We reveal a connection between the incompressibility method and the Lovasz local lemma in the context of Ramsey theory. We obtain bounds by repeatedly encoding objects of interest and thereby compressing strings. The method is demonstrated on the example of van der Waerden numbers. It applies to lower bounds of Ramsey numbers, large transitive subtournaments and other Ramsey phenomena as well.
We construct of the main object of the Partite Lemma as the colimit over a certain diagram. This gives a purely category theoretic take on the Partite Lemma and establishes the canonicity of the object. Additionally, the categorical point of view allows us to unify the direct Partite Lemma in the Nešetřil--Rödl Theorem with the dual Paritite Lemma by Solecki.
We present a unified approach to proving Ramsey-type theorems for graphs with a forbidden induced subgraph which can be used to extend and improve the earlier results of Rodl, Erdos-Hajnal, Promel-Rodl, Nikiforov, Chung-Graham, and Luczak-Rodl. The proofs are based on a simple lemma (generalizing one by Graham, Rodl, and Rucinski) that can be used as a replacement for Szemeredi's regularity lemma, thereby giving much better bounds. The same approach can be also used to show that pseudo-random graphs have strong induced Ramsey properties. This leads to explicit constructions for upper bounds on…
We show that the Ramsey number is linear for every uniform hypergraph with bounded-degree. This is a hypergraph extension of the famous theorem for ordinary graphs which Chvátal et al. showed in 1983. Our proof is simple, contains the multicolor case, and provides a strong embedding lemma. It shows the potential of a new hypergraph regularity lemma by the author.
In a seminal paper from 1983, Burr and Erdos started the systematic study of Ramsey numbers of cliques vs. large sparse graphs, raising a number of problems. In this paper we develop a new approach to such Ramsey problems using a mix of the Szemeredi regularity lemma, embedding of sparse graphs, Turan type stability, and other structural results. We give exact Ramsey numbers for various classes of graphs, solving all but one of the Burr-Erdos problems.
A major theme in arithmetic combinatorics is proving multiple recurrence results on semigroups (such as Szemerédi's theorem) and this can often be done using methods of ergodic Ramsey theory. What usually lies at the heart of such proofs is that, for actions of semigroups, a certain kind of one recurrence (mixing along a filter) amplifies itself to multiple recurrence. This amplification is proved using a so-called van der Corput difference lemma for a suitable filter on the semigroup. Particular instances of this lemma (for concrete filters) have been proven before (by Furstenberg, Bergelson-…
The Hales--Jewett theorem is one of the pillars of Ramsey theory, from which many other results follow. A celebrated theorem of Shelah says that Hales--Jewett numbers are primitive recursive. A key tool used in his proof, now known as the cube lemma, has become famous in its own right. In its simplest form, this lemma says that if we color the edges of the Cartesian product $K_n \times K_n$ in $r$ colors then, for $n$ sufficiently large, there is a rectangle with both pairs of opposite edges receiving the same color. Shelah's proof shows that $n = r^{\binom{r+1}{2}} + 1$ suffices. More than tw…
Chvátal, Rödl, Szemerédi and Trotter proved that the Ramsey numbers of graphs of bounded maximum degree are linear in their order. We prove that the same holds for 3-uniform hypergraphs. The main new tool which we prove and use is an embedding lemma for 3-uniform hypergraphs of bounded maximum degree into suitable 3-uniform `pseudo-random' hypergraphs.
