Packing tight Hamilton cycles in 3-uniform hypergraphs

Let H be a 3-uniform hypergraph with N vertices. A tight Hamilton cycle C \subset H is a collection of N edges for which there is an ordering of the vertices v_1, ..., v_N such that every triple of consecutive vertices {v_i, v_{i+1}, v_{i+2}} is an edge of C (indices are considered modulo N). We develop new techniques which enable us to prove that under certain natural pseudo-random conditions, almost all edges of H can be covered by edge-disjoint tight Hamilton cycles, for N divisible by 4. Consequently, we derive the corollary that random 3-uniform hypergraphs can be almost completely packed with tight Hamilton cycles w.h.p., for N divisible by 4 and P not too small. Along the way, we develop a similar result for packing Hamilton cycles in pseudo-random digraphs with even numbers of vertices.Comment: 31 pages, 1 figur

Pseudo-random graphs

Random graphs have proven to be one of the most important and fruitful concepts in modern Combinatorics and Theoretical Computer Science. Besides being a fascinating study subject for their own sake, they serve as essential instruments in proving an enormous number of combinatorial statements, making their role quite hard to overestimate. Their tremendous success serves as a natural motivation for the following very general and deep informal questions: what are the essential properties of random graphs? How can one tell when a given graph behaves like a random graph? How to create deterministically graphs that look random-like? This leads us to a concept of pseudo-random graphs and the aim of this survey is to provide a systematic treatment of this concept.Comment: 50 page

Powers of Hamilton cycles in pseudorandom graphs

We study the appearance of powers of Hamilton cycles in pseudorandom graphs, using the following comparatively weak pseudorandomness notion. A graph $G$ is $(\varepsilon,p,k,\ell)$-pseudorandom if for all disjoint $X$ and $Y\subset V(G)$ with $|X|\ge\varepsilon p^kn$ and $|Y|\ge\varepsilon p^\ell n$ we have $e(X,Y)=(1\pm\varepsilon)p|X||Y|$. We prove that for all $\beta>0$ there is an $\varepsilon>0$ such that an $(\varepsilon,p,1,2)$-pseudorandom graph on $n$ vertices with minimum degree at least $\beta pn$ contains the square of a Hamilton cycle. In particular, this implies that $(n,d,\lambda)$-graphs with $\lambda\ll d^{5/2 }n^{-3/2}$ contain the square of a Hamilton cycle, and thus a triangle factor if $n$ is a multiple of $3$. This improves on a result of Krivelevich, Sudakov and Szab\'o [Triangle factors in sparse pseudo-random graphs, Combinatorica 24 (2004), no. 3, 403--426]. We also extend our result to higher powers of Hamilton cycles and establish corresponding counting versions.Comment: 30 pages, 1 figur

Optimal covers with Hamilton cycles in random graphs

A packing of a graph G with Hamilton cycles is a set of edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles in G. Such packings have been studied intensively and recent results imply that a largest packing of Hamilton cycles in G_n,p a.a.s. has size \lfloor delta(G_n,p) /2 \rfloor. Glebov, Krivelevich and Szab\'o recently initiated research on the `dual' problem, where one asks for a set of Hamilton cycles covering all edges of G. Our main result states that for log^{117}n / n < p < 1-n^{-1/8}, a.a.s. the edges of G_n,p can be covered by \lceil Delta(G_n,p)/2 \rceil Hamilton cycles. This is clearly optimal and improves an approximate result of Glebov, Krivelevich and Szab\'o, which holds for p > n^{-1+\eps}. Our proof is based on a result of Knox, K\"uhn and Osthus on packing Hamilton cycles in pseudorandom graphs.Comment: final version of paper (to appear in Combinatorica

The number of Hamiltonian decompositions of regular graphs

A Hamilton cycle in a graph $\Gamma$ is a cycle passing through every vertex of $\Gamma$. A Hamiltonian decomposition of $\Gamma$ is a partition of its edge set into disjoint Hamilton cycles. One of the oldest results in graph theory is Walecki's theorem from the 19th century, showing that a complete graph $K_n$ on an odd number of vertices $n$ has a Hamiltonian decomposition. This result was recently greatly extended by K\"{u}hn and Osthus. They proved that every $r$-regular $n$-vertex graph $\Gamma$ with even degree $r=cn$ for some fixed $c>1/2$ has a Hamiltonian decomposition, provided $n=n(c)$ is sufficiently large. In this paper we address the natural question of estimating $H(\Gamma)$, the number of such decompositions of $\Gamma$. Our main result is that $H(\Gamma)=r^{(1+o(1))nr/2}$. In particular, the number of Hamiltonian decompositions of $K_n$ is $n^{(1-o(1))n^2/2}$

Hamilton cycles in graphs and hypergraphs: an extremal perspective

As one of the most fundamental and well-known NP-complete problems, the Hamilton cycle problem has been the subject of intensive research. Recent developments in the area have highlighted the crucial role played by the notions of expansion and quasi-randomness. These concepts and other recent techniques have led to the solution of several long-standing problems in the area. New aspects have also emerged, such as resilience, robustness and the study of Hamilton cycles in hypergraphs. We survey these developments and highlight open problems, with an emphasis on extremal and probabilistic approaches.Comment: to appear in the Proceedings of the ICM 2014; due to given page limits, this final version is slightly shorter than the previous arxiv versio

Hamilton cycles in highly connected and expanding graphs

In this paper we prove a sufficient condition for the existence of a Hamilton cycle, which is applicable to a wide variety of graphs, including relatively sparse graphs. In contrast to previous criteria, ours is based on only two properties: one requiring expansion of ``small'' sets, the other ensuring the existence of an edge between any two disjoint ``large'' sets. We also discuss applications in positional games, random graphs and extremal graph theory.Comment: 19 page