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Improved Lower Bounds on the Compatibility of Multi-State Characters
We study a long standing conjecture on the necessary and sufficient
conditions for the compatibility of multi-state characters: There exists a
function such that, for any set of -state characters, is
compatible if and only if every subset of characters of is
compatible. We show that for every , there exists an incompatible set
of -state
characters such that every proper subset of is compatible. Thus, for every .
This improves the previous lower bound of given by Meacham (1983),
and generalizes the construction showing that given by Habib and
To (2011). We prove our result via a result on quartet compatibility that may
be of independent interest: For every integer , there exists an
incompatible set of
quartets over
labels such that every proper subset of is compatible. We contrast this
with a result on the compatibility of triplets: For every , if is
an incompatible set of more than triplets over labels, then some
proper subset of is incompatible. We show this upper bound is tight by
exhibiting, for every , a set of triplets over taxa such
that is incompatible, but every proper subset of is compatible