Élie de Panafieu

Élie de Panafieu

Researcher at Nokia Bell Labs France, Paris-Saclay

I work in analytic combinatorics: encoding discrete structures by generating functions, and reading their asymptotics off the analytic behaviour of those functions. I apply it to the enumeration and typical structure of random graphs, and to the analysis of algorithms, with a focus on computational social choice.

Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches

I will defend my HDR November 30th at 9am, at Jussieu, room 25-26 / 105. A link to the defense will be posted here. The manuscript is available here.

Research

Since my PhD I have worked at enriching analytic combinatorics for graph enumeration, in two directions: extending what the method can describe to richer models (degree constraints, hypergraphs, inhomogeneous graphs, directed graphs), and extracting more from the classical ones, such as complete asymptotic expansions of connected and regular graphs, the structure of sparse random digraphs across their phase transition, and the spectrum of sparse random graphs.

The analysis of algorithms is my other source of problems, and the two mix: the exact enumeration of satisfiable 2-SAT formulas, cluster graphs and modularity, active clustering, and the manipulability of voting rules all use the same tools.

I am the main coordinator of PROSOC, an ANR project on probability and social choice, submitted to the 2026 call and currently on the waiting list. I was the local coordinator at Nokia of RandNET, a European MSCA-RISE project on random graphs and networks (2021–2026).

Students

  • Emma Caizergues, PhD, Université Paris-Dauphine PSL, 2022–2025, co-supervised with Jérôme Lang and François Durand. Analytic Combinatorics and the Probability of the Condorcet Paradox.
  • Quentin Lutz, PhD, Télécom Paris, 2019–2022, co-supervised with Thomas Bonald. Graph-based Contributions to Machine Learning.
  • Marta Teodora Trales, bachelor thesis, École polytechnique, 2025, co-supervised with Cédric Adjih and Pierre Escamilla.

Teaching

  • Analysis of Algorithms, M2, Master Parisien de Recherche en Informatique, since 2019.
  • Analytic Combinatorics, M2 Mathématiques de l'aléatoire, Université Paris-Saclay, since 2022.

Publications

Journal articles

  • 2026Tree walks and the spectrum of random graphsEva-Maria Hainzl and Élie de PanafieuEuropean Journal of Combinatorics 136, 104386DOI
  • 2026Combinatorics of nondeterministic walksÉlie de Panafieu and Michael WallnerCombinatorial Theory, to appeararXiv
  • 2026Probability of a Condorcet winner for large electorates: an analytic combinatorics approachEmma Caizergues, François Durand, Marc Noy, Élie de Panafieu and Vlady RavelomananaJournal of Artificial Intelligence Research. Accepted, to appeararXiv
  • 2024The birth of the strong componentsSergey Dovgal, Élie de Panafieu, Dimbinaina Ralaivaosaona, Vonjy Rasendrahasina and Stephan WagnerRandom Structures & Algorithms 64(2), 170–266arXivDOI
  • 2023Exact enumeration of satisfiable 2-SAT formulaeSergey Dovgal, Élie de Panafieu and Vlady RavelomananaCombinatorial Theory 3(2), article 7arXivDOI
  • 2020Threshold functions for small subgraphs in simple graphs and multigraphsGwendal Collet, Élie de Panafieu, Danièle Gardy, Bernhard Gittenberger and Vlady RavelomananaEuropean Journal of Combinatorics 88, 103113DOI
  • 2019Analytic combinatorics of connected graphsÉlie de PanafieuRandom Structures & Algorithms 55(2), 427–495DOI
  • 20162-Xor revisited: satisfiability and probabilities of functionsÉlie de Panafieu, Danièle Gardy, Bernhard Gittenberger and Markus KubaAlgorithmica 76(4), 1035–1076DOI
  • 2015Analytic description of the phase transition of inhomogeneous multigraphsÉlie de Panafieu and Vlady RavelomananaEuropean Journal of Combinatorics 48, 186–197arXivDOI
  • 2015Phase transition of random non-uniform hypergraphsÉlie de PanafieuJournal of Discrete Algorithms 31, 26–39DOI
  • 2012Attribute-based encryption schemes with constant-size ciphertextsNuttapong Attrapadung, Javier Herranz, Fabien Laguillaumie, Benoît Libert, Élie de Panafieu and Carla RàfolsTheoretical Computer Science 422, 15–38DOI

