For positive integers $n>d\geq k$, let $ϕ(n,d,k)$ denote the least integer $ϕ$ such that every $n$-vertex graph with at least $ϕ$ vertices of degree at least $d$ contains a path on $k+1$ vertices. Many years ago, Erdős, Faudree, Schelp and Simonovits proposed the study of the function $ϕ(n,d,k)$, and conjectured that for any positive integers $n>d\geq k$, it holds that $ϕ(n,d,k)\leq \lfloor\frac{k-1}{2}\rfloor\lfloor\frac{n}{d+1}\rfloor+ε$, where $ε=1$ if $k$ is odd and $ε=2$ otherwise. In this paper we determine the values of the function $ϕ(n,d,k)$ exactly. This confirms the above conjecture of Erdős et al. for all positive integers $k\neq 4$ and in a corrected form for the case $k=4$. Our proof utilizes, among others, a lemma of Erdős et al. \cite{EFSS89}, a theorem of Jackson \cite{J81}, and a (slight) extension of a very recent theorem of Kostochka, Luo and Zirlin \cite{KLZ}, where the latter two results concern maximum cycles in bipartite graphs. Moreover, we construct examples to provide answers to two closely related questions raised by Erdős et al.
Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp observed the following fact for every fixed integer $k\geq 2$: Every graph on $n\geq k-1$ vertices with at least $(k-1)(n-k+2)+{k-2\choose 2}$ edges contains a subgraph with minimum degree at least $k$. However, there are examples in which the whole graph is the only such subgraph. Erdős et al. conjectured that having just one more edge implies the existence of a subgraph on at most $(1-\varepsilon_k)n$ vertices with minimum degree at least $k$, where $\varepsilon_k>0$ depends only on $k$. We prove this conjecture, using and extending ideas of Mousset, Noeve…
In this paper we prove several results on Ramsey numbers $R(H,F)$ for a fixed graph $H$ and a large graph $F$, in particular for $F = K_n$. These results extend earlier work of Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp and of Balister, Schelp and Simonovits on so-called Ramsey size-linear graphs. Among others, we show that if $H$ is a subdivision of $K_4$ with at least $6$ vertices, then $R(H,F) = O(v(F) + e(F))$ for every graph $F$. We also conjecture that if $H$ is a connected graph with $e(H) - v(H) \leq \binom{k+1}{2} - 2$, then $R(H,K_n) = O(n^k)$. The case $k=2$ was proved by Erdős, Faudree, R…
The Ramsey number $r(C_{\ell},K_n)$ is the smallest natural number $N$ such that every red/blue edge-colouring of a clique of order $N$ contains a red cycle of length $\ell$ or a blue clique of order $n$. In 1978, Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp conjectured that $r(C_{\ell},K_n) = (\ell-1)(n-1)+1$ for $\ell \geq n\geq 3$ provided $(\ell,n) \neq (3,3)$. We prove that, for some absolute constant $C\ge 1$, we have $r(C_{\ell},K_n) = (\ell-1)(n-1)+1$ provided $\ell \geq C\frac {\log n}{\log \log n}$. Up to the value of $C$ this is tight since we also show that, for any $\varepsilon >0$ and $n>…
Burr, Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp initiated the study of Ramsey numbers of trees versus odd cycles, proving that $R(T_n, C_m) = 2n - 1$ for all odd $m \ge 3$ and $n \ge 756m^{10}$, where $T_n$ is a tree with $n$ vertices and $C_m$ is an odd cycle of length $m$. They proposed to study the minimum positive integer $n_0(m)$ such that this result holds for all $n \ge n_0(m)$, as a function of $m$. In this paper, we show that $n_0(m)$ is at most linear. In particular, we prove that $R(T_n, C_m) = 2n - 1$ for all odd $m \ge 3$ and $n \ge 50m$. Combining this with a result of Faudree, Lawrenc…
We find the Ramsey number of a cycle vs. a complete graph when the order of the cycle is at least 4 times as large as the order of the complete graph. This partially confirms a conjecture of Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau, and Schelp made in 1978.
The $k$-colour bipartite Ramsey number of a bipartite graph $H$ is the least integer $n$ for which every $k$-edge-coloured complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. The study of bipartite Ramsey numbers was initiated, over 40 years ago, by Faudree and Schelp and, independently, by Gyárfás and Lehel, who determined the $2$-colour Ramsey number of paths. In this paper we determine asymptotically the $3$-colour bipartite Ramsey number of paths and (even) cycles.
