Lower bounds for small diagonal ramsey numbers

AbstractLet p = 4r + 1 be a prime. Let G be the graph on the p points 0, 1,…, p−1 formed by connecting two points with an edge iff their difference is a quadratic residue mod p. Let k be the size of the largest clique contained in G. Then it is well known that the diagonal Ramsey number R2(k + 1) > p. We show R2(k + 2) > 2p + 2. We also compute k for all p < 3000

Constructive Lower Bounds on Classical Multicolor Ramsey Numbers

This paper studies lower bounds for classical multicolor Ramsey numbers, first by giving a short overview of past results, and then by presenting several general constructions establishing new lower bounds for many diagonal and off-diagonal multicolor Ramsey numbers. In particular, we improve several lower bounds for R_k(4) and R_k(5) for some small k, including 415 \u3c = R_3(5), 634 \u3c = R_4(4), 2721 \u3c = R_4(5), 3416 \u3c = R_5(4) and 26082 \u3c = R_5(5). Most of the new lower bounds are consequences of general constructions

Generalized Paley graphs and their complete subgraphs of orders three and four

Let $k \geq 2$ be an integer. Let $q$ be a prime power such that $q \equiv 1 \pmod {k}$ if $q$ is even, or, $q \equiv 1 \pmod {2k}$ if $q$ is odd. The generalized Paley graph of order $q$, $G_k(q)$, is the graph with vertex set $\mathbb{F}_q$ where $ab$ is an edge if and only if ${a-b}$ is a $k$-th power residue. We provide a formula, in terms of finite field hypergeometric functions, for the number of complete subgraphs of order four contained in $G_k(q)$, $\mathcal{K}_4(G_k(q))$, which holds for all $k$. This generalizes the results of Evans, Pulham and Sheehan on the original ($k$=2) Paley graph. We also provide a formula, in terms of Jacobi sums, for the number of complete subgraphs of order three contained in $G_k(q)$, $\mathcal{K}_3(G_k(q))$. In both cases we give explicit determinations of these formulae for small $k$. We show that zero values of $\mathcal{K}_4(G_k(q))$ (resp. $\mathcal{K}_3(G_k(q))$) yield lower bounds for the multicolor diagonal Ramsey numbers $R_k(4)=R(4,4,\cdots,4)$ (resp. $R_k(3)$). We state explicitly these lower bounds for small $k$ and compare to known bounds. We also examine the relationship between both $\mathcal{K}_4(G_k(q))$ and $\mathcal{K}_3(G_k(q))$, when $q$ is prime, and Fourier coefficients of modular forms

On the proof complexity of Paris-harrington and off-diagonal ramsey tautologies

We study the proof complexity of Paris-Harrington’s Large Ramsey Theorem for bi-colorings of graphs and of off-diagonal Ramsey’s Theorem. For Paris-Harrington, we prove a non-trivial conditional lower bound in Resolution and a non-trivial upper bound in bounded-depth Frege. The lower bound is conditional on a (very reasonable) hardness assumption for a weak (quasi-polynomial) Pigeonhole principle in RES(2). We show that under such an assumption, there is no refutation of the Paris-Harrington formulas of size quasipolynomial in the number of propositional variables. The proof technique for the lower bound extends the idea of using a combinatorial principle to blow up a counterexample for another combinatorial principle beyond the threshold of inconsistency. A strong link with the proof complexity of an unbalanced off-diagonal Ramsey principle is established. This is obtained by adapting some constructions due to Erdos and Mills. ˝ We prove a non-trivial Resolution lower bound for a family of such off-diagonal Ramsey principles

Hypergraph Ramsey numbers

The Ramsey number r_k(s,n) is the minimum N such that every red-blue coloring of the k-tuples of an N-element set contains either a red set of size s or a blue set of size n, where a set is called red (blue) if all k-tuples from this set are red (blue). In this paper we obtain new estimates for several basic hypergraph Ramsey problems. We give a new upper bound for r_k(s,n) for k \geq 3 and s fixed. In particular, we show that r_3(s,n) \leq 2^{n^{s-2}\log n}, which improves by a factor of n^{s-2}/ polylog n the exponent of the previous upper bound of Erdos and Rado from 1952. We also obtain a new lower bound for these numbers, showing that there are constants c_1,c_2>0 such that r_3(s,n) \geq 2^{c_1 sn \log (n/s)} for all 4 \leq s \leq c_2n. When s is a constant, it gives the first superexponential lower bound for r_3(s,n), answering an open question posed by Erdos and Hajnal in 1972. Next, we consider the 3-color Ramsey number r_3(n,n,n), which is the minimum N such that every 3-coloring of the triples of an N-element set contains a monochromatic set of size n. Improving another old result of Erdos and Hajnal, we show that r_3(n,n,n) \geq 2^{n^{c \log n}}. Finally, we make some progress on related hypergraph Ramsey-type problems