Induced Ramsey-type results and binary predicates for point sets

Let $k$ and $p$ be positive integers and let $Q$ be a finite point set in general position in the plane. We say that $Q$ is $(k,p)$-Ramsey if there is a finite point set $P$ such that for every $k$-coloring $c$ of $\binom{P}{p}$ there is a subset $Q'$ of $P$ such that $Q'$ and $Q$ have the same order type and $\binom{Q'}{p}$ is monochromatic in $c$. Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il and Valtr proved that for every $k \in \mathbb{N}$, all point sets are $(k,1)$-Ramsey. They also proved that for every $k \ge 2$ and $p \ge 2$, there are point sets that are not $(k,p)$-Ramsey. As our main result, we introduce a new family of $(k,2)$-Ramsey point sets, extending a result of Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il and Valtr. We then use this new result to show that for every $k$ there is a point set $P$ such that no function $\Gamma$ that maps ordered pairs of distinct points from $P$ to a set of size $k$ can satisfy the following "local consistency" property: if $\Gamma$ attains the same values on two ordered triples of points from $P$, then these triples have the same orientation. Intuitively, this implies that there cannot be such a function that is defined locally and determines the orientation of point triples.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, final version, minor correction

On path-quasar Ramsey numbers

Let $G_1$ and $G_2$ be two given graphs. The Ramsey number $R(G_1,G_2)$ is the least integer $r$ such that for every graph $G$ on $r$ vertices, either $G$ contains a $G_1$ or $\overline{G}$ contains a $G_2$. Parsons gave a recursive formula to determine the values of $R(P_n,K_{1,m})$, where $P_n$ is a path on $n$ vertices and $K_{1,m}$ is a star on $m+1$ vertices. In this note, we first give an explicit formula for the path-star Ramsey numbers. Secondly, we study the Ramsey numbers $R(P_n,K_1\vee F_m)$, where $F_m$ is a linear forest on $m$ vertices. We determine the exact values of $R(P_n,K_1\vee F_m)$ for the cases $m\leq n$ and $m\geq 2n$, and for the case that $F_m$ has no odd component. Moreover, we give a lower bound and an upper bound for the case $n+1\leq m\leq 2n-1$ and $F_m$ has at least one odd component.Comment: 7 page