For given graphs $G_1,\ldots,G_k$, the size-Ramsey number $\hat{R}(G_1,\ldots,G_k)$ is the smallest integer $m$ for which there exists a graph $H$ on $m$ edges such that in every $k$-edge coloring of $H$ with colors $1,\ldots,k$, $ H $ contains a monochromatic copy of $G_i$ of color $i$ for some $1\leq i\leq k$. We denote $\hat{R}(G_1,\ldots,G_k)$ by $\hat{R}_{k}(G)$ when $G_1=\cdots=G_k=G$. Haxell, Kohayakawa and Łuczak showed that the size Ramsey number of a cycle $C_n$ is linear in $n$ i.e. $\hat{R}_{k}(C_{n})\leq c_k n$ for some constant $c_k$. Their proof, is based on the regularity lemma…
Chvatal, Roedl, Szemeredi and Trotter proved that the Ramsey numbers of graphs of bounded maximum degree are linear in their order. In previous work, we proved the same result for 3-uniform hypergraphs. Here we extend this result to k-uniform hypergraphs, for any integer k > 3. As in the 3-uniform case, the main new tool which we prove and use is an embedding lemma for k-uniform hypergraphs of bounded maximum degree into suitable k-uniform `quasi-random' hypergraphs.
The book graph $B_n^{(k)}$ consists of $n$ copies of $K_{k+1}$ joined along a common $K_k$. The Ramsey numbers of $B_n^{(k)}$ are known to have strong connections to the classical Ramsey numbers of cliques. Recently, the first author determined the asymptotic order of these Ramsey numbers for fixed $k$, thus answering an old question of Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau, and Schelp. In this paper, we first provide a simpler proof of this theorem. Next, answering a question of the first author, we present a different proof that avoids the use of Szemerédi's regularity lemma, thus providing much tighter …
In 1983, Burr and Erdős initiated the study of Ramsey goodness problems.Nikiforov and Rousseau (2009) resolved almost all goodness questions raised by Burr and Erdős, in which the bounds on the parameters are of tower type since their proofs rely on the regularity lemma. Let $B_{k,n}$ be the book graph on $n$ vertices which consists of $n-k$ copies of $K_{k+1}$ all sharing a common $K_k$, and let $H=K_p(a_1,\dots,a_{p})$ be the complete $p$-partite graph with parts of sizes $a_1,\dots,a_{p}$. Recently, avoiding use of the regularity lemma, Fox, He and Wigderson (2021) revisit several Ramsey go…
We investigate size Ramsey numbers involving bipartite graphs. It is proved that, if each forbidden graph is fixed or grows with n (in a certain uniform manner), then the extremal function has a linear asymptotics. The corresponding slope can be obtained as the minimum of a certain mixed integer program. Applying the Farkas Lemma, we solve the MIP for complete bipartite graphs, in particular answering a question of Erdos, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp (1978) who asked for the asymptotics of the size Ramsey number of (K_{s,n},K_{s,n}) for fixed s and large n.
We show that there is an absolute constant $c>0$ such that the following holds. For every $n > 1$, there is a 5-uniform hypergraph on at least $2^{2^{cn^{1/4}}}$ vertices with independence number at most $n$, where every set of 6 vertices induces at most 3 edges. The double exponential growth rate for the number of vertices is sharp. By applying a stepping-up lemma established by the first two authors, analogous sharp results are proved for $k$-uniform hypergraphs. This answers the penultimate open case of a conjecture in Ramsey theory posed by Erdős and Hajnal in 1972.
