Improved bounds on the multicolor Ramsey numbers of paths and even cycles

We study the multicolor Ramsey numbers for paths and even cycles, $R_k(P_n)$ and $R_k(C_n)$, which are the smallest integers $N$ such that every coloring of the complete graph $K_N$ has a monochromatic copy of $P_n$ or $C_n$ respectively. For a long time, $R_k(P_n)$ has only been known to lie between $(k-1+o(1))n$ and $(k + o(1))n$. A recent breakthrough by S\'ark\"ozy and later improvement by Davies, Jenssen and Roberts give an upper bound of $(k - \frac{1}{4} + o(1))n$. We improve the upper bound to $(k - \frac{1}{2}+ o(1))n$. Our approach uses structural insights in connected graphs without a large matching. These insights may be of independent interest

On globally sparse Ramsey graphs

We say that a graph $G$ has the Ramsey property w.r.t.\ some graph $F$ and some integer $r\geq 2$, or $G$ is $(F,r)$-Ramsey for short, if any $r$-coloring of the edges of $G$ contains a monochromatic copy of $F$. R{\"o}dl and Ruci{\'n}ski asked how globally sparse $(F,r)$-Ramsey graphs $G$ can possibly be, where the density of $G$ is measured by the subgraph $H\subseteq G$ with the highest average degree. So far, this so-called Ramsey density is known only for cliques and some trivial graphs $F$. In this work we determine the Ramsey density up to some small error terms for several cases when $F$ is a complete bipartite graph, a cycle or a path, and $r\geq 2$ colors are available

A lower bound on the multicolor size-Ramsey numbers of paths in hypergraphs

The r-color size-Ramsey number of a k-uniform hypergraph H, denoted by R^r(H), is the minimum number of edges in a k-uniform hypergraph G such that for every r-coloring of the edges of G there exists a monochromatic copy of H. In the case of 2-uniform paths Pn, it is known that Ω(r2n)=R^r(Pn)=O((r2logr)n) with the best bounds essentially due to Krivelevich. In a recent breakthrough result, Letzter, Pokrovskiy, and Yepremyan gave a linear upper bound on the r-color size-Ramsey number of the k-uniform tight path P(k)n; i.e. R^r(P(k)n)=Or,k(n). Winter gave the first non-trivial lower bounds on the 2-color size-Ramsey number of P(k)n for k≥3; i.e. R^2(P(3)n)≥8/3n−O(1) and R^2(P(k)n)≥⌈log2(k+1)⌉n−Ok(1) for k≥4.We consider the problem of giving a lower bound on the r-color size-Ramsey number of P(k)n (for fixed k and growing r). Our main result is that R^r(P(k)n)=Ωk(rkn) which generalizes the best known lower bound for graphs mentioned above. One of the key elements of our proof is a determination of the correct order of magnitude of the r-color size-Ramsey number of every sufficiently short tight path; i.e. R^r(P(k)k+m) = Θk(rm) for all 1≤m≤k.All of our results generalize to ℓ-overlapping k-uniform paths P(k,ℓ)n. In particular we note that when 1≤ℓ≤k/2, we have Ωk(r2n)=R^r(P(k,ℓ)n)=O((r2logr)n) which essentially matches the best known bounds for graphs mentioned above. Additionally, in the case k=3, ℓ=2, and r=2, we give a more precise estimate which implies R^2(P(3)n)≥28/9n−O(1), improving on the above-mentioned lower bound of Winter in the case k=3

Topics in graph colouring and graph structures

This thesis investigates problems in a number of different areas of graph theory. These problems are related in the sense that they mostly concern the colouring or structure of the underlying graph. The first problem we consider is in Ramsey Theory, a branch of graph theory stemming from the eponymous theorem which, in its simplest form, states that any sufficiently large graph will contain a clique or anti-clique of a specified size. The problem of finding the minimum size of underlying graph which will guarantee such a clique or anti-clique is an interesting problem in its own right, which has received much interest over the last eighty years but which is notoriously intractable. We consider a generalisation of this problem. Rather than edges being present or not present in the underlying graph, each is assigned one of three possible colours and, rather than considering cliques, we consider cycles. Combining regularity and stability methods, we prove an exact result for a triple of long cycles. We then move on to consider removal lemmas. The classic Removal Lemma states that, for n sufficiently large, any graph on n vertices containing o(n^3) triangles can be made triangle-free by the removal of o(n^2) edges. Utilising a coloured hypergraph generalisation of this result, we prove removal lemmas for two classes of multinomials. Next, we consider a problem in fractional colouring. Since finding the chromatic number of a given graph can be viewed as an integer programming problem, it is natural to consider the solution to the corresponding linear programming problem. The solution to this LP-relaxation is called the fractional chromatic number. By a probabilistic method, we improve on the best previously known bound for the fractional chromatic number of a triangle-free graph with maximum degree at most three. Finally, we prove a weak version of Vizing's Theorem for hypergraphs. We prove that, if H is an intersecting 3-uniform hypergraph with maximum degree D and maximum multiplicity m, then H has at most 2D+m edges. Furthermore, we prove that the unique structure achieving this maximum is m copies of the Fano Plane