The problem of determining the maximum size $La(n,P)$ that a $P$-free subposet of the Boolean lattice $B_n$ can have, attracted the attention of many researchers, but little is known about the induced version of these problems. In this paper we determine the asymptotic behavior of $La^*(n,P)$, the maximum size that an induced $P$-free subposet of the Boolean lattice $B_n$ can have for the case when $P$ is the complete two-level poset $K_{r,t}$ or the complete multi-level poset $K_{r,s_1,\dots,s_j,t}$ when all $s_i$'s either equal 4 or are large enough and satisfy an extra condition. We also show lower and upper bounds for the non-induced problem in the case when $P$ is the complete three-level poset $K_{r,s,t}$. These bounds determine the asymptotics of $La(n,K_{r,s,t})$ for some values of $s$ independently of the values of $r$ and $t$.
Upper bounds to the size of a family of subsets of an n-element set that avoids certain configurations are proved. These forbidden configurations can be described by inclusion patterns and some sets having the same size. Our results are closely related to the forbidden subposet problems, where the avoided configurations are described solely by inclusions.
We prove that for every poset $P$, there is a constant $C$ such that the size of any family of subsets of $[n]$ that does not contain $P$ as an induced subposet is at most $C{\binom{n}{\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\rfloor}}$, settling a conjecture of Katona, and Lu and Milans. We obtain this bound by establishing a connection to the theory of forbidden submatrices and then applying a higher dimensional variant of the Marcus-Tardos theorem, proved by Klazar and Marcus. We also give a new proof of their result.
For posets $P$ and $Q$, extremal and saturation problems about weak and strong $P$-free subposets of $Q$ have been studied mostly in the case $Q$ is the Boolean poset $Q_n$, the poset of all subsets of an $n$-element set ordered by inclusion. In this paper, we study some instances of the problem with $Q$ being the grid, and its connections to the Boolean case and to the forbidden submatrix problem.
For each poset $H$ whose Hasse diagram is a tree of height $k$, we show that the largest size of a family $\cF$ of subsets of $[n]=\{1,..., n\}$ not containing $H$ as an induced subposet is asymptotic to $(k-1){n\choose \fl{n/2}}$. This extends the result of Bukh \cite{bukh}, which in turn generalizes several known results including Sperner's theorem.
We asymptotically determine the size of the largest family F of subsets of {1,...,n} not containing a given poset P if the Hasse diagram of P is a tree. This is a qualitative generalization of several known results including Sperner's theorem.
We introduce a method of decomposing the family of intervals along a cyclic permutation into chains to determine the size of the largest family of subsets of $[n]:= \{1,2,...,n\}$ not containing one or more given posets as a subposet. De Bonis, Katona and Swanepoel determined the size of the largest butterfly-free family. We strengthen this result by showing that, for certain posets containing the butterfly poset as a subposet, the same bound holds. We also obtain the corresponding LYM-type inequalities.
We consider the problem of determining the maximum number of pairs $F\subseteq F'$ in a family $\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ that avoids certain posets $P$ of height 2. We show that for any such $P$ the number of pairs is $O(n\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor})$ and we find the exact value for the butterfly poset and the $N$ poset. Also, we determine the asymptotics of the maximum number of pairs in containment for some posets of which the Hasse diagram is a path.
In this short paper, we prove the following generalization of a result of Methuku and Pálvölgyi. Let $P$ be a poset, then there exists a constant $C_{P}$ with the following property. Let $k$ and $n$ be arbitrary positive integers such that $n$ is at least the dimension of $P$, and let $w$ be the size of the largest antichain of the grid $[k]^{n}$ endowed with the usual pointwise ordering. If $S$ is a subset of $[k]^{n}$ not containing an induced copy of $P$, then $|S|\leq C_{P}w$.
