One of the oldest results in modern graph theory, due to Mantel, asserts that every triangle-free graphs on $n$ vertices has at most $\lfloor n^2/4\rfloor$ edges. About half a century later Andrásfai studied dense triangle-free graphs and proved that the largest triangle-free graphs on $n$ vertices without independent sets of size $αn$, where $2/5\le α< 1/2$, are blow-ups of the pentagon. More than 50 further years have elapsed since Andrásfai's work. In this article we make the next step towards understanding the structure of dense triangle-free graphs without large independent sets.
Notably, we determine the maximum size of triangle-free graphs~$G$ on $n$ vertices with $α(G)\ge 3n/8$ and state a conjecture on the structure of the densest triangle-free graphs $G$ with $α(G) > n/3$. We remark that the case $α(G) \le n/3$ behaves differently, but due to the work of Brandt this situation is fairly well understood.
We determine the $2$-color Ramsey number of a {\em connected} triangle matching $c(nK_3)$ which is any connected graph containing $n$ vertex disjoint triangles. We obtain that $R(c(nK_3),c(nK_3))=7n-2$, somewhat larger than in the classical result of Burr, Erd\H os and Spencer for a triangle matching, $R(nK_3,nK_3)=5n$. The motivation is to determine the Ramsey number $R(C_n^2,C_n^2)$ of the square of a cycle $C_n^2$. We apply our Ramsey result for connected triangle matchings to show that the Ramsey number of an "almost" square of a cycle $C_n^{2,c}$ (a cycle of length $n$ in which all but at…
A graph $G$ is called a $(3,j;n)$-minimal Ramsey graph if it has the least amount of edges, $e(3,j;n)$, given that $G$ is triangle-free, the independence number $α(G) < j$ and that $G$ has $n$ vertices. Triangle-free graphs $G$ with $α(G) < j$ and where $e(G) - e(3,j;n)$ is small are said to be almost minimal Ramsey graphs. We look at a construction of some almost minimal Ramsey graphs, called $H_{13}$-patterned graphs. We make computer calculations of the number of almost minimal Ramsey triangle-free graphs that are $H_{13}$-patterned. The results of these calculations indicate that many of t…
An edge-colored graph is called rainbow if all the colors on its edges are distinct. Given a positive integer n and a graph G, the anti-Ramsey number ar(n,G) is the maximum number of colors in an edge-coloring of K_{n} with no rainbow copy of G. Denote by kC_{3} the union of k vertex-disjoint copies of C_{3}. In this paper, we determine the anti-Ramsey number ar(n,kC_{3}) for n=3k and n\geq2k^{2}-k+2, respectively. When 3k\leq n\leq 2k^{2}-k+2, we give lower and upper bounds for ar(n, kC_{3}).
Building on previous work of the author, for each finite triangle-free graph $\mathbf{G}$, we determine the equivalence relation on the copies of $\mathbf{G}$ inside the universal homogeneous triangle-free graph, $\mathcal{H}_3$, with the smallest number of equivalence classes so that each one of the classes persists in every isomorphic subcopy of $\mathcal{H}_3$. This characterizes the exact big Ramsey degrees of $\mathcal{H}_3$. It follows that the triangle-free Henson graph is a big Ramsey structure.
The Ramsey number r(K_3,Q_n) is the smallest integer N such that every red-blue colouring of the edges of the complete graph K_N contains either a red n-dimensional hypercube, or a blue triangle. Almost thirty years ago, Burr and Erdős conjectured that r(K_3,Q_n) = 2^{n+1} - 1 for every n \in \N, but the first non-trivial upper bound was obtained only recently, by Conlon, Fox, Lee and Sudakov, who proved that r(K_3,Q_n) \le 7000 \cdot 2^n. Here we show that r(K_3,Q_n) = (1 + o(1)) 2^{n+1} as n \to \infty.
