A generalized marriage theorem

Abstract

We consider a set-valued mapping on a simple graph and ask for the existence of a disparate selection. The term disparate is defined in the paper and we present a sufficient and necessary condition for the existence of a disparate selection. This approach generalizes the classical marriage theorem of Hall. We define the disparate kernel of the set-valued mapping and provide calculation methods for the disparate kernel and a disparate selection. Our main theorem is applied to a result of Ryser on the completion of partially prepopulated Latin squares and we derive Hall's marriage theorem.

33 pages, 3 figures