Let $f(n)$ be a function and $L$ be a graph. Denote by $RT(n,L,f(n))$ the maximum number of edges of an $L$-free graph on $n$ vertices with independence number less than $f(n)$. Erd\H os and Sós asked if $RT\left(n, K_5, c\sqrt{n}\right) = o(n^2)$ for some constant $c$. We answer this question by proving the stronger $RT\left(n, K_5, o\left(\sqrt{n\log n}\right)\right) = o(n^2)$. It is known that $RT \left(n, K_5, c \sqrt{n\log n} \right) = n^2/4+o(n^2)$ for $c>1$, so one can say that $K_5$ has a Ramsey-Turán phase transition at $c\sqrt{n\log n}$. We extend this result to several other $K_s$'s…
Given a positive integer $ r $, the $ r $-color size-Ramsey number of a graph $ H $, denoted by $ \hat{R}(H, r) $, is the smallest integer $ m $ for which there exists a graph $ G $ with $ m $ edges such that, in any edge coloring of $ G $ with $ r $ colors, $G$ contains a monochromatic copy of $ H $. Haxell, Kohayakawa and Łuczak showed that the size-Ramsey number of a cycle $ C_n $ is linear in $ n $ i.e. $ \hat{R}(C_n, r) \leq c_rn $, for some constant $ c_r $. Their proof, however, is based on the Szemerédi's regularity lemma and so no specific constant $ c_r $ is known. Javadi, Khoeini, O…
For two graphs $G,H$ and a positive integer $k$, the \emph{Gallai-Ramsey number} $\operatorname{gr}_k(G,H)$ is defined as the minimum number of vertices $n$ such that any $k$-edge-coloring of $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) copy of $G$ or a monochromatic copy of $H$. If $G$ and $H$ are both complete graphs, then we call it Gallai-Ramsey function. Fox and Sudakov proved $\operatorname{gr}_k(K_s,K_t)\leq s^{4kt}$. Alon et al. showed that $\operatorname{gr}_k(K_s,K_t)\leq (2s^3+4s^2)^{kt}$. In this paper, we prove that $\operatorname{gr}_k(K_s,K_t)\leq 2^{kt}s^{3kt}$ for $…
Let $k,l,m$ be integers and $r(k,l,m)$ be the minimum integer $N$ such that for any red-blue-green coloring of $K_{N,N}$, there is a red matching of size at least $k$ in a component, or a blue matching of at least size $l$ in a component, or a green matching of size at least $m$ in a component. In this paper, we determine the exact value of $r(k,l,m)$ completely. Applying a technique originated by Łuczak that applies Szemerédi's Regularity Lemma to reduce the problem of showing the existence of a monochromatic cycle to show the existence of a monochromatic matching in a component, we obtain th…
If we 2-color the vertices of a large hypercube what monochromatic substructures are we guaranteed to find? Call a set S of vertices from Q_d, the d-dimensional hypercube, Ramsey if any 2-coloring of the vertices of Q_n, for n sufficiently large, contains a monochromatic copy of S. Ramsey's theorem tells us that for any r \geq 1 every 2-coloring of a sufficiently large r-uniform hypergraph will contain a large monochromatic clique (a complete subhypergraph): hence any set of vertices from Q_d that all have the same weight is Ramsey. A natural question to ask is: which sets S corresponding to u…
An r-book of size q is a union of q (r+1)-cliques sharing a common r-clique. We find exactly the Ramsey number of a p-clique versus r-books of sufficiently large size. Furthermore, we find asymptotically the Ramsey number of any fixed p-chromatic graph versus r-books of sufficiently large size. The key element in our proofs is Szemeredi's Regularity Lemma.
Haxell et. al. [%P. Haxell, T. Luczak, Y. Peng, V. Rödl, A. %Ruciński, M. Simonovits, J. Skokan, The Ramsey number for hypergraph cycles I, J. Combin. Theory, Ser. A, 113 (2006), 67-83] proved that the 2-color Ramsey number of 3-uniform loose cycles on $2n$ vertices is asymptotically $\frac{5n}{2}$. Their proof is based on the method of Regularity Lemma. Here, without using this method, we generalize their result by determining the exact values of 2-color Ramsey numbers involving loose paths and cycles in 3-uniform hypergraphs. More precisely, we prove that for every $n\geq m\geq 3$, $R(\mathc…