In 1967, Erdős asked for the greatest chromatic number, $f(n)$, amongst all $n$-vertex, triangle-free graphs. An observation of Erdős and Hajnal together with Shearer's classical upper bound for the off-diagonal Ramsey number $R(3, t)$ shows that $f(n)$ is at most $(2 \sqrt{2} + o(1)) \sqrt{n/\log n}$. We improve this bound by a factor $\sqrt{2}$, as well as obtaining an analogous bound on the list chromatic number which is tight up to a constant factor. A bound in terms of the number of edges that is similarly tight follows, and these results confirm a conjecture of Cames van Batenburg, de Jo…
Given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, define the \emph{Gallai-Ramsey number} to be the minimum number of vertices $n$ such that any $k$-edge coloring of $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) triangle or a monochromatic copy of $G$. In this paper, we consider two classes of unicyclic graphs, the star with an extra edge and the path with a triangle at one end. We provide the $2$-color Ramsey numbers for these two classes of graphs and use these to obtain general upper and lower bounds on the Gallai-Ramsey numbers.
Given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, define the \emph{Gallai-Ramsey number} to be the minimum number of vertices $n$ such that any $k$-edge coloring of $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) triangle or a monochromatic copy of $G$. In this paper, we obtain general upper and lower bounds on the Gallai-Ramsey numbers for the graph $G = S_t^{r}$ obtained from a star of order $t$ by adding $r$ extra independent edges between leaves of the star so there are $r$ triangles and $t - 2r - 1$ pendent edges in $S_t^{r}$. We also prove some sharp results when $t = 2$.
In this article we give the generalized triangle Ramsey numbers R(K3,G) of 12 005 158 of the 12 005 168 graphs of order 10. There are 10 graphs remaining for which we could not determine the Ramsey number. Most likely these graphs need approaches focusing on each individual graph in order to determine their triangle Ramsey number. The results were obtained by combining new computational and theoretical results. We also describe an optimized algorithm for the generation of all maximal triangle-free graphs and triangle Ramsey graphs. All Ramsey numbers up to 30 were computed by our implementatio…
Given a class $\mathcal{C}$ of graphs and a fixed graph $H$, the online Ramsey game for $H$ on $\mathcal C$ is a game between two players Builder and Painter as follows: an unbounded set of vertices is given as an initial state, and on each turn Builder introduces a new edge with the constraint that the resulting graph must be in $\mathcal C$, and Painter colors the new edge either red or blue. Builder wins the game if Painter is forced to make a monochromatic copy of $H$ at some point in the game. Otherwise, Painter can avoid creating a monochromatic copy of $H$ forever, and we say Painter wi…
A book of size q is the union of q triangles sharing a common edge. We find the exact Ramsey number of books of size q versus books of size p when p<q/6-o(q).
The universal homogeneous triangle-free graph, constructed by Henson and denoted $\mathcal{H}_3$, is the triangle-free analogue of the Rado graph. While the Ramsey theory of the Rado graph has been completely established, beginning with Erdős-Hajnal-Posá and culminating in work of Sauer and Laflamme-Sauer-Vuksanovic, the Ramsey theory of $\mathcal{H}_3$ had only progressed to bounds for vertex colorings (Komjáth-Rödl) and edge colorings (Sauer). This was due to a lack of broadscale techniques. We solve this problem in general: For each finite triangle-free graph $G$, there is a finite number $…
The areas of Ramsey theory and random graphs have been closely linked ever since Erdős' famous proof in 1947 that the 'diagonal' Ramsey numbers $R(k)$ grow exponentially in $k$. In the early 1990s, the triangle-free process was introduced as a model which might potentially provide good lower bounds for the 'off-diagonal' Ramsey numbers $R(3,k)$. In this model, edges of $K_n$ are introduced one-by-one at random and added to the graph if they do not create a triangle; the resulting final (random) graph is denoted $G_{n,\triangle}$. In 2009, Bohman succeeded in following this process for a positi…
A book of size N is the union of N triangles sharing a common edge. We show that the Ramsey number of a book of size N vs. a book of size M equals 2N+3 for all N>(10^6)M. Our proof is based on counting.
