Given a 2-edge-coloring $f : E(K_n) \rightarrow \{\pm 1\}$, the discrepancy of a subgraph $F \subseteq K_n$ is defined as $\left| \sum_{e \in E(F)} f(e) \right|$. Erdős, Füredi, Loebl and Sós showed that if $F$ is an $n$-vertex tree with maximum degree at most $(1-\varepsilon)n$, then every 2-coloring of $K_n$ has a copy of $F$ with discrepancy $Ω(\varepsilon)n$. We extend this result by showing that the same conclusion holds for every $n$-vertex graph with maximum degree at most $(1-\varepsilon)n$ and no isolated vertices. We also show that for every $d$-regular $n$-vertex graph $F$ with $d \leq (1-\varepsilon)n$, every 2-coloring of $K_n$ has a copy of $F$ with discrepancy $Ω(\sqrt{\varepsilon d}) \cdot n$. The dependence on $d$ and $n$ is best possible.
Finally, we consider specific graphs $F$, namely $K_r$-factors and 2-factors. For each such graph $F$, we determine the optimal constant $λ$ such that every 2-coloring of $K_n$ has a copy of $F$ with discrepancy at least $(λ+ o(1))n$.
In the literature, the notion of discrepancy is used in several contexts, even in the theory of graphs. Here, for a graph $G$, $\{-1, 1\}$ labels are assigned to the edges, and we consider a family $\mathcal{S}_G$ of (spanning) subgraphs of certain types, among others spanning trees, Hamiltonian cycles. As usual, we seek for bounds on the sum of the labels that hold for all elements of $\mathcal{S}_G$, for every labeling.
We investigate the distributions of the number of: (1) monochromatic complete subgraphs over edgewise 2-colorings of complete graphs; and (2) monochromatic arithmetic progressions over 2-colorings of intervals, as statistical Ramsey theory questions. We present convincing evidence that both distributions are very well-approximated by the Delaporte distribution.
In this note, we answer the following question of Foucaud, Krivelevich and Perarnau. What is the size of the largest $K_{r,s}$-free subgraph one can guarantee in every graph $G$ with $m$ edges? We also discuss the analogous problem for hypergraphs.
We prove a decomposition theorem for the class of triangle-free graphs that do not contain a subdivision of the complete graph on four vertices as an induced subgraph. We prove that every graph of girth at least~5 in this class is 3-colorable.
Let $G$ be a $2$-coloring of a complete graph on $n$ vertices, for sufficiently large $n$. We prove that $G$ contains at least $n^{(\frac{1}{4} - o(1))\log n}$ monochromatic complete subgraphs of size $r$, where \[ 0.3\log n < r < 0.7\log n. \] The previously known lower bound on the total number of monochromatic complete subgraphs, due to Székely was $n^{0.1576\log n}$. We also prove that $G$ contains at least $n^{\frac{1}{7} \log n} $ monochromatic complete subgraphs of size $\frac{1}{2}\log n$. If furthermore one assumes that the largest monochromatic complete subgraph in $G$ is of size $(\…
We determine how large r-partite graphs can be found in r-uniform graphs with n vertices and Cn^r edges, where C is a slowly decreasing function of n. This refines results of Erdos from 1964.
We prove that for all $r\geq2$ and c>0, every graph of order n with at least cn^{r} cliques of order r contains a complete r-partite graph with each part of size $\lfloor c^{r}\log n \rfloor.$ This result implies a concise form of the Erdős-Stone theorem.
Given an edge colouring of a graph with a set of $m$ colours, we say that the graph is (exactly) $m$-coloured if each of the colours is used. The question of finding exactly $m$-coloured complete subgraphs was first considered by Erickson in 1994; in 1999, Stacey and Weidl partially settled a conjecture made by Erickson and raised some further questions. In this paper, we shall study, for a colouring of the edges of the complete graph on $\mathbb{N}$ with exactly $k$ colours, how small the set of natural numbers $m$ for which there exists an $m$-coloured complete infinite subgraph can be. We p…
Given graphs $G$ and $H$, the generalized Turán number ${\rm ex}(G,H)$ is the maximum number of edges in an $H$-free subgraph of $G$. In this paper, we obtain an asymptotic upper bound on ${\rm ex}(CT_n,C_{2l})$ for any $n \ge 3$ and $l\geq2$, where $C_{2l}$ is the cycle of length $2l$ and $CT_n$ is the complete transposition graph which is defined as the Cayley graph on the symmetric group ${\rm S}_n$ with respect to the set of all transpositions of ${\rm S}_n$.