For two graphs, $G$ and $F$, and an integer $r\ge2$ we write $G\rightarrow (F)_r$ if every $r$-coloring of the edges of $G$ results in a monochromatic copy of $F$. In 1995, the first two authors established a threshold edge probability for the Ramsey property $G(n,p)\to (F)_r$, where $G(n,p)$ is a random graph obtained by including each edge of the complete graph on $n$ vertices, independently, with probability $p$. The original proof was based on the regularity lemma of Szemerédi and this led to tower-type dependencies between the involved parameters. Here, for $r=2$, we provide a self-contai…
Given an acyclic oriented graph $\vec{H}$ and a graph $G$, we write $G \to \vec{H}$ if every orientation of $G$ has an oriented copy of $\vec{H}$. We define $\vec{R}(\vec{H})$ as the smallest number $n$ such that there exists a graph $G$ satisfying $G \to \vec{H}$. Denoting by $R(H)$ the classical Ramsey number of a graph $H$, we show that $\vec{R}(\vec{H}) \leq 2R(H)^{c \log^2 h}$ for every acyclic oriented graph $\vec{H}$ with $h$ vertices, where $H$ is its underlying undirected graph. We also study the threshold function for the event $\{G(n,p) \to \vec{H}\}$ in the binomial random graph $G…
A classical and widely used lemma of Erdos and Szekeres asserts that for every n there exists N such that every N-term sequence a of real numbers contains an n-term increasing subsequence or an n-term nondecreasing subsequence; quantitatively, the smallest N with this property equals (n-1)^2+1. In the setting of the present paper, we express this lemma by saying that the set of predicates Phi={x_1<x_2,x_1\ge x_2}$ is Erdos-Szekeres with Ramsey function ES_Phi(n)=(n-1)^2+1. In general, we consider an arbitrary finite set Phi={Phi_1,...,Phi_m} of semialgebraic predicates, meaning that each Phi_j…
In this paper we study Turán and Ramsey numbers in linear triple systems, defined as $3$-uniform hypergraphs in which any two triples intersect in at most one vertex. A famous result of Ruzsa and Szemerédi is that for any fixed $c>0$ and large enough $n$ the following Turán-type theorem holds. If a linear triple system on $n$ vertices has at least $cn^2$ edges then it contains a {\em triangle}: three pairwise intersecting triples without a common vertex. In this paper we extend this result from triangles to other triple systems, called {\em $s$-configurations}. The main tool is a generalizatio…
Let n \geq l \geq 2 and q \geq 2. We consider the minimum N such that whenever we have N points in the plane in general position and the l-subsets of these points are colored with q colors, there is a subset S of n points all of whose l-subsets have the same color and furthermore S is in convex position. This combines two classical areas of intense study over the last 75 years: the Ramsey problem for hypergraphs and the Erd\H os-Szekeres theorem on convex configurations in the plane. For the special case l = 2, we establish a single exponential bound on the minimum N, such that every complete …
The Lovász Local Lemma is a powerful probabilistic technique for proving the existence of combinatorial objects. It is especially useful for colouring graphs and hypergraphs with bounded maximum degree. This paper presents a general theorem for colouring hypergraphs that in many instances matches or slightly improves upon the bounds obtained using the Lovász Local Lemma. Moreover, the theorem directly shows that there are exponentially many colourings. The elementary and self-contained proof is inspired by a recent result for nonrepetitive colourings by Rosenfeld [2020]. We apply our general t…
Given an $r$-uniform hypergraph $H$, the multicolor Ramsey number $r_k(H)$ is the minimum $n$ such that every $k$-coloring of the edges of the complete $r$-uniform hypergraph $K_n^r$ yields a monochromatic copy of $H$. We investigate $r_k(H)$ when $k$ grows and $H$ is fixed. For nontrivial 3-uniform hypergraphs $H$, the function $r_k(H)$ ranges from $\sqrt{6k}(1+o(1))$ to double exponential in $k$. We observe that $r_k(H)$ is polynomial in $k$ when $H$ is $r$-partite and at least single-exponential in $k$ otherwise. Erdős, Hajnal and Rado gave bounds for large cliques $K_s^r$ with $s\ge s_0(r)…