Let $\F\subset 2^{[n]}$ be a family of subsets of $\{1,2,..., n\}$. For any poset $H$, we say $\F$ is $H$-free if $\F$ does not contain any subposet isomorphic to $H$. Katona and others have investigated the behavior of $\La(n,H)$, which denotes the maximum size of $H$-free families $\F\subset 2^{[n]}$. Here we use a new approach, which is to apply methods from extremal graph theory and probability theory to identify new classes of posets $H$, for which $\La(n,H)$ can be determined asymptotically as $n\to\infty$ for various posets $H$, including two-end-forks, up-down trees, and cycles $C_{4k}…
Let $F$ be a family of subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$. We say that $F$ is $P$-free if the inclusion order on $F$ does not contain $P$ as an induced subposet. The \emph{Turán function} of $P$, denoted $π^*(n,P)$, is the maximum size of a $P$-free family of subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$. We show that $π^*(n,P) \le (4r + O(\sqrt{r}))\binom{n}{n/2}$ if $P$ is an $r$-element poset of height at most $2$. We also show that $π^*(n,S_r) = (r+O(\sqrt{r}))\binom{n}{n/2}$ where $S_r$ is the standard example on $2r$ elements, and that $π^*(n,B_2) \le (2.583+o(1))\binom{n}{n/2}$, where $B_2$ is the $2$-dimension…
In this paper we introduce a problem that bridges forbidden subposet and forbidden subconfiguration problems. The sets $F_1,F_2, \dots,F_{|P|}$ form a copy of a poset $P$, if there exists a bijection $i:P\rightarrow \{F_1,F_2, \dots,F_{|P|}\}$ such that for any $p,p'\in P$ the relation $p<_P p'$ implies $i(p)\subsetneq i(p')$. A family $\mathcal{F}$ of sets is \textit{$P$-free} if it does not contain any copy of $P$. The trace of a family $\mathcal{F}$ on a set $X$ is $\mathcal{F}|_X:=\{F\cap X: F\in \mathcal{F}\}$. We introduce the following notions: $\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ is $l$-trac…
The poset $Y_{k+1, 2}$ consists of $k+2$ distinct elements $x_1$, $x_2$, \dots, $x_{k}$, $y_1$,$y_2$, such that $x_1 \le x_2 \le \dots \le x_{k} \le y_1$,~$y_2$. The poset $Y'_{k+1, 2}$ is the dual of $Y_{k+1, 2}$ Let $\rm{La}^{\sharp}(n,\{Y_{k+1, 2}, Y'_{k+1, 2}\})$ be the size of the largest family $\mathcal{F} \subset 2^{[n]}$ that contains neither $Y_{k+1,2}$ nor $Y'_{k+1,2}$ as an induced subposet. Methuku and Tompkins proved that $\rm{La}^{\sharp}(n, \{Y_{3,2}, Y'_{3,2}\}) = Σ(n,2)$ for $n \ge 3$ and they conjectured the generalization that if $k \ge 2$ is an integer and $n \ge k+1$, the…
We address a supersaturation problem in the context of forbidden subposets. A family $\mathcal{F}$ of sets is said to contain the poset $P$ if there is an injection $i:P \rightarrow \mathcal{F}$ such that $p \le_P q$ implies $i(p) \subset i (q)$. The poset on four elements $a,b,c,d$ with $a,b \le c,d$ is called butterfly. The maximum size of a family $\mathcal{F} \subseteq 2^{[n]}$ that does not contain a butterfly is $Σ(n,2)=\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor}+\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor+1}$ as proved by De Bonis, Katona, and Swanepoel. We prove that if $\mathcal{F} \subseteq 2^{[n]}$ contains $…
In this paper we continue investigations of cover-incomparability graphs of finite partially ordered sets (see \cite{Bres,Bres2,Bres3,Bres4} and \cite{Max,MaxDH}). We consider in some detail the distinction between cover-preserving subsets and isometric subsets of a partially ordered set. This is critical to understanding why forbidden subposet characterizations of certain classes of cover-incomparability graphs in \cite{Bres} and \cite{Bres3} are not valid as presented. Here we provide examples, investigate the root of the difficulties, and formulate and prove valid revisions of these charact…
In the area of forbidden subposet problems we look for the largest possible size $La(n,P)$ of a family $\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ that does not contain a forbidden inclusion pattern described by $P$. The main conjecture of the area states that for any finite poset $P$ there exists an integer $e(P)$ such that $La(n,P)=(e(P)+o(1))\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}$. In this paper, we formulate three strengthenings of this conjecture and prove them for some specific classes of posets. (The parameters $x(P)$ and $d(P)$ are defined in the paper.) $\bullet$ For any finite connected poset $P$ and $\va…
We prove a general lemma (inspired by a lemma of Holroyd and Talbot) about the connection of the largest cardinalities (or weight) of structures satisfying some hereditary property and substructures satisfying the same hereditary property. We use it to show how results concerning forbidden subposet problems in the Boolean poset imply analogous results in the poset of subspaces of a finite vector space. We also study generalized forbidden subposet problems in the poset of subspaces.