We study graphs on $n$ vertices which have $2n-2$ edges and no proper induced subgraphs of minimum degree $3$. Erdős, Faudree, Gyárfás, and Schelp conjectured that such graphs always have cycles of lengths $3,4,5,\dots, C(n)$ for some function $C(n)$ tending to infinity. We disprove this conjecture, resolve a related problem about leaf-to-leaf path lengths in trees, and characterize graphs with $n$ vertices and $2n-2$ edges, containing no proper subgraph of minimum degree $3$.
We prove a vertex domination conjecture of Erd\H os, Faudree, Gould, Gyárfás, Rousseau, and Schelp, that for every n-vertex complete graph with edges coloured using three colours there exists a set of at most three vertices which have at least 2n/3 neighbours in one of the colours. Our proof makes extensive use of the ideas presented in "A New Bound for the 2/3 Conjecture" by Král', Liu, Sereni, Whalen, and Yilma.
A graph $G$ is terminal-pairable with respect to a demand multigraph $D$ on the same vertex set as $G$, if there exists edge-disjoint paths joining the end vertices of every demand edge of $D$. In this short note, we improve the upper bound on the largest $Δ(n)$ with the property that the complete graph on $n$ vertices is terminal-pairable with respect to any demand multigraph of maximum degree at most $Δ(n)$. This disproves a conjecture originally stated by Csaba, Faudree, Gyárfás, Lehel and Schelp.
In 1990 Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp proved that for $k\geq 2$, every graph with $n\geq k+1$ vertices and $(k-1)(n-k+2)+\binom{k-2}{2}+1$ edges contains a subgraph of minimum degree $k$ on at most $n-\sqrt{n}/\sqrt{6k^3}$ vertices. They conjectured that it is possible to remove at least $ε_k n$ many vertices and remain with a subgraph of minimum degree $k$, for some $ε_k>0$. We make progress towards their conjecture by showing that one can remove at least $Ω(n/\log n)$ many vertices.
We use a variant of Bukh's random algebraic method to show that for every natural number $k \geq 2$ there exists a natural number $\ell$ such that, for every $n$, there is a graph with $n$ vertices and $Ω_k(n^{1 + 1/k})$ edges with at most $\ell$ paths of length $k$ between any two vertices. A result of Faudree and Simonovits shows that the bound on the number of edges is tight up to the implied constant.
We show that any n-vertex complete graph with edges colored with three colors contains a set of at most four vertices such that the number of the neighbors of these vertices in one of the colors is at least 2n/3. The previous best value, proved by Erdos, Faudree, Gould, Gyárfás, Rousseau and Schelp in 1989, is 22. It is conjectured that three vertices suffice.
The $k$-colour bipartite Ramsey number of a bipartite graph $H$ is the least integer $N$ for which every $k$-edge-coloured complete bipartite graph $K_{N,N}$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. The study of bipartite Ramsey numbers was initiated over 40 years ago by Faudree and Schelp and, independently, by Gyárfás and Lehel, who determined the $2$-colour bipartite Ramsey number of paths. Recently the $3$-colour Ramsey number of paths and (even) cycles, was essentially determined as well. Improving the results of DeBiasio, Gyárfás, Krueger, Ruszinkó, and Sárközy, in this paper we determine a…
For two graph H and G, the Ramsey number r(H, G) is the smallest positive integer n such that every red-blue edge coloring of the complete graph K_n on n vertices contains either a red copy of H or a blue copy of G. Motivated by questions of Erdos and Harary, in this note we study how the Ramsey number r(K_s, G) depends on the size of the graph G. For s \geq 3, we prove that for every G with m edges, r(K_s,G) \geq c (m/\log m)^{\frac{s+1}{s+3}} for some positive constant c depending only on s. This lower bound improves an earlier result of Erdos, Faudree, Rousseau, and Schelp, and is tight up …
The size Ramsey number of a graph $H$ is defined as the minimum number of edges in a graph $G$ such that there is a monochromatic copy of $H$ in every two-coloring of $E(G)$. The size Ramsey number was introduced by Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau, and Schelp in 1978 and they ended their foundational paper by asking whether one can determine up to a constant factor the size Ramsey numbers of three families of graphs: complete bipartite graphs, book graphs (obtained by adding many common neighbors to the vertices of a clique), and starburst graphs (obtained by adding many pendant edges to each vertex …
