Hypergraph cuts above the average

An r-cut of a k-uniform hypergraph H is a partition of the vertex set of H into r parts and the size of the cut is the number of edges which have a vertex in each part. A classical result of Edwards says that every m-edge graph has a 2-cut of size m/2 + Ω(√m), and this is best possible. That is, there exist cuts which exceed the expected size of a random cut by some multiple of the standard deviation. We study analogues of this and related results in hypergraphs. First, we observe that similarly to graphs, every m-edge k-uniform hypergraph has an r-cut whose size is Ω(√m) larger than the expected size of a random r-cut. Moreover, in the case where k = 3 and r = 2 this bound is best possible and is attained by Steiner triple systems. Surprisingly, for all other cases (that is, if k ≥ 4 or r ≥ 3), we show that every m-edge k-uniform hypergraph has an r-cut whose size is Ω(m^(5/9)) larger than the expected size of a random r-cut. This is a significant difference in behaviour, since the amount by which the size of the largest cut exceeds the expected size of a random cut is now considerably larger than the standard deviation

On restricted colourings of Kn

The authors investigate Ramsey-type extremal problems for finite graphs. In Section 1, anti-Ramsey numbers for paths are determined. For positive integers k and n let r=f(n,Pk) be the maximal integer such that there exists an edge colouring of Kn using precisely r colours but not containing any coloured path on k vertices with all edges having different colors. It is shown that f(n,P2k+3+ε)=t⋅n−(t+12)+1+ε for t≥5, n>c⋅t2 and ε=0,1. In Section 2, K3-spectra of colourings are determined. Given S⊆{1,2,3}, the authors investigate for which r and n there exist edge colourings of Kn using precisely r colours such that all triangles are s-coloured for some s∈S and, conversely, every s∈S occurs. Section 3 contains suggestions for further research

Unavoidable Multicoloured Families of Configurations

Balogh and Bollob\'as [{\em Combinatorica 25, 2005}] prove that for any $k$ there is a constant $f(k)$ such that any set system with at least $f(k)$ sets reduces to a $k$-star, an $k$-costar or an $k$-chain. They proved $f(k)<(2k)^{2^k}$. Here we improve it to $f(k)<2^{ck^2}$ for some constant $c>0$. This is a special case of the following result on the multi-coloured forbidden configurations at 2 colours. Let $r$ be given. Then there exists a constant $c_r$ so that a matrix with entries drawn from $\{0,1,...,r-1\}$ with at least $2^{c_rk^2}$ different columns will have a $k\times k$ submatrix that can have its rows and columns permuted so that in the resulting matrix will be either $I_k(a,b)$ or $T_k(a,b)$ (for some $a\ne b\in \{0,1,..., r-1\}$), where $I_k(a,b)$ is the $k\times k$ matrix with $a$'s on the diagonal and $b$'s else where, $T_k(a,b)$ the $k\times k$ matrix with $a$'s below the diagonal and $b$'s elsewhere. We also extend to considering the bound on the number of distinct columns, given that the number of rows is $m$, when avoiding a $t k\times k$ matrix obtained by taking any one of the $k \times k$ matrices above and repeating each column $t$ times. We use Ramsey Theory.Comment: 16 pages, add two application

Anti-Ramsey theorems

Let c be an edge-colouring of the complete n-graph Kn with m colours. A totally multicoloured (TMC) subgraph of Kn (with respect to c) is a graph G⊆Kn such that no two edges of G have the same colour. Let H be a graph with less than n vertices. If m is sufficiently large then there is in Kn a TMC subgraph isomorphic to H. Let f(n,H) denote the maximal number m such that there is an m-colouring of Kn without a TMC-subgraph isomorphic to H. Put d=min(χ(H−e),e∈E(H))−1. It is shown that f(n,H)/(n2) converges to 1−1/d for n→∞. An analogous result is proved for uniform hypergraphs. If, especially, H is a complete graph Kp, the extremal colouring is, for every n, uniquely determined (up to isomorphisms); it is closely related to the Turán graph (with p−1 colour-classes). The problem of determining f(n,H) is also discussed in more detail in the case when H is a path or a circuit, and in the case of a path an explicit formula is given, holding for n sufficiently large

Point selections and weak e-nets for convex hulls

One of our results: let X be a finite set on the plane, 0 &lt; g &lt; 1, then there exists a set F (a weak g-net) of size at most 7/e 2 such that every convex set containing at least e\X\ elements of X intersects F. Note that the size of F is independent of the size of X. 1

Set Systems with Restricted Cross-Intersections and the Minimum Rank of Inclusion Matrices

A set system is L-intersecting if any pairwise intersection size lies in L, where L is some set of s nonnegative integers. The celebrated Frankl-Ray-Chaudhuri-Wilson theorems give tight bounds on the size of an L-intersecting set system on a ground set of size n. Such a system contains at most $\binom{n}{s}$ sets if it is uniform and at most $\sum_{i=0}^s \binom{n}{i}$ sets if it is nonuniform. They also prove modular versions of these results. We consider the following extension of these problems. Call the set systems $\mathcal{A}_1,\ldots,\mathcal{A}_k$ {\em L-cross-intersecting} if for every pair of distinct sets A,B with $A \in \mathcal{A}_i$ and $B \in \mathcal{A}_j$ for some $i \neq j$ the intersection size $|A \cap B|$ lies in $L$. For any k and for n > n 0 (s) we give tight bounds on the maximum of $\sum_{i=1}^k |\mathcal{A}_i|$. It is at most $\max\, \{k\binom{n}{s}, \binom{n}{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor}\}$ if the systems are uniform and at most $\max\, \{k \sum_{i=0}^s \binom{n}{i} , (k-1) \sum_{i=0}^{s-1} \binom{n}{i} + 2^n\}$ if they are nonuniform. We also obtain modular versions of these results. Our proofs use tools from linear algebra together with some combinatorial ideas. A key ingredient is a tight lower bound for the rank of the inclusion matrix of a set system. The s*-inclusion matrix of a set system $\mathcal{A}$ on [n] is a matrix M with rows indexed by $\mathcal{A}$ and columns by the subsets of [n] of size at most s, where if $A \in \mathcal{A}$ and $B \subset [n]$ with $|B| \leq s$, we define M AB to be 1 if $B \subset A$ and 0 otherwise. Our bound generalizes the well-known result that if $|\mathcal{A}| < 2^{s+1}$, then M has full rank $|\mathcal{A}|$. In a combinatorial setting this fact was proved by Frankl and Pach in the study of null t-designs; it can also be viewed as determining the minimum distance of the Reed-Muller codes