Resolving a conjecture of Methuku and the first author we determine the size of the largest family of subsets of an $n$-element set avoiding both $Y_k$ and $Y_k'$ as induced subposets. The result follows as a consequence of the analogous result on a cyclical grid poset.
Let $P$ be a partially ordered set. The function $\mbox{La}^{\#}(n,P)$ denotes the size of the largest family $\mathcal{F}\subset 2^{[n]}$ that does not contain an induced copy of $P$. It was proved by Methuku and Pálvölgyi that there exists a constant $C_{P}$ (depending only on $P$) such that $\mbox{La}^{\#}(n,P)<C_{P}\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}$. However, the order of the constant $C_{P}$ following from their proof is typically exponential in $|P|$. Here, we show that if the height of the poset is constant, this can be improved. We show that for every positive integer $h$ there exists a co…
Given a poset $P$, a family $F$ of elements in the Boolean lattice is said to be $P$-saturated if (1) $F$ contains no copy of $P$ as a subposet and (2) every proper superset of $F$ contains a copy of $P$ as a subposet. The maximum size of a $P$-saturated family is denoted by $La(n,P)$, which has been studied for a number of choices of $P$. The minimum size of a $P$-saturated family, $sat(n,P)$, was introduced by Gerbner et al. (2013), and parallels the deep literature on the saturation function for graphs. We introduce and study the concept of saturation for induced subposets. As opposed to in…
A subfamily $\{F_1,F_2,\dots,F_{|P|}\}\subseteq {\cal F}$ of sets is a copy of a poset $P$ in ${\cal F}$ if there exists a bijection $ϕ:P\rightarrow \{F_1,F_2,\dots,F_{|P|}\}$ such that whenever $x \le_P x'$ holds, then so does $ϕ(x)\subseteq ϕ(x')$. For a family ${\cal F}$ of sets, let $c(P,{\cal F})$ denote the number of copies of $P$ in ${\cal F}$, and we say that ${\cal F}$ is $P$-free if $c(P,{\cal F})=0$ holds. For any two posets $P,Q$ let us denote by $La(n,P,Q)$ the maximum number of copies of $Q$ over all $P$-free families ${\cal F} \subseteq 2^{[n]}$, i.e. $\max\{c(Q,{\cal F}): {\cal…
Crown-free families and forbidden subposets with $e(P)\in \{1,2\}$
HUN-REN Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics（匈牙利科学院阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所）；Department of Computer Science and Information Theory, Budapest University of Technology and Economics（布达佩斯技术与经济大学计算机科学与信息论系）
Given a finite poset $\mathcal{P}$, a family $\mathcal{F}$ of elements in the Boolean lattice is induced-$\mathcal{P}$-saturated if $\mathcal{F}$ contains no copy of $\mathcal{P}$ as an induced subposet but every proper superset of $\mathcal{F}$ contains a copy of $\mathcal{P}$ as an induced subposet. The minimum size of an induced-$\mathcal{P}$-saturated family in the $n$-dimensional Boolean lattice, denoted $\operatorname{sat}^*(n,\mathcal{P})$, was first studied by Ferrara et al. (2017). Our work focuses on strengthening lower bounds. For the 4-point poset known as the diamond, we prove $\o…
Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences（匈牙利科学院阿尔弗雷德·雷尼数学研究所）；Faculty of Environment and Information Sciences, Yokohama National University（横滨国立大学环境信息科学部）；College of Science, China Jiliang University（中国计量大学理学院）