A fan $F_n$ is a graph consisting of $n$ triangles, all having precisely one common vertex. Currently, the best known bounds for the Ramsey number $R(F_n)$ are $9n/2-5 \leq R(F_n) \leq 11n/2+6$, obtained by Chen, Yu and Zhao. We improve the upper bound to $31n/6+O(1)$.
Consider the following stochastic graph process. We begin with the empty graph on n vertices and add edges one at a time, where each edge is chosen uniformly at random from the collection of potential edges that do not form triangles when added to the graph. The process terminates at a maximal traingle-free graph. Here we analyze the triangle-free process, determining the likely order of magnitude of the number of edges in the final graph. As a corollary we show that the triangle-free process is very likely to produce a Ramsey R(3,t) graph; that is, our analysis of the triangle-free process gi…
Given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, define the \emph{Gallai-Ramsey number} to be the minimum number of vertices $n$ such that any $k$-edge coloring of $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) triangle or a monochromatic copy of $G$. Much like graph Ramsey numbers, Gallai-Ramsey numbers have gained a reputation as being very difficult to compute in general. As yet, still only precious few sharp results are known. In this paper, we obtain bounds on the Gallai-Ramsey number for wheels and the exact value for the wheel on $5$ vertices.
We say that $G$ is a $(3, 3)$-Ramsey graph if every $2$-coloring of the edges of $G$ forces a monochromatic triangle. The $(3, 3)$-Ramsey graph $G$ is minimal if $G$ does not contain a proper $(3, 3)$-Ramsey subgraph. In this work we find all minimal $(3, 3)$-Ramsey graphs with up to 13 vertices with the help of a computer, and we obtain some new results for these graphs. We also obtain new upper bounds on the independence number and new lower bounds on the minimum degree of arbitrary $(3, 3)$-Ramsey graphs.
Given a graph $H$ and an integer $k\ge1$, the Gallai-Ramsey number $GR_k(H)$ is defined to be the minimum integer $n$ such that every $k$-edge coloring of $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) triangle or a monochromatic copy of $H$. In this paper, we determine the Gallai-Ramsey numbers for connected graphs with five vertices of chromatic number four.
In 1967, Erdős and Hajnal asked the question: Does there exist a $K_4$-free graph that is not the union of two triangle-free graphs? Finding such a graph involves solving a special case of the classical Ramsey arrowing operation. Folkman proved the existence of these graphs in 1970, and they are now called Folkman graphs. Erdős offered \$100 for deciding if one exists with less than $10^{10}$ vertices. This problem remained open until 1988 when Spencer, in a seminal paper using probabilistic techniques, proved the existence of a Folkman graph of order $3\times 10^9$ (after an erratum), without…
Given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, the \emph{Gallai-Ramsey number} is defined to be the minimum number of vertices $n$ such that any $k$-edge coloring of $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) triangle or a monochromatic copy of $G$. In this paper, we obtain general upper and lower bounds on the Gallai-Ramsey numbers for books $B_{m} = K_{2} + \overline{K_{m}}$ and prove sharp results for $m \leq 5$.
We study Ramsey-type problems in Gallai-colorings. Given a graph $G$ and an integer $k\ge1$, the Gallai-Ramsey number $gr_k(K_3,G)$ is the least positive integer $n$ such that every $k$-coloring of the edges of the complete graph on $n$ vertices contains either a rainbow triangle or a monochromatic copy of $G$. It turns out that $gr_k(K_3, G)$ behaves more nicely than the classical Ramsey number $r_k(G)$. However, finding exact values of $gr_k (K_3, G)$ is far from trivial. In this paper, we prove that $gr_k(K_3, C_9)= 4\cdot 2^k+1$ for all $k\ge1$. This new result provides partial evidence fo…
Given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, define the \emph{Gallai-Ramsey number} to be the minimum number of vertices $n$ such that any $k$-edge coloring of $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) triangle or a monochromatic copy of $G$. In this paper, we obtain general upper and lower bounds on the Gallai-Ramsey numbers for fans $F_{m} = K_{1} + mK_{2}$ and prove the sharp result for $m = 2$ and for $m = 3$ with $k$ even.
