Flows, View-Obstructions and the Lonely Runner

Andras Sebö

Laboratoire Leibniz-IMAG, Grenoble

Resumo: Suppose k runners having nonzero constant speeds run laps on a unit-length circular track. Then there is a time at which all runners are at least 1/(k+1) from their common starting point. We call this the ``Lonely Runner Conjecture'', and prove it for k < 5. Besides the proof I would like to show the connection of this problem to several different combinatorial problems, among them to network flows. (This is joint work with Bienia, Goddyn, Gvozdiak and Tarsi).


Last modified: Fri Nov 28 16:55:53 GMT-0200 1997