A graph $H$ is an induced subgraph of a graph $G$ if a graph isomorphic to $H$ can be obtained from $G$ by deleting vertices. Recently, there has been significant interest in understanding the unavoidable induced subgraphs for graphs of large treewidth. Motivated by this work, we consider the analogous problem for pathwidth: what are the unavoidable induced subgraphs for graphs of large pathwidth? While resolving this question in the general setting looks challenging, we prove various results for sparse graphs. In particular, we show that every graph with bounded maximum degree and sufficientl…
Let $G$ be a graph of minimum degree at least $k$ and let $G_p$ be the random subgraph of $G$ obtained by keeping each edge independently with probability $p$. We are interested in the size of the largest complete minor that $G_p$ contains when $p = \frac{1+\varepsilon}{k}$ with $\varepsilon >0$. We show that with high probability $G_p$ contains a complete minor of order $\tildeΩ(\sqrt{k})$, where the $\sim$ hides a polylogarithmic factor. Furthermore, in the case where the order of $G$ is also bounded above by a constant multiple of $k$, we show that this polylogarithmic term can be removed, …
A subgraph of an edge-coloured complete graph is called rainbow if all its edges have different colours. In 1980 Hahn conjectured that every properly edge-coloured complete graph $K_n$ has a rainbow Hamiltonian path. Although this conjecture turned out to be false, it was widely believed that such a colouring always contains a rainbow cycle of length almost $n$. In this paper, improving on several earlier results, we confirm this by proving that every properly edge-coloured $K_n$ has a rainbow cycle of length $n-O(n^{3/4})$. One of the main ingredients of our proof, which is of independent int…
In this paper, we make progress on a question related to one of Galvin that has attracted substantial attention recently. The question is that of determining among all graphs $G$ with $n$ vertices and $Δ(G)\leq r$, which has the most complete subgraphs of size $t$, for $t\geq 3$. The conjectured extremal graph is $aK_{r+1}\cup K_b$, where $n=a(r+1)+b$ with $0\leq b\leq r$. Gan, Loh, and Sudakov proved the conjecture when $a\leq 1$, and also reduced the general conjecture to the case $t=3$. We prove the conjecture for $r\leq 6$ and also establish a weaker form of the conjecture for all $r$.
Given an edge colouring of a graph with a set of $m$ colours, we say that the graph is (exactly) $m$-coloured if each of the colours is used. We consider edge colourings of the complete graph on $\mathbb{N}$ with infinitely many colours and show that either one can find an $m$-coloured complete subgraph for every natural number $m$ or there exists an infinite subset $X \subset \mathbb{N}$ coloured in one of two canonical ways: either the colouring is injective on $X$ or there exists a distinguished vertex $v$ in $X$ such that $X \setminus \lbrace v \rbrace$ is $1$-coloured and each edge betwee…
Let $K_{\mathbb{N}}$ be the complete symmetric digraph on the positive integers. Answering a question of DeBiasio and McKenney, we construct a $2$-colouring of the edges of $K_{\mathbb{N}}$ in which every monochromatic path has density~$0$. However, if we restrict the length of monochromatic paths in one colour, then no example as above can exist: We show that every $(r+1)$-edge-coloured complete symmetric digraph (of arbitrary infinite cardinality) containing no directed paths of edge-length $\ell_i$ for any colour $i\leq r$ can be covered by $\prod_{i\leq r} \ell_i$ pairwise disjoint monochr…
An edge-coloring of a complete graph with a set of colors $C$ is called completely balanced if any vertex is incident to the same number of edges of each color from $C$. Erdős and Tuza asked in $1993$ whether for any graph $F$ on $\ell$ edges and any completely balanced coloring of any sufficiently large complete graph using $\ell$ colors contains a rainbow copy of $F$. This question was restated by Erdős in his list of ``Some of my favourite problems on cycles and colourings''. We answer this question in the negative for most cliques $F=K_q$ by giving explicit constructions of respective comp…
Turan's Theorem states that every graph of a certain edge density contains a complete graph $K^k$ and describes the unique extremal graphs. We give a similar Theorem for l-partite graphs. For large l, we find the minimal edge density $d^k_l$, such that every $\ell$-partite graph whose parts have pairwise edge density greater than $d^k_l$ contains a $K^k$. It turns out that $d^k_l=(k-2)/(k-1)$ for large enough l. We also describe the structure of the extremal graphs. For the case of triangles we show that $d^3_{13}=1/2$, disproving a conjecture by Bondy, Shen, Thomasse and Thomassen.