Let $C_{n}$ be a cycle of length $n$. As an application of Szemerédi's regularity lemma, Łuczak ($R(C_n,C_n,C_n)\leq (4+o(1))n$, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 75 (1999), 174--187) in fact established that $K_{(8+o(1))n}\to(C_{2n+1},C_{2n+1},C_{2n+1})$. In this paper, we strengthen several results involving cycles. Let $\mathcal{G}(n,p)$ be the random graph. We prove that for fixed $0<p\le1$, and integers $n_1$, $n_2$ and $n_3$ with $n_1\ge n_2\ge n_3$, it holds that for any sufficiently small $δ>0$, there exists an integer $n_0$ such that for all integer $n_3>n_0$, we have a.a.s. that \begin{align…
We consider $m$-colorings of the edges of a complete graph, where each color class is defined semi-algebraically with bounded complexity. The case $m = 2$ was first studied by Alon et al., who applied this framework to obtain surprisingly strong Ramsey-type results for intersection graphs of geometric objects and for other graphs arising in computational geometry. Considering larger values of $m$ is relevant, e.g., to problems concerning the number of distinct distances determined by a point set. For $p\ge 3$ and $m\ge 2$, the classical Ramsey number $R(p;m)$ is the smallest positive integer $…
Let H be a k-uniform hypergraph whose vertices are the integers 1,...,N. We say that H contains a monotone path of length n if there are x_1 < x_2 < ... < x_{n+k-1} so that H contains all n edges of the form {x_i,x_{i+1},...,x_{i+k-1}}. Let N_k(q,n) be the smallest integer N so that every q-coloring of the edges of the complete k-uniform hypergraph on N vertices contains a monochromatic monotone path of length n. While the study of N_k(q,n) for specific values of k and q goes back (implicitly) to the seminal 1935 paper of Erdos and Szekeres, the problem of bounding N_k(q,n) for arbitrary k and…
For positive integers $N$ and $r \geq 2$, an $r$-monotone coloring of $\binom{\{1,\dots,N\}}{r}$ is a 2-coloring by $-1$ and $+1$ that is monotone on the lexicographically ordered sequence of $r$-tuples of every $(r+1)$-tuple from~$\binom{\{1,\dots,N\}}{r+1}$. Let ${\overline{R}_{mon}}(n;r)$ be the minimum $N$ such that every $r$-monotone coloring of $\binom{\{1,\dots,N\}}{r}$ contains a monochromatic copy of $\binom{\{1,\dots,n\}}{r}$. For every $r \geq 3$, it is known that ${\overline{R}_{mon}}(n;r) \leq tow_{r-1}(O(n))$, where $tow_h(x)$ is the tower function of height $h-1$ defined as $tow…
Many classical theorems in combinatorics establish the emergence of substructures within sufficiently large collections of objects. Well-known examples are Ramsey's theorem on monochromatic subgraphs and the Erdős-Rado sunflower lemma. Implicit versions of the corresponding total search problems are known to be PWPP-hard; here "implici" means that the collection is represented by a poly-sized circuit inducing an exponentially large number of objects. We show that several other well-known theorems from extremal combinatorics - including Erdős-Ko-Rado, Sperner, and Cayley's formula - give rise t…
Schrijver Number Quasi-Tensorization and Multicolor Ramsey Bounds via Robust OR Polynomials
Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Computer Science（佐治亚理工学院计算机科学学院）；Princeton University, Operations Research and Financial Engineering（普林斯顿大学运筹学与金融工程学）
The partition relation N \to (n)_{\ell}^k means that whenever the k-tuples of an N-element set are \ell-colored, there is a monochromatic set of size n, where a set is called monochromatic if all its k-tuples have the same color. The logical negation of N \to (n)_{\ell}^k is written as N \not \to (n)_{\ell}^k. An ingenious construction of Erdős and Hajnal known as the stepping-up lemma gives a negative partition relation for higher uniformity from one of lower uniformity, effectively gaining an exponential in each application. Namely, if \ell \geq 2, k \geq 3, and N \not \to (n)_{\ell}^k, then…
We study the complexity of computational problems arising from existence theorems in extremal combinatorics. For some of these problems, a solution is guaranteed to exist based on an iterated application of the Pigeonhole Principle. This results in the definition of a new complexity class within TFNP, which we call PLC (for "polynomial long choice"). PLC includes all of PPP, as well as numerous previously unclassified total problems, including search problems related to Ramsey's theorem, the Sunflower theorem, the Erdős-Ko-Rado lemma, and König's lemma. Whether the first two of these four prob…
