Perfect packings with complete graphs minus an edge

Let K_r^- denote the graph obtained from K_r by deleting one edge. We show that for every integer r\ge 4 there exists an integer n_0=n_0(r) such that every graph G whose order n\ge n_0 is divisible by r and whose minimum degree is at least (1-1/chi_{cr}(K_r^-))n contains a perfect K_r^- packing, i.e. a collection of disjoint copies of K_r^- which covers all vertices of G. Here chi_{cr}(K_r^-)=r(r-2)/(r-1) is the critical chromatic number of K_r^-. The bound on the minimum degree is best possible and confirms a conjecture of Kawarabayashi for large n

Embedding large subgraphs into dense graphs

What conditions ensure that a graph G contains some given spanning subgraph H? The most famous examples of results of this kind are probably Dirac's theorem on Hamilton cycles and Tutte's theorem on perfect matchings. Perfect matchings are generalized by perfect F-packings, where instead of covering all the vertices of G by disjoint edges, we want to cover G by disjoint copies of a (small) graph F. It is unlikely that there is a characterization of all graphs G which contain a perfect F-packing, so as in the case of Dirac's theorem it makes sense to study conditions on the minimum degree of G which guarantee a perfect F-packing. The Regularity lemma of Szemeredi and the Blow-up lemma of Komlos, Sarkozy and Szemeredi have proved to be powerful tools in attacking such problems and quite recently, several long-standing problems and conjectures in the area have been solved using these. In this survey, we give an outline of recent progress (with our main emphasis on F-packings, Hamiltonicity problems and tree embeddings) and describe some of the methods involved

Packing k-partite k-uniform hypergraphs

Let $G$ and $H$ be $k$-graphs ($k$-uniform hypergraphs); then a perfect $H$-packing in $G$ is a collection of vertex-disjoint copies of $H$ in $G$ which together cover every vertex of $G$. For any fixed $H$ let $\delta(H, n)$ be the minimum $\delta$ such that any $k$-graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with minimum codegree $\delta(G) \geq \delta$ contains a perfect $H$-packing. The problem of determining $\delta(H, n)$ has been widely studied for graphs (i.e. $2$-graphs), but little is known for $k \geq 3$. Here we determine the asymptotic value of $\delta(H, n)$ for all complete $k$-partite $k$-graphs $H$, as well as a wide class of other $k$-partite $k$-graphs. In particular, these results provide an asymptotic solution to a question of R\"odl and Ruci\'nski on the value of $\delta(H, n)$ when $H$ is a loose cycle. We also determine asymptotically the codegree threshold needed to guarantee an $H$-packing covering all but a constant number of vertices of $G$ for any complete $k$-partite $k$-graph $H$.Comment: v2: Updated with minor corrections. Accepted for publication in Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series