Conference papers

  • 2026Super Condorcet winners and limit coalitional manipulability of IRVFrançois Durand, Élie de Panafieu and Guillem PerarnauIJCAI 2026arXiv
  • 2026The communication complexity of instant-runoff votingÉlie de Panafieu, François Durand and Jérôme LangIJCAI 2026arXiv
  • 2024Tree walks and the spectrum of random graphsEva-Maria Hainzl and Élie de PanafieuAofA 2024DOI
  • 2024Robot positioning using torus packing for multisetsChung Shue Chen, Peter Keevash, Sean Kennedy, Élie de Panafieu and Adrian VettaICALP 2024arXivDOI
  • 2023Exact enumeration of graphs and bipartite graphs with degree constraints (extended abstract)Emma Caizergues and Élie de PanafieuEUROCOMB 2023DOI
  • 2021Active clustering for labeling training dataQuentin Lutz, Élie de Panafieu, Maya Stein and Alex ScottNeurIPS 2021arXiv
  • 2020Counting directed acyclic and elementary digraphsÉlie de Panafieu and Sergey DovgalFPSAC 2020, Séminaire Lotharingien de Combinatoire 84BarXiv
  • 2019Combinatorics of nondeterministic walks of the Dyck and Motzkin typeÉlie de Panafieu, Mohamed Lamine Lamali and Michael WallnerANALCO 2019arXivDOI
  • 2018Of kernels and queues: when network calculus meets analytic combinatoricsAnne Bouillard, Céline Comte, Élie de Panafieu and Fabien MathieuITC 30, 2018arXivDOI
  • 2017Threshold functions for small subgraphs: an analytic approachGwendal Collet, Élie de Panafieu, Danièle Gardy, Bernhard Gittenberger and Vlady RavelomananaEUROCOMB 2017arXivDOI
  • 2016Graphs with degree constraintsÉlie de Panafieu and Lander RamosANALCO 2016arXivDOI
  • 2016Counting connected graphs with large excessÉlie de PanafieuFPSAC 2016arXiv
  • 2015Enumeration and structure of inhomogeneous graphsÉlie de PanafieuFPSAC 2015arXiv
  • 2014Probabilities of 2-Xor functionsÉlie de Panafieu, Danièle Gardy, Bernhard Gittenberger and Markus KubaLATIN 2014DOI
  • 2013Complexity estimates for two uncoupling algorithmsAlin Bostan, Frédéric Chyzak and Élie de PanafieuISSAC 2013arXivDOI
  • 2011Expressive key-policy attribute-based encryption with constant-size ciphertextsNuttapong Attrapadung, Benoît Libert and Élie de PanafieuPKC 2011DOI

French national conferences

  • 2019De la probabilité de creuser un tunnelÉlie de Panafieu, Mohamed Lamine Lamali and Michael WallnerALGOTEL 2019HAL
  • 20190 = 0, c'est le truc du noyau! Application aux files d'attenteAnne Bouillard, Céline Comte, Élie de Panafieu and Fabien MathieuALGOTEL 2019HAL

Preprints

  • 2024Asymptotic expansion of regular and connected regular graphsÉlie de PanafieuarXiv
  • 2024The Erdős-Rényi random graph conditioned on every component being a cliqueMartijn Gösgens, Lukas Lüchtrath, Elena Magnanini, Marc Noy and Élie de PanafieuarXiv

Thesis

  • 2014Analytic combinatorics of graphs, hypergraphs and inhomogeneous graphsÉlie de PanafieuPhD thesis, Université Paris-Diderot, 2014

Patents

  • Positioning approachChung Shue Chen, Paolo Baracca, Élie de Panafieu, Diomidis MichalopoulosNokia Technologies. GB 2631540 A, EP 4488708 A1, US 2025/0016725 A1; priority 7 July 2023, published January 2025. Under examinationEPO
  • Clustering of a set of itemsÉlie de Panafieu, Maria Laura Maag, Quentin LutzNokia Solutions and Networks. EP 3923191 A1; filed 11 June 2020, published 15 December 2021, subsequently withdrawnEPO