discrete mathematics by presenting questions that intrigued Erdős, along with his brilliant ways of working toward their answers. It includes young Erdős's proof of Bertrand's postulate, the Erdős-Szekeres Happy End Theorem, De Bruijn-Erdős theorem, Erdős-Rado delta-systems, Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem, Erdős-Stone theorem, the Erdős-Rényi-Sós Friendship Theorem, Erdős-Rényi random graphs, the Chvátal-Erdős theorem on Hamilton cycles, and other results of Erdős, as well as results related to his work, such as Ramsey's theorem or Deza's theorem on weak delta-systems. Its appendix covers topics normally missing from introductory courses. Filled with personal anecdotes about Erdős, this book offers a behind-the-scenes look at interactions with the legendary collaborator.

This is the most readable and thorough graduate textbook and reference for combinatorics, covering enumeration, graphs, sets, and methods.

This is the first book dedicated to reviewing the mathematics of random tilings of large domains on the plane.

An in-depth description of the state-of-the-art of 3D shape analysis techniques and their applications This book discusses the different topics that come under the title of "3D shape analysis". It covers the theoretical foundations and the major solutions that have been presented in the literature. It also establishes links between solutions proposed by different communities that studied 3D shape, such as mathematics and statistics, medical imaging, computer vision, and computer graphics. The first part of 3D Shape Analysis: Fundamentals, Theory, and Applications provides a review of the background concepts such as methods for the acquisition and representation of 3D geometries, and the fundamentals of geometry and topology. It specifically covers stereo matching, structured light, and intrinsic vs. extrinsic properties of shape. Parts 2 and 3 present a range of mathematical and algorithmic tools (which are used for e.g., global descriptors, keypoint detectors, local feature descriptors, and algorithms) that are commonly used for the detection, registration, recognition, classification, and retrieval of 3D objects. Both also place strong emphasis on recent techniques motivated by the spread of commodity devices for 3D acquisition. Part 4 demonstrates the use of these techniques in a selection of 3D shape analysis applications. It covers 3D face recognition, object recognition in 3D scenes, and 3D shape retrieval. It also discusses examples of semantic applications and cross domain 3D retrieval, i.e. how to retrieve 3D models using various types of modalities, e.g. sketches and/or images. The book concludes with a summary of the main ideas and discussions of the future trends. 3D Shape Analysis: Fundamentals, Theory, and Applications is an excellent reference for graduate students, researchers, and professionals in different fields of mathematics, computer science, and engineering. It is also ideal for courses in computer vision and computer graphics, as well as for those seeking 3D industrial/commercial solutions.

This book provides a thorough and up-to-date discussion of arc routing by world-renowned researchers. Organized by problem type, the book offers a rigorous treatment of complexity issues, models, algorithms, and applications. Arc Routing: Problems, Methods, and Applications opens with a historical perspective of the field and is followed by three sections that cover complexity and the Chinese Postman and the Rural Postman problems; the Capacitated Arc Routing Problem and routing problems with min-max and profit maximization objectives; and important applications, including meter reading, snow removal, and waste collection.

This introductory text covers a variety of applications to interest every reader, from researchers to amateur mathematicians.