Multidimensional threshold matrices and extremal matrices of order $2$

Abstract

The paper is devoted to multidimensional $(0,1)$-matrices extremal with respect to containing a polydiagonal (a fractional generalization of a diagonal). Every extremal matrix is a threshold matrix, i.e., an entry belongs to its support whenever a weighted sum of incident hyperplanes exceeds a given threshold. Firstly, we prove that nonequivalent threshold matrices have different distributions of ones in hyperplanes. Next, we establish that extremal matrices of order $2$ are exactly selfdual threshold Boolean functions. Using this fact, we find the asymptotics of the number of extremal matrices of order $2$ and provide counterexamples to several conjectures on extremal matrices. Finally, we describe extremal matrices of order $2$ with a small diversity of hyperplanes.

arXiv commentv. 2: small corrections v. 3: final version