Let $K$ be a complete graph of order $n$. For $d\in (0,1)$, let $c$ be a $\pm 1$-edge labeling of $K$ such that there are $d{n\choose 2}$ edges with label $+1$, and let $G$ be a spanning subgraph of $K$ of maximum degree at most $Δ$. We prove the existence of an isomorphic copy $G'$ of $G$ in $K$ such that the number of edges with label $+1$ in $G'$ is at least $\left(c_{d,Δ}-O\left(\frac{1}{n}\right)\right)m(G)$, where $c_{d,Δ}=d+Ω\left(\frac{1}Δ\right)$ for fixed $d$, that is, this number visibly deviates from its expected value when considering a uniformly random copy of $G$ in $K$. For $d=…
A well-known result by Haxell and Kohayakawa states that the vertices of an $r$-coloured complete graph can be partitioned into $r$ monochromatic connected subgraphs of distinct colours; this is a slightly weaker variant of a conjecture by Erdős, Pyber and Gyárfás that states that there exists a partition into $r-1$ monochromatic connected subgraphs. We consider a variant of this problem, where the complete graph is replaced by a graph with large minimum degree, and prove two conjectures of Bal and DeBiasio, for two and three colours.
We propose a new approach to studies on partial Steiner triple systems consisting in determining complete graphs contained in them. We establish the structure which complete graphs yield in a minimal PSTS that contains them. As a by-product we introduce the notion of a binomial PSTS as a configuration with parameters of a minimal PSTS with a complete subgraph. A representation of binomial PSTS with at least a given number of its maximal complete subgraphs is given in terms of systems of perspectives. Finally, we prove that for each admissible integer there is a binomial PSTS with this number o…
Polynomial algorithms are given for the following two problems: given a graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, where $m \ge 3 n^{3/2}$, find a complete balanced bipartite subgraph with parts about $\ln n/(\ln (n^2/m))$, given a graph with $n$ vertices, find a decomposition of its edges into complete balanced bipartite graphs having altogether $O(n^2 / \ln n)$ vertices. Previous proofs of the existence of such objects, due to Kővári-Sós-Turán, Chung-Erdős-Spencer, Bublitz and Tuza were non-constructive.
If $G$ is a graph and $\mathcal{H}$ is a set of subgraphs of $G$, we say that an edge-coloring of $G$ is $\mathcal{H}$-polychromatic if every graph from $\mathcal{H}$ gets all colors present in $G$ on its edges. The $\mathcal{H}$-polychromatic number of $G$, denoted $\operatorname{poly}_\mathcal{H} (G)$, is the largest number of colors in an $\mathcal{H}$-polychromatic coloring. In this paper we determine $\operatorname{poly}_\mathcal{H} (G)$ exactly when $G$ is a complete graph on $n$ vertices, $q$ is a fixed nonnegative integer, and $\mathcal{H}$ is one of three families: the family of all m…
Let $pr(K_{n}, G)$ be the maximum number of colors in an edge-coloring of $K_{n}$ with no properly colored copy of $G$. In this paper, we show that $pr(K_{n}, G)-ex(n, \mathcal{G'})=o(n^{2}), $ where $\mathcal{G'}=\{G-M: M \text{ is a matching of }G\}$. Furthermore, we determine the value of $pr(K_{n}, P_{l})$ for $l\ge 27$ and $n\ge 2l^{3}$ and the exact value of $pr(K_{n}, G)$, where $G$ is $C_{5}, C_{6}$ and $K_{4}^{-}$, respectively. Also, we give an upper bound and a lower bound of $pr(K_{n}, K_{2,3})$.
