Selected Papers on Discrete Mathematics

Donald Knuth’s influence in computer science ranges from the invention of literate programming to the development of the TeX programming language. One of the foremost figures in the field of mathematical sciences, his papers are widely referenced and stand as milestones of development over a wide range of topics. This volume assembles more than three dozen of Professor Knuth’s pioneering contributions to discrete mathematics. It includes a variety of topics in combinatorial mathematics (finite geometries, graph theory, enumeration, partitions, tableaux, matroids, codes); discrete algebra (finite fields, groupoids, closure operators, inequalities, convolutions, Pfaffians); and concrete mathematics (recurrence relations, special numbers and notations, identities, discrete probability). Of particular interest are two fundamental papers in which the evolution of random graphs is studied by means of generating functions.