We determine Turán numbers for the family of 3-uniform minimal paths of length four \emph{for all $n$}. We also establish the second and third order Turán numbers and use them to compute the corresponding Ramsey numbers for up to four colors.
Given a graph $G$ and a positive integer $k$, define the \emph{Gallai-Ramsey number} to be the minimum number of vertices $n$ such that any $k$-edge coloring of the complete graph $K_n$ contains either a rainbow (all different colored) triangle or a monochromatic copy of $G$. In this paper, we obtain the exact value of the Gallai-Ramsey numbers for the union of two stars in many cases and bounds in other cases. This work represents the first class of disconnected graphs to be considered as the desired monochromatic subgraph.
Given a graph $H$, the $k$-colored Gallai Ramsey number $gr_{k}(K_{3} : H)$ is defined to be the minimum integer $n$ such that every $k$-coloring of the edges of the complete graph on $n$ vertices contains either a rainbow triangle or a monochromatic copy of $H$. Fox et al. [J. Fox, A. Grinshpun, and J. Pach. The Erd{\H o}s-Hajnal conjecture for rainbow triangles. J. Combin. Theory Ser. B, 111:75-125, 2015.] conjectured the value of the Gallai Ramsey numbers for complete graphs. Recently, this conjecture has been verified for the first open case, when $H = K_{4}$. In this paper we attack the n…
A book $B_n$ is a graph which consists of $n$ triangles sharing a common edge. In 1978, Rousseau and Sheehan conjectured that the Ramsey number satisfies $r(B_m,B_n)\le 2(m+n)+c$ for some constant $c>0$. In this paper, we obtain that $r(B_m, B_n)\le 2(m+n)+o(n)$ for all $m\le n$ and $n$ large, which confirms the conjecture of Rousseau and Sheehan asymptotically. As a corollary, our result implies that a related conjecture of Faudree, Rousseau and Sheehan (1982) on strongly regular graph holds asymptotically.
For two given graphs $F$ and $H$, the Ramsey number $R(F,H)$ is the smallest integer $N$ such that any red-blue edge-coloring of the complete graph $K_N$ contains a red $F$ or a blue $H$. When $F=H$, we simply write $R_2(H)$. For an positive integer $n$, let $K_{1,n}$ be a star with $n+1$ vertices, $F_n$ be a fan with $2n+1$ vertices consisting of $n$ triangles sharing one common vertex, and $nK_3$ be a graph with $3n$ vertices obtained from the disjoint union of $n$ triangles. In 1975, Burr, Erdős and Spencer \cite{B} proved that $R_2(nK_3)=5n$ for $n\ge2$. However, determining the exact valu…
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…
For graphs $F$ and $H$, we say $F$ is Ramsey for $H$ if every $2$-coloring of the edges of $F$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. The graph $F$ is Ramsey $H$-minimal if $F$ is Ramsey for $H$ and there is no proper subgraph $F'$ of $F$ so that $F'$ is Ramsey for $H$. Burr, Erdos, and Lovasz defined $s(H)$ to be the minimum degree of $F$ over all Ramsey $H$-minimal graphs $F$. Define $H_{t,d}$ to be a graph on $t+1$ vertices consisting of a complete graph on $t$ vertices and one additional vertex of degree $d$. We show that $s(H_{t,d})=d^2$ for all values $1<d\le t$; it was previously known t…
For a given graph $H$, the Ramsey number $r(H)$ is the minimum $N$ such that any 2-edge-coloring of the complete graph $K_N$ yields a monochromatic copy of $H$. Given a positive integer $n$, a \emph{fan }$F_n$ is a graph formed by $n$ triangles that share one common vertex. We show that ${9n}/{2}-5\le r(F_n)\le {11n}/{2} + 6$ for any $n$. This improves previous best bounds $r(F_n) \le 6n$ of Lin and Li and $r(F_n) \ge 4n+2$ of Zhang, Broersma and Chen.