We prove a 1985 conjecture of Gyárfás that for all $k,\ell$, every graph with sufficiently large chromatic number contains either a complete subgraph with $k$ vertices or an induced cycle of length at least $\ell$.
Motivated in part by an observation that the zero forcing number for the complement of a tree on $n$ vertices is either $n-3$ or $n-1$ in one exceptional case, we consider the zero forcing number for the complement of more general graphs under some conditions, particularly those that do not contain complete bipartite subgraphs. We also move well beyond trees and completely study all of the possible zero forcing numbers for the complements of unicyclic graphs and cactus graphs.
Let the diameter cover number, $D^t_r(G)$, denote the least integer $d$ such that under any $r$-coloring of the edges of the graph $G$, there exists a collection of $t$ monochromatic subgraphs of diameter at most $d$ such that every vertex of $G$ is contained in at least one of the subgraphs. We explore the diameter cover number with two colors and two subgraphs when $G$ is a complete multipartite graph with at least three parts. We determine exactly the value of $D_2^2(G)$ for all complete tripartite graphs $G$, and almost all complete multipartite graphs with more than three parts.
For a prime $p\equiv 3\pmod{4}$ and a positive integer $t$, let $q=p^{2t}$. Let $g$ be a primitive element of the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$. The Peisert graph $P^\ast(q)$ is defined as the graph with vertex set $\mathbb{F}_q$ where $ab$ is an edge if and only if $a-b\in\langle g^4\rangle \cup g\langle g^4\rangle$. We provide a formula, in terms of finite field hypergeometric functions, for the number of complete subgraphs of order four contained in $P^\ast(q)$. We also give a new proof for the number of complete subgraphs of order three contained in $P^\ast(q)$ by evaluating certain characte…
In this paper we present a complete characterization of the smallest sets that block all the simple spanning trees (SSTs) in a complete geometric graph. We also show that if a subgraph is a blocker for all SSTs of diameter at most 4, then it must block all simple spanning subgraphs, and in particular, all SSTs. For convex geometric graphs, we obtain an even stronger result: being a blocker for all SSTs of diameter at most 3 is already sufficient for blocking all simple spanning subgraphs.
Let $k$, $λ$ and $μ$ be positive integers. A decomposition of a multigraph $ λG$ into edge-disjoint subgraphs $G_1, \ldots , G_k$ is said to be \emph{enclosed} by a decomposition of a multigraph $μH$ into edge-disjoint subgraphs $H_1, \ldots , H_k$ if $μ> λ$ and $G_i$ is a subgraph of $H_i$, $1 \leq i \leq k$. In this paper we initiate the study of when a decomposition can be enclosed by a decomposition that consists of spanning subgraphs. A decomposition of a graph is a 2-factorization if each subgraph is 2-regular and is Hamiltonian if each subgraph is a Hamiltonian cycle. Let $n$ and $m$ be…
The chromatic number of a graph is the minimum $k$ such that the graph has a proper $k$-coloring. There are many coloring parameters in the literature that are proper colorings that also forbid bicolored subgraphs. Some examples are $2$-distance coloring, acyclic coloring, and star coloring, which forbid a bicolored path on three vertices, bicolored cycles, and a bicolored path on four vertices, respectively. This notion was first suggested by Grünbaum in 1973, but no specific name was given. We revive this notion by defining an $H$-avoiding $k$-coloring to be a proper $k$-coloring that forbid…
We consider the structure of $H$-free subgraphs of graphs with high minimal degree. We prove that for every $k>m$ there exists an $ε:=ε(k,m)>0$ so that the following holds. For every graph $H$ with chromatic number $k$ from which one can delete an edge and reduce the chromatic number, and for every graph $G$ on $n>n_0(H)$ vertices in which all degrees are at least $(1-ε)n$, any subgraph of $G$ which is $H$-free and contains the maximum number of copies of the complete graph $K_m$ is $(k-1)$-colorable. We also consider several extensions for the case of a general forbidden graph $H$ of a given …
Extremal problems involving the enumeration of graph substructures have a long history in graph theory. For example, the number of independent sets in a $d$-regular graph on $n$ vertices is at most $(2^{d+1}-1)^{n/2d}$ by the Kahn-Zhao theorem. Relaxing the regularity constraint to a minimum degree condition, Galvin conjectured that, for $n\geq 2d$, the number of independent sets in a graph with $δ(G)\geq d$ is at most that in $K_{d,n-d}$. In this paper, we give a lower bound on the number of independent sets in a $d$-regular graph mirroring the upper bound in the Kahn-Zhao theorem. The main r…
Given a finite simple graph one can associate the edge ideal. In this paper we prove that a graded Betti number of the edge ideal does not vanish if the original graph contains a set of complete bipartite subgraphs with some conditions. Also we give a combinatorial description for the projective dimension of the edge ideals of unmixed bipartite graphs.