Given a graph $G$, the strong clique number $ω_2'(G)$ of $G$ is the cardinality of a largest collection of edges every pair of which are incident or connected by an edge in $G$. We study the strong clique number of graphs missing some set of cycle lengths. For a graph $G$ of large enough maximum degree $Δ$, we show among other results the following: $ω_2'(G)\le5Δ^2/4$ if $G$ is triangle-free; $ω_2'(G)\le3(Δ-1)$ if $G$ is $C_4$-free; $ω_2'(G)\leΔ^2$ if $G$ is $C_{2k+1}$-free for some $k\ge 2$. These bounds are attained by natural extremal examples. Our work extends and improves upon previous wo…
For every even positive integer $k\ge 4$ let $f(n,k)$ denote the minimim number of colors required to color the edges of the $n$-dimensional cube $Q_n$, so that the edges of every copy of $k$-cycle $C_k$ receive $k$ distinct colors. Faudree, Gyárfás, Lesniak and Schelp proved that $f(n,4)=n$ for $n=4$ or $n>5$. We consider larger $k$ and prove that if $k \equiv 0$ (mod 4), then there are positive constants $c_1, c_2$ depending only on $k$ such that $$c_1n^{k/4} < f(n,k) < c_2 n^{k/4}.$$ Our upper bound uses an old construction of Bose and Chowla of generalized Sidon sets. For $k \equiv 2$ (mod…
Gyárfás and Lehel and independently Faudree and Schelp proved that in any 2-coloring of the edges of $K_{n,n}$ there exists a monochromatic path on at least $2\lceil n/2\rceil$ vertices, and this is tight. We prove a stability version of this result which holds even if the host graph is not complete; that is, if $G$ is a balanced bipartite graph on $2n$ vertices with minimum degree at least $(3/4+o(1))n$, then in every 2-coloring of the edges of $G$, either there exists a monochromatic cycle on at least $(1+o(1))n$ vertices, or the coloring of $G$ is close to an extremal coloring -- in which c…
We determine several generalised Ramsey numbers for two sets $Γ_1$ and $Γ_2$ of cycles, in particular, all generalised Ramsey numbers $R(Γ_1,Γ_2)$ such that $Γ_1$ or $Γ_2$ contains a cycle of length at most $6$, or the shortest cycle in each set is even. This generalises previous results of Erdős, Faudree, Rosta, Rousseau, and Schelp from the 1970s. Notably, including both $C_3$ and $C_4$ in one of the sets, makes very little difference from including only $C_4$. Furthermore, we give a conjecture for the general case. We also describe many $(Γ_1,Γ_2)$-avoiding graphs, including a complete char…
Given a pair of graphs $G$ and $H$, the Ramsey number $R(G,H)$ is the smallest $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the edges of the complete graph $K_N$ contains a red copy of $G$ or a blue copy of $H$. If a graph $G$ is connected, it is well known and easy to show that $R(G,H) \geq (|G|-1)(χ(H)-1)+σ(H)$, where $χ(H)$ is the chromatic number of $H$ and $σ(H)$ is the size of the smallest color class in a $χ(H)$-coloring of $H$. A graph $G$ is called $H$-good if $R(G,H)= (|G|-1)(χ(H)-1)+σ(H)$. The notion of Ramsey goodness was introduced by Burr and Erdős in 1983 and has been extensively st…
Leaf-to-leaf paths and cycles in degree-critical graphs
London School of Economics（伦敦政治经济学院）；University College London（伦敦大学学院）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；King’s College London（伦敦国王学院）
It is well-known that in every $r$-coloring of the edges of the complete bipartite graph $K_{n,n}$ there is a monochromatic connected component with at least ${2n\over r}$ vertices. It would be interesting to know whether we can additionally require that this large component be balanced; that is, is it true that in every $r$-coloring of $K_{n,n}$ there is a monochromatic component that meets both sides in at least $n/r$ vertices? Over forty years ago, Gyárfás and Lehel and independently Faudree and Schelp proved that any $2$-colored $K_{n,n}$ contains a monochromatic $P_n$. Very recently, Buci…
A path-matching of order $p$ is a vertex disjoint union of nontrivial paths spanning $p$ vertices. Burr and Roberts, and Faudree and Schelp determined the 2-color Ramsey number of path-matchings. In this paper we study the multicolor Ramsey number of path-matchings. Given positive integers $r, p_1, \dots, p_r$, define $R^{PM}(p_1, \dots, p_r)$ to be the smallest integer $n$ such that in any $r$-coloring of the edges of $K_n$ there exists a path-matching of color $i$ and order at least $p_i$ for some $i\in [r]$. Our main result is that for $r\geq 2$ and $p_1\geq \dots\geq p_r\geq 2$, if $p_1\ge…