An undirected graph G is called a VPT graph if it is the vertex intersection graph of a family of paths in a tree. The class of graphs which admit a VPT representation in a host tree with maximum degree at most h is denoted by [h,2,1]. The classes [h,2,1] are closed by taking induced subgraphs, therefore each one can be characterized by a family of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs. In this paper we associate the minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for [h,2,1] which are VPT with (color) h-critical graphs. We describe how to obtain minimal forbidden induced subgraphs from critical graphs, eve…
We consider a simplicial complex generaliztion of a result of Billera and Meyers that every nonshellable poset contains the smallest nonshellable poset as an induced subposet. We prove that every nonshellable $2$-dimensional simplicial complex contains a nonshellable induced subcomplex with less than $8$ vertices. We also establish CL-shellability of interval orders and as a consequence obtain a formula for the Betti numbers of any interval order.
In descending generality I survey: five partial orderings of graphs, the induced-subgraph ordering, and examples like perfect, threshold, and mock threshold graphs. The emphasis is on how the induced subgraph ordering differs from other popular orderings and leads to different basic questions.
We prove a conjecture by Aboulker, Charbit and Naserasr by showing that every oriented graph in which the out-neighborhood of every vertex induces a transitive tournament can be partitioned into two acyclic induced subdigraphs. We prove multiple extensions of this result to larger classes of digraphs defined by a finite list of forbidden induced subdigraphs. We thereby resolve several special cases of an extension of the famous Gyárfás-Sumner conjecture to directed graphs by Aboulker et al.
In the course of proving the strong perfect graph theorem, Chudnovsky, Robertson, Seymour, and Thomas showed that every perfect graph either belongs to one of five basic classes or admits one of several decompositions. Four of the basic classes are closed under taking induced subgraphs (and have known forbidden subgraph characterizations), while the fifth one, consisting of double-split graphs, is not. A graph is doubled if it is an induced subgraph of a double-split graph. We find the forbidden induced subgraph characterization of doubled graphs; it contains 44 graphs.
In this paper we extend a result about a sufficient condition for Hamiltonicity for finite graphs by Broersma and Veldmann to locally finite graphs. In order to do this we use topological circles within the Freudenthal compactification of a locally finite graph as infinite cycles. The condition we focus on in this paper is in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs, namely being claw-free and a relaxation of being paw-free.
Minimal separators in graphs are an important concept in algorithmic graph theory. In particular, many problems that are NP-hard for general graphs are known to become polynomial-time solvable for classes of graphs with a polynomially bounded number of minimal separators. Several well-known graph classes have this property, including chordal graphs, permutation graphs, circular-arc graphs, and circle graphs. We perform a systematic study of the question which classes of graphs defined by small forbidden induced subgraphs have a polynomially bounded number of minimal separators. We focus on set…
We prove that $\{\overline{K_3}, H\}$-free graphs are not counterexamples to Hadwiger's Conjecture, where $H$ is any one of 33 graphs on seven, eight, or nine vertices, or $H=K_8$. This improves on past results of Plummer-Stiebitz-Toft, Kriesell, and Bosse. The proofs are mostly computer-assisted.
