Hypergraph Turán numbers of linear cycles

A k-uniform linear cycle of length ℓ, denoted by Cℓ(k), is a cyclic list of k-sets A1, . . . , Aℓ such that consecutive sets intersect in exactly one element and nonconsecutive sets are disjoint. For all k ≥ 5 and ℓ ≥ 3 and sufficiently large n we determine the largest size of a k-uniform set family on [n] not containing a linear cycle of length ℓ. For odd ℓ = 2t + 1 the unique extremal family FS consists of all k-sets in [n] intersecting a fixed t-set S in [n]. For even ℓ = 2t + 2, the unique extremal family consists of FS plus all the k-sets outside S containing some fixed two elements. For k ≥ 4 and large n we also establish an exact result for so-called minimal cycles. For all k ≥ 4 our results substantially extend Erdos's result on largest k-uniform families without t + 1 pairwise disjoint members and confirm, in a stronger form, a conjecture of Mubayi and Verstraëte. Our main method is the delta system method. © 2014 Elsevier Inc

Coloring intersection graphs of arc-connected sets in the plane

A family of sets in the plane is simple if the intersection of its any subfamily is arc-connected, and it is pierced by a line $L$ if the intersection of its any member with $L$ is a nonempty segment. It is proved that the intersection graphs of simple families of compact arc-connected sets in the plane pierced by a common line have chromatic number bounded by a function of their clique number.Comment: Minor changes + some additional references not included in the journal versio

Triangle-free geometric intersection graphs with large chromatic number

Several classical constructions illustrate the fact that the chromatic number of a graph can be arbitrarily large compared to its clique number. However, until very recently, no such construction was known for intersection graphs of geometric objects in the plane. We provide a general construction that for any arc-connected compact set $X$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ that is not an axis-aligned rectangle and for any positive integer $k$ produces a family $\mathcal{F}$ of sets, each obtained by an independent horizontal and vertical scaling and translation of $X$, such that no three sets in $\mathcal{F}$ pairwise intersect and $\chi(\mathcal{F})>k$. This provides a negative answer to a question of Gyarfas and Lehel for L-shapes. With extra conditions, we also show how to construct a triangle-free family of homothetic (uniformly scaled) copies of a set with arbitrarily large chromatic number. This applies to many common shapes, like circles, square boundaries, and equilateral L-shapes. Additionally, we reveal a surprising connection between coloring geometric objects in the plane and on-line coloring of intervals on the line.Comment: Small corrections, bibliography updat

Path separation by short cycles

Two Hamilton paths in $K_n$ are separated by a cycle of length $k$ if their union contains such a cycle. For small fixed values of $k$ we bound the asymptotics of the maximum cardinality of a family of Hamilton paths in $K_n$ such that any pair of paths in the family is separated by a cycle of length $k.$Comment: final version with correction