For graphs $F$ and $H$, the Ramsey number $R(F, H)$ is the smallest positive integer $N$ such that any red/blue edge coloring of $K_N$ contains either a red $F$ or a blue $H$. Let $C_n$ be a cycle of length $n$ and $F_n$ be a fan consisting of $n$ triangles all sharing a common vertex. In this paper, we prove that for all sufficiently large $n$, \[ R(C_{2\lfloor an\rfloor}, F_n)= \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} (2+2a+o(1))n & \textrm{if $1/2\leq a< 1$,}\\ (4a+o(1))n & \textrm{if $ a\geq 1$.} \end{array} \right. \]
Gallai-colorings are edge-colored complete graphs in which there are no rainbow triangles. Within such colored complete graphs, we consider Ramsey-type questions, looking for specified monochromatic graphs. In this work, we consider monochromatic bipartite graphs since the numbers are known to grow more slowly than for non-bipartite graphs. The main result shows that it suffices to consider only $3$-colorings which have a special partition of the vertices. Using this tool, we find several sharp numbers and conjecture the sharp value for all bipartite graphs. In particular, we determine the Gal…
We call the minimum order of any complete graph so that for any coloring of the edges by $k$ colors it is impossible to avoid a monochromatic or rainbow triangle, a Mixed Ramsey number. For any graph $H$ with edges colored from the above set of $k$ colors, if we consider the condition of excluding $H$ in the above definition, we produce a \emph{Mixed Pattern Ramsey number}, denoted $M_k(H)$. We determine this function in terms of $k$ for all colored $4$-cycles and all colored $4$-cliques. We also find bounds for $M_k(H)$ when $H$ is a monochromatic odd cycles, or a star for sufficiently large …
A Gallai $k$-coloring is a $k$-edge coloring of a complete graph in which there are no rainbow triangles. For two given graphs $H, G$ and two positive integers $k,s$ with that $s\leq k$, the $k$-colored Gallai-Ramsey number $gr_{k}(K_{3}: s\cdot H,~ (k-s)\cdot G)$ is the minimum integer $n$ such that every Gallai $k$-colored $K_{n}$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$ colored by one of the first $s$ colors or a monochromatic copy of $G$ colored by one of the remaining $k-s$ colors. In this paper, we determine the value of Gallai-Ramsey number in the case that $H=K_{4}^{+}$ and $G=K_{3}$. Thus…
We study Turán and Ramsey-type problems on edge-colored graphs. An edge-colored graph is called {\em $\varepsilon$-balanced} if each color class contains at least an $\varepsilon$-proportion of its edges. Given a family $\mathcal{F}$ of edge-colored graphs, the Ramsey function $R(\varepsilon, \mathcal{F})$ is the smallest $n$ for which any $\varepsilon$-balanced $K_n$ must contain a copy of an $F\in\mathcal{F}$, and the Turán function $\mathrm{ex}(\varepsilon, n, \mathcal{F})$ is the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $\varepsilon$-balanced graph which avoids all of $\mathcal{F}$. In thi…
We prove that every 3-coloring of the edges of the complete graph on n vertices without a rainbow triangle contains a set of order Omega(n^{1/3}log^2 n) which uses at most two colors, and this bound is tight up to a constant factor. This verifies a conjecture of Hajnal which is a case of the multicolor generalization of the well-known Erdős-Hajnal conjecture. We further establish a generalization of this result. For fixed positive integers s and r with s at most r, we determine a constant c_{r,s} such that the following holds. Every r-coloring of the edges of the complete graph on n vertices w…
Let $n,r,k,s$ be positive integers with $n,k\ge 2$. The generalized Ramsey number $R(n,r;k,s)$ is the smallest positive integer $p$ such that for every graph $G$ of order $p$, either $G$ contains a subgraph induced by $n$ vertices with at most $r-1$ edges, or the complement $\bar G$ of $G$ contains a subgraph induced by $k$ vertices with at most $s-1$ edges. In this paper we completely determine $R(n,n(n-1)/2-r;k,1)$ for $n\ge 4$ and $r\le n-2$, and pose several conjectures on Ramsey numbers.
