Multi-Symbol Forbidden Configurations

Abstract: An $r$-matrix is a matrix with symbols in ${0,1,\dots,r-1}$. A matrix is simple if it has no repeated columns. Let the support of a matrix $F$, $\text{supp}(F)$ be the largest simple matrix such that every column in $\text{supp}(F)$ is in $F$. For a family of $r$-matrices $\mathcal{F}$, we define $\text{forb}(m,r,\mathcal{F})$ as the maximum number of columns of an $m$-rowed, $r$-matrix $A$ such that $F$ is not a row-column permutation of $A$ for all $F \in \mathcal{F}$. While many results exist for $r=2$, there are fewer for larger numbers of symbols. We expand on the field of forbidding matrices with $r$-symbols, introducing a new construction for lower bounds of the growth of $\text{forb}(m,r,\mathcal{F})$ (with respect to $m$) that is applicable to matrices that are either not simple or have a constant row. We also introduce a new upper bound restriction that helps with avoiding non-simple matrices, limited either by the asymptotic bounds of the support, or the size of the forbidden matrix, whichever is larger. Continuing the trend of upper bounds, we represent a well-known technique of standard induction as a graph, and use graph theory methods to obtain asymptotic upper bounds. With these techniques we solve multiple, previously unknown, asymptotic bounds for a variety of matrices. Finally, we end with block matrices, or matrices with only constant row, and give bounds for all possible cases.