A unit disk graph is the intersection graph of disks of equal radii in the plane. The class of unit disk graphs is hereditary, and therefore admits a characterization in terms of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs. In spite of quite active study of unit disk graphs very little is known about minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for this class. We found only finitely many minimal non unit disk graphs in the literature. In this paper we study in a systematic way forbidden induced subgraphs for the class of unit disk graphs. We develop several structural and geometrical tools, and use them to rev…
A graph $G$ has $p$-intersection number at most $d$ if it is possible to assign to every vertex $u$ of $G$, a subset $S(u)$ of some ground set $U$ with $|U|=d$ in such a way that distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$ are adjacent in $G$ if and only if $|S(u)\cap S(v)|\geq p$. We show that every minimal forbidden induced subgraph for the hereditary class ${\cal G}(d,p)$ of graphs whose $p$-intersection number is at most $d$, has order at most $3\cdot 2^{d+1}+1$, and that the exponential dependence on $d$ in this upper bound is necessary. For $p\in \{ d-1,d-2\}$, we provide more explicit results …
A graph $G$ is $H$-free if any subset of $V(G)$ does not induce a subgraph of $G$ that is isomorphic to $H$. Given a graph $H$, we present sufficient and necessary conditions for a graph $G$ such that $G/e$ is $H$-free for any edge $e$ in $E(G)$. Thereafter, we use these conditions to characterize forests, claw-free, $2K_{2}$-free, $C_{4}$-free, $C_{5}$-free, split, and pseudo-split graphs.
In a series of papers, of which this is the first, we study sufficient conditions for Hamiltonicity in terms of forbidden induced subgraphs and extend such results to locally finite infinite graphs. For this we use topological circles within the Freudenthal compactification of a locally finite graph as infinite cycles. In this paper we focus on conditions involving claws, nets and bulls as induced subgraphs. We extend Hamiltonicity results for finite claw-free and net-free graphs by Shepherd to locally finite graphs. Moreover, we generalise a classification of finite claw-free and net-free gra…
The two-player, complete information game of Cops and Robber is played on undirected finite graphs. A number of cops and one robber are positioned on vertices and take turns in sliding along edges. The cops win if, after a move, a cop and the robber are on the same vertex. The minimum number of cops needed to catch the robber on a graph is called the cop number of that graph. In this paper, we study the cop number in the classes of graphs defined by forbidding one or more graphs as either subgraphs or induced subgraphs. In the case of a single forbidden graph we completely characterize (for bo…
We analyze the asymptotic extremal growth rate of the Betti numbers of clique complexes of graphs on n vertices not containing a fixed forbidden induced subgraph H. In particular, we prove a theorem of the alternative: for any H the growth rate achieves exactly one of five possible exponentials, that is, independent of the field of coefficients, the nth root of the maximal total Betti number over n-vertex graphs with no induced copy of H has a limit, as n tends to infinity, and, ranging over all H, exactly five different limits are attained. For the interesting case where H is the 4-cycle, the…
For a bipartite graph G, let h(G) be the largest t such that either G or the bipartite complement of G contain K_{t,t}. For a class F of graphs, let h(F)= min {h(G): G\in F}. We say that a bipartite graph H is strongly acyclic if neither H nor its bipartite complement contain a cycle. By Forb(n, H) we denote a set of bipartite graphs with parts of sizes n each, that do not contain H as an induced bipartite subgraph respecting the sides. One can easily show that h(Forb(n,H))= O(n^{1-s}) for a positive s if H is not strongly acyclic. Here, we prove that h(Forb(n, H)) is linear in n for all stron…
For every graph $X$, we consider the class of all connected $\{K_{1,3}, X\}$-free graphs which are distinct from an odd cycle and have independence number at least $4$, and we show that all graphs in the class are perfect if and only if $X$ is an induced subgraph of some of $P_6$, $K_1 \cup P_5$, $2P_3$, $Z_2$ or $K_1 \cup Z_1$. Furthermore, for $X$ chosen as $2K_1 \cup K_3$, we list all eight imperfect graphs belonging to the class; and for every other choice of $X$, we show that there are infinitely many such graphs. In addition, for $X$ chosen as $B_{1,2}$, we describe the structure of all …
Zero forcing is a process that models the spread of information throughout a graph as white vertices are forced to turn blue using a color change rule. The idea of throttling, introduced in 2013 by Butler and Young, is to optimize the trade-off between the number of initial blue vertices and the time taken to force all vertices to become blue. The original throttling number of a graph minimizes the sum of these two quantities and the product throttling number minimizes their product. In addition, weighted throttling changes the weights given to these two quantities when minimizing their sum. S…
In this note, we determine the maximum size of a $\{V_{k}, Λ_{l}\}$-free family in the lattice of vector subspaces of a finite vector space both in the non-induced case as well as the induced case, for a large range of parameters $k$ and $l$. These results generalize earlier work by Shahriari and Yu. We also prove a general LYM-type lemma for the linear lattice which resolves a conjecture of Shahriari and Yu.