We prove that there is an absolute constant $C>0$ so that for every natural $n$ there exists a triangle-free \emph{regular} graph with no independent set of size at least $C\sqrt{n\log n}$.
Let $P$ denote a 3-uniform hypergraph consisting of 7 vertices $a,b,c,d,e,f,g$ and 3 edges $\{a,b,c\}, \{c,d,e\},$ and $\{e,f,g\}$. It is known that the $r$-color Ramsey number for $P$ is $R(P;r)=r+6$ for $r\le 7$. The proof of this result relies on a careful analysis of the Turán numbers for $P$. In this paper, we refine this analysis further and compute, for all $n$, the third and fourth order Turán numbers for $P$. With the help of the former, we confirm the formula $R(P;r)=r+6$ for $r\in\{8,9\}$.
We prove an asymptotically tight lower bound on the average size of independent sets in a triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices with maximum degree $d$, showing that an independent set drawn uniformly at random from such a graph has expected size at least $(1+o_d(1)) \frac{\log d}{d}n$. This gives an alternative proof of Shearer's upper bound on the Ramsey number $R(3,k)$. We then prove that the total number of independent sets in a triangle-free graph with maximum degree $d$ is at least $\exp \left[\left(\frac{1}{2}+o_d(1) \right) \frac{\log^2 d}{d}n \right]$. The constant $1/2$ in the exponent…
Let $P$ denote a 3-uniform hypergraph consisting of 7 vertices $a,b,c,d,e,f,g$ and 3 edges $\{a,b,c\}, \{c,d,e\},$ and $\{e,f,g\}$. It is known that the $r$-color Ramsey number for $P$ is $R(P;r)=r+6$ for $r\le 9$. The proof of this result relies on a careful analysis of the Turán numbers for $P$. In this paper, we refine this analysis further and compute the fifth order Turán number for $P$, for all $n$. Using this number for $n=16$, we confirm the formula $R(P;10)=16$.
A Gallai-coloring (Gallai-$k$-coloring) is an edge-coloring (with colors from $\{1, 2, \ldots, k\}$) of a complete graph without rainbow triangles. Given a graph $H$ and a positive integer $k$, the $k$-colored Gallai-Ramsey number $GR_k(H)$ is the minimum integer $n$ such that every Gallai-$k$-coloring of the complete graph $K_n$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. In this paper, we consider two extremal problems related to Gallai-$k$-colorings. First, we determine upper and lower bounds for the maximum number of edges that are not contained in any rainbow triangle or monochromatic triangle …
Alon, Balogh, Keevash and Sudakov proved that the $(k-1)$-partite Turán graph maximizes the number of distinct $r$-edge-colorings with no monochromatic $K_k$ for all fixed $k$ and $r=2,3$, among all $n$-vertex graphs. In this paper, we determine this function asymptotically for $r=2$ among $n$-vertex graphs with sub-linear independence number. Somewhat surprisingly, unlike Alon-Balogh-Keevash-Sudakov's result, the extremal construction from Ramsey-Turán theory, as a natural candidate, does not maximize the number of distinct edge-colorings with no monochromatic cliques among all graphs with su…
In 1995 Kim famously proved the Ramsey bound R(3,t) \ge c t^2/\log t by constructing an n-vertex graph that is triangle-free and has independence number at most C \sqrt{n \log n}. We extend this celebrated result, which is best possible up to the value of the constants, by approximately decomposing the complete graph K_n into a packing of such nearly optimal Ramsey R(3,t) graphs. More precisely, for any ε>0 we find an edge-disjoint collection (G_i)_i of n-vertex graphs G_i \subseteq K_n such that (a) each G_i is triangle-free and has independence number at most C_ε\sqrt{n \log n}, and (b) the …
