Yin, Rinaldo, and Fadnavis classified the extremal behavior of the edge-triangle exponential random graph model by first taking the network size to infinity, then the parameters diverging to infinity along straight lines. Lubetzky and Zhao proposed an extension to the edge-triangle model by introducing an exponent $γ> 0$ on the triangle homomorphism density function. This allows non-trivial behavior in the positive limit, which is absent in the standard edge-triangle model. The present work seeks to classify the limiting behavior of this generalized edge-triangle exponential random graph model. It is shown that for $γ\le 1$, the limiting set of graphons come from a special class, known as Turán graphons. For $γ> 1$, there are large regions of the parameter space where the limit is not a Turán graphon, but rather has edge density between subsequent Turán graphons. Furthermore, for $γ$ large enough, the exact edge density of the limiting set is determined in terms of a nested radical. Utilizing a result of Reiher, intuition is given for the characterization of the extremal behavior in the generalized edge-clique model.
We study thresholds for extremal properties of random discrete structures. We determine the threshold for Szemerédi's theorem on arithmetic progressions in random subsets of the integers and its multidimensional extensions and we determine the threshold for Turán-type problems for random graphs and hypergraphs. In particular, we verify a conjecture of Kohayakawa, Łuczak, and Rödl for Turán-type problems in random graphs. Similar results were obtained by Conlon and Gowers.
In this expository paper, we present a motivated construction of large graphs not containing a given complete bipartite subgraph. The key insight is that the algebraic constructions yield very non-smooth probability distributions.
According to Paul Erdős [Some notes on Turán's mathematical work, J. Approx. Theory 29 (1980), page 4] it was Paul Turán who "created the area of extremal problems in graph theory". However, without a doubt, Paul Erdős popularized extremal combinatorics, by his many contributions to the field, his numerous questions and conjectures, and his influence on discrete mathematicians in Hungary and all over the world. In fact, most of the early contributions in this field can be traced back to Paul Erdős, Paul Turán, as well as their collaborators and students. Paul Erdős also established the probabi…
We provide new constructions of Meyniel extremal graphs, which are families of graphs with the conjectured largest asymptotic cop number. Using spanning subgraphs, we prove that there are an exponential number of new Meyniel extremal families with specified degrees. Using a linear programming problem on hypergraphs, we explore the degrees in families that are not Meyniel extremal. We give the best-known upper bound on the cop number of vertex-transitive graphs with a prescribed degree. We find new Meyniel extremal families of regular graphs with large chromatic number, large diameter, and expl…
Recently, Souza introduced blowup Ramsey numbers as a generalization of bipartite Ramsey numbers. For graphs $G$ and $H$, say $G\overset{r}{\longrightarrow} H$ if every $r$-edge-coloring of $G$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. Let $H[t]$ denote the $t$-blowup of $H$. Then the blowup Ramsey number of $G,H,r,$ and $t$ is defined as the minimum $n$ such that $G[n] \overset{r}{\longrightarrow} H[t]$. Souza proved upper and lower bounds on $n$ that are exponential in $t$, and conjectured that the exponential constant does not depend on $G$. We prove that the dependence on $G$ in the exponentia…
Previously, Erdős, Kierstead and Trotter investigated the dimension of random height~$2$ partially ordered sets. Their research was motivated primarily by two goals: (1)~analyzing the relative tightness of the Füredi-Kahn upper bounds on dimension in terms of maximum degree; and (2)~developing machinery for estimating the expected dimension of a random labeled poset on $n$ points. For these reasons, most of their effort was focused on the case $0<p\le 1/2$. While bounds were given for the range $1/2\le p <1$, the relative accuracy of the results in the original paper deteriorated as $p$ approa…
The "edge polytope" of a finite graph G is the convex hull of the columns of its vertex-edge incidence matrix. We study extremal problems for this class of polytopes. For k =2, 3, 5 we determine the maximum number of vertices of k-neighborly edge polytopes up to a sublinear term. We also construct a family of edge polytopes with exponentially-many facets.
We prove that there is a constant $c >0$, such that whenever $p \ge n^{-c}$, with probability tending to 1 when $n$ goes to infinity, every maximum triangle-free subgraph of the random graph $G_{n,p}$ is bipartite. This answers a question of Babai, Simonovits and Spencer (Journal of Graph Theory, 1990). The proof is based on a tool of independent interest: we show, for instance, that the maximum cut of almost all graphs with $M$ edges, where $M >> n$, is ``nearly unique''. More precisely, given a maximum cut $C$ of $G_{n,M}$, we can obtain all maximum cuts by moving at most $O(\sqrt{n^3/M})$ v…
For Erdős-Rényi random graphs with average degree $γ$, and uniformly random $γ$-regular graph on $n$ vertices, we prove that with high probability the size of both the Max-Cut and maximum bisection are $n\Big(\fracγ{4} + {\sf P}_* \sqrt{\fracγ{4}} + o(\sqrtγ)\Big) + o(n)$ while the size of the minimum bisection is $n\Big(\fracγ{4}-{\sf P}_*\sqrt{\fracγ{4}} + o(\sqrtγ)\Big) + o(n)$. Our derivation relates the free energy of the anti-ferromagnetic Ising model on such graphs to that of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model, with ${\sf P}_* \approx 0.7632$ standing for the ground state energy of the l…
Let S_n=X_1+...+X_n be a sum of independent symmetric random variables such that |X_{i}|\leq 1. Denote by W_n=ε_{1}+...+ε_{n} a sum of independent random variables such that \prob{\eps_i = \pm 1} = 1/2. We prove that \mathbb{P}{S_{n} \in A} \leq \mathbb{P}{cW_k \in A}, where A is either an interval of the form [x, \infty) or just a single point. The inequality is exact and the optimal values of c and k are given explicitly. It improves Kwapień's inequality in the case of the Rademacher series. We also provide a new and very short proof of the Littlewood-Offord problem without using Sperner's T…
This survey concerns regular graphs that are extremal with respect to the number of independent sets, and more generally, graph homomorphisms. More precisely, in the family of of $d$-regular graphs, which graph $G$ maximizes/minimizes the quantity $i(G)^{1/v(G)}$, the number of independent sets in $G$ normalized exponentially by the size of $G$? What if $i(G)$ is replaced by some other graph parameter? We review existing techniques, highlight some exciting recent developments, and discuss open problems and conjectures for future research.
We present extremal constructions connected with the property of simplicial collapsibility. (1) For each $d \ge 2$, there are collapsible (and shellable) simplicial $d$-complexes with only one free face. Also, there are non-evasive $d$-complexes with only two free faces. (Both results are optimal in all dimensions.) (2) Optimal discrete Morse vectors need not be unique. We explicitly construct a contractible, but non-collapsible $3$-dimensional simplicial complex with face vector $f=(106,596,1064,573)$ that admits two distinct optimal discrete Morse vectors, $(1,1,1,0)$ and $(1,0,1,1)$. Indeed…
A classical result in extremal graph theory is Mantel's Theorem, which states that every maximum triangle-free subgraph of $K_n$ is bipartite. A sparse version of Mantel's Theorem is that, for sufficiently large $p$, every maximum triangle-free subgraph of $G(n,p)$ is w.h.p. bipartite. Recently, DeMarco and Kahn proved this for $p > K \sqrt{\log n/n}$ for some constant $K$, and apart from the value of the constant this bound is best possible. We study an extremal problem of this type in random hypergraphs. Denote by $F_5$, which sometimes called as the generalized triangle, the 3-uniform hyper…