Schrijver graphs are vertex-color-critical subgraphs of Kneser graphs having the same chromatic number. They also share the value of their fractional chromatic number but Schrijver graphs are not critical for that. Here we present an induced subgraph of every Schrijver graph that is vertex-critical with respect to the fractional chromatic number. These subgraphs turn out to be isomorphic with certain circular complete graphs. We also characterize the critical edges within this subgraph.
We consider the combinatorial properties of the trace of a random walk on the complete graph and on the random graph $G(n,p)$. In particular, we study the appearance of a fixed subgraph in the trace. We prove that for a subgraph containing a cycle, the threshold for its appearance in the trace of a random walk of length $m$ is essentially equal to the threshold for its appearance in the random graph drawn from $G(n,m)$. In the case where the base graph is the complete graph, we show that a fixed forest appears in the trace typically much earlier than it appears in $G(n,m)$.
In their celebrated paper [Ramsey-Type Theorems, Discrete Appl. Math. 25 (1989) 37-52], Erdős and Hajnal asked the following: is it true, that for any finite graph H there exists a constant c(H) such that for any finite graph G, if G does not contain complete or empty induced subgraphs of size at least |V(G)|^c(H), then H can be isomorphically embedded into G ? The positive answer has become known as the Erdős-Hajnal conjecture. In Theorem 3.20 of the present paper we settle this conjecture in the affirmative. To do so, we are studying here the fine structure of ultraproducts of finite sets, s…
We study the polyhedral properties of three problems of constructing an optimal complete bipartite subgraph (a biclique) in a bipartite graph. In the first problem we consider a balanced biclique with the same number of vertices in both parts and arbitrary edge weights. In the other two problems we are dealing with unbalanced subgraphs of maximum and minimum weight with nonnegative edges. All three problems are established to be NP-hard. We study the polytopes and the cone decompositions of these problems and their 1-skeletons. We describe the adjacency criterion in 1-skeleton of the polytope …
In graph theory, knowing the number of complete subgraphs with r vertices that a graph g has, limits the number of its complete subgraphs with s vertices, for s > r. A useful upper bound is provided by the Kruskal-Katona theorem, but this bound is often not tight. In this note, we add to the known cases where this bound is tight and also investigate cases where it is not. Finally we look at a useful technique for actually finding the numbers of complete subgraphs of a graph.
We consider the following question of Bollobas: given an r-colouring of the edges of the complete graph on n vertices, how large a k-connected subgraph can we find using only one colour? We solve this problem asymptotically when r-1 is a prime power, and exactly for 2- and 3-colourings.
Let H = (V,E) be a k-uniform hypergraph with a vertex set V and an edge set E. Let V_p be constructed by taking every vertex in V independently with probability p. Let X be the number of edges in E that are contained in V_p. We give a condition that guarantees the concentration of X within a small interval around its mean. The applicability of this result is demonstrated by deriving new sub-Gaussian tails for the number of copies of small complete and complete bipartite graphs in the binomial random graph, extending results of Ruciński and Vu.