We characterise the pairs of graphs $\{ X, Y \}$ such that all $\{ X, Y \}$-free graphs (distinct from $C_5$) are perfect. Similarly, we characterise pairs $\{ X, Y \}$ such that all $\{ X, Y \}$-free graphs (distinct from $C_5$) are $ω$-colourable (that is, their chromatic number is equal to their clique number). More generally, we show characterizations of pairs $\{ X, Y \}$ for perfectness and $ω$-colourability of all connected $\{ X, Y \}$-free graphs which are of independence at least $3$, distinct from an odd cycle, and of order at least $n_0$, and similar characterisations subject to ea…
Considering connected $K_{1,3}$-free graphs with independence number at least $3$, Chudnovsky and Seymour (2010) showed that every such graph, say $G$, is $2ω$-colourable where $ω$ denotes the clique number of $G$. We study $(K_{1,3}, Y)$-free graphs, and show that the following three statements are equivalent. (1) Every connected $(K_{1,3}, Y)$-free graph which is distinct from an odd cycle and which has independence number at least $3$ is perfect. (2) Every connected $(K_{1,3}, Y)$-free graph which is distinct from an odd cycle and which has independence number at least $3$ is $ω$-colourable…
A result due to Gyárfás, Hubenko, and Solymosi (answering a question of Erdös) states that if a graph $G$ on $n$ vertices does not contain $K_{2,2}$ as an induced subgraph yet has at least $c\binom{n}{2}$ edges, then $G$ has a complete subgraph on at least $\frac{c^2}{10}n$ vertices. In this paper we suggest a "higher-dimensional" analogue of the notion of an induced $K_{2,2}$ which allows us to generalize their result to $k$-uniform hypergraphs. Our result also has an interesting consequence in discrete geometry. In particular, it implies that the fractional Helly theorem can be derived as a …
In the study of full bubble model graphs of bounded clique-width and bounded linear clique-width, we determined complete sets of forbidden induced subgraphs, that are minimal in the class of full bubble model graphs. In this note, we show that (almost all of) these graphs are minimal in the class of all graphs. As a corollary, we can give sets of minimal forbidden induced subgraphs for graphs of bounded clique-width and for graphs of bounded linear clique-width for arbitrary bounds.
The Caccetta-Haggkvist conjecture made in 1978 asserts that every orgraph on n vertices without oriented cycles of length <= l must contain a vertex of outdegree at most (n-1)/l. It has a rather elaborate set of (conjectured) extremal configurations. In this paper we consider the case l=3 that received quite a significant attention in the literature. We identify three orgraphs on four vertices each that are missing as an induced subgraph in all known extremal examples and prove the Caccetta-Haggkvist conjecture for orgraphs missing as induced subgraphs any of these orgraphs, along with cycles …