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…
Given an edge colouring of a graph with a set of $m$ colours, we say that the graph is $m$-\textit{coloured} if each of the $m$ colours is used. For an $m$-colouring $Δ$ of $\mathbb{N}^{(2)}$, the complete graph on $\mathbb{N}$, we denote by $\mathcal{F}_Δ$ the set all values $γ$ for which there exists an infinite subset $X\subset \mathbb{N}$ such that $X^{(2)}$ is $γ$-coloured. Properties of this set were first studied by Erickson in $1994$. Here, we are interested in estimating the minimum size of $\mathcal{F}_Δ$ over all $m$-colourings $Δ$ of $\mathbb{N}^{(2)}$. Indeed, we shall prove the f…
The coprime hypergraph of integers on $n$ vertices $CHI_k(n)$ is defined via vertex set $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ and hyperedge set $\{\{v_1,v_2,\dots,v_{k+1}\}\subseteq\{1,2,\dots,n\}:\gcd(v_1,v_2,\dots,v_{k+1})=1\}$. In this article we present ideas on how to construct maximal subgraphs in $CHI_k(n)$. This continues the author's earlier work, which dealt with bounds on the size and structural properties of these subgraphs. We succeed in the cases $k\in\{1,2,3\}$ and give promising ideas for $k\geq 4$.
In 1975 Bollobás, Erd\H os, and Szemerédi asked the following question: given positive integers $n, t, r$ with $2\le t\le r-1$, what is the largest minimum degree $δ(G)$ among all $r$-partite graphs $G$ with parts of size $n$ and which do not contain a copy of $K_{t+1}$? The $r=t+1$ case has attracted a lot of attention and was fully resolved by Haxell and Szabó, and Szabó and Tardos in 2006. In this paper we investigate the $r>t+1$ case of the problem, which has remained dormant for over forty years. We resolve the problem exactly in the case when $r \equiv -1 \pmod{t}$, and up to an additive…
We show that the following problems are NP-complete. 1. Can the vertex set of a graph be partitioned into two sets such that each set induces a perfect graph? 2. Is the difference between the chromatic number and clique number at most $1$ for every induced subgraph of a graph? 3. Can the vertex set of every induced subgraph of a graph be partitioned into two sets such that the first set induces a perfect graph, and the clique number of the graph induced by the second set is smaller than that of the original induced subgraph? 4. Does a graph contain a stable set whose deletion results in a perf…
A hereditary class of graphs $\mathcal{G}$ is \emph{$χ$-bounded} if there exists a function $f$ such that every graph $G \in \mathcal{G}$ satisfies $χ(G) \leq f(ω(G))$, where $χ(G)$ and $ω(G)$ are the chromatic number and the clique number of $G$, respectively. As one of the first results about $χ$-bounded classes, Gyárfás proved in 1985 that if $G$ is $P_t$-free, i.e., does not contain a $t$-vertex path as an induced subgraph, then $χ(G) \leq (t-1)^{ω(G)-1}$. In 2017, Chudnovsky, Scott, and Seymour proved that $C_{\geq t}$-free graphs, i.e., graphs that exclude induced cycles with at least $t…
Let $\mathcal{F}$ be a family of fixed graphs and let $d$ be large enough. For every $d$-regular graph $G$, we study the existence of a spanning $\mathcal{F}$-free subgraph of $G$ with large minimum degree. This problem is well-understood if $\mathcal{F}$ does not contain bipartite graphs. Here we provide asymptotically tight results for many families of bipartite graphs such as cycles or complete bipartite graphs.
Suppose the edges of the complete graph on n vertices are coloured using r colours; how large a k-connected subgraph are we guaranteed to find, which uses only at most s of the colours? This question is due to Bollobas, and the case s = 1 was considered in a preivous paper by the same authors. Here we consider the case s >= 2, and mention some open problems.
Two subgraphs $A,B$ of a graph $G$ are anticomplete if they are vertex-disjoint and there are no edges joining them. Is it true that if $G$ is a graph with bounded clique number, and sufficiently large chromatic number, then it has two anticomplete subgraphs, both with large chromatic number? This is a question raised by El-Zahar and Erdős in 1986, and remains open. If so, then at least there should be two anticomplete subgraphs both with large minimum degree, and that is one of our results. We prove two variants of this. First, a strengthening: we can ask for one of the two subgraphs to have …
