Semi-algebraic Ramsey numbers

Given a finite point set $P \subset \mathbb{R}^d$, a $k$-ary semi-algebraic relation $E$ on $P$ is the set of $k$-tuples of points in $P$, which is determined by a finite number of polynomial equations and inequalities in $kd$ real variables. The description complexity of such a relation is at most $t$ if the number of polynomials and their degrees are all bounded by $t$. The Ramsey number $R^{d,t}_k(s,n)$ is the minimum $N$ such that any $N$-element point set $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ equipped with a $k$-ary semi-algebraic relation $E$, such that $E$ has complexity at most $t$, contains $s$ members such that every $k$-tuple induced by them is in $E$, or $n$ members such that every $k$-tuple induced by them is not in $E$. We give a new upper bound for $R^{d,t}_k(s,n)$ for $k\geq 3$ and $s$ fixed. In particular, we show that for fixed integers $d,t,s$, $R^{d,t}_3(s,n) \leq 2^{n^{o(1)}},$ establishing a subexponential upper bound on $R^{d,t}_3(s,n)$. This improves the previous bound of $2^{n^C}$ due to Conlon, Fox, Pach, Sudakov, and Suk, where $C$ is a very large constant depending on $d,t,$ and $s$. As an application, we give new estimates for a recently studied Ramsey-type problem on hyperplane arrangements in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We also study multi-color Ramsey numbers for triangles in our semi-algebraic setting, achieving some partial results

Semi-algebraic and semi-linear Ramsey numbers

An $r$-uniform hypergraph $H$ is semi-algebraic of complexity $\mathbf{t}=(d,D,m)$ if the vertices of $H$ correspond to points in $\mathbb{R}^{d}$, and the edges of $H$ are determined by the sign-pattern of $m$ degree-$D$ polynomials. Semi-algebraic hypergraphs of bounded complexity provide a general framework for studying geometrically defined hypergraphs. The much-studied semi-algebraic Ramsey number $R_{r}^{\mathbf{t}}(s,n)$ denotes the smallest $N$ such that every $r$-uniform semi-algebraic hypergraph of complexity $\mathbf{t}$ on $N$ vertices contains either a clique of size $s$, or an independent set of size $n$. Conlon, Fox, Pach, Sudakov, and Suk proved that R_{r}^{\mathbf{t}}(n,n)<\mbox{tw}_{r-1}(n^{O(1)}), where \mbox{tw}_{k}(x) is a tower of 2's of height $k$ with an $x$ on the top. This bound is also the best possible if $\min\{d,D,m\}$ is sufficiently large with respect to $r$. They conjectured that in the asymmetric case, we have $R_{3}^{\mathbf{t}}(s,n)<n^{O(1)}$ for fixed $s$. We refute this conjecture by showing that $R_{3}^{\mathbf{t}}(4,n)>n^{(\log n)^{1/3-o(1)}}$ for some complexity $\mathbf{t}$. In addition, motivated by results of Bukh-Matou\v{s}ek and Basit-Chernikov-Starchenko-Tao-Tran, we study the complexity of the Ramsey problem when the defining polynomials are linear, that is, when $D=1$. In particular, we prove that $R_{r}^{d,1,m}(n,n)\leq 2^{O(n^{4r^2m^2})}$, while from below, we establish $R^{1,1,1}_{r}(n,n)\geq 2^{\Omega(n^{\lfloor r/2\rfloor-1})}$.Comment: 23 pages, 1 figur

Ramsey-Turan numbers for semi-algebraic graphs

A semi-algebraic graph G = (V, E) is a graph where the vertices are points in R-d, and the edge set E is defined by a semi-algebraic relation of constant complexity on V. In this note, we establish the following Ramsey-Turan theorem: for every integer p >= 3, every K-p-free semi-algebraic graph on n vertices with independence number o(n) has at most 1/2(1 - 1/inverted right perpendicularp/2inverted left perpendicular - 1 + o(1)) n(2) edges. Here, the dependence on 1-1 the complexity of the semi-algebraic relation is hidden in the o(1) term. Moreover, we show that this bound is tight

Semi-algebraic colorings of complete graphs

We consider $m$-colorings of the edges of a complete graph, where each color class is defined semi-algebraically with bounded complexity. The case $m = 2$ was first studied by Alon et al., who applied this framework to obtain surprisingly strong Ramsey-type results for intersection graphs of geometric objects and for other graphs arising in computational geometry. Considering larger values of $m$ is relevant, e.g., to problems concerning the number of distinct distances determined by a point set. For $p\ge 3$ and $m\ge 2$, the classical Ramsey number $R(p;m)$ is the smallest positive integer $n$ such that any $m$-coloring of the edges of $K_n$, the complete graph on $n$ vertices, contains a monochromatic $K_p$. It is a longstanding open problem that goes back to Schur (1916) to decide whether $R(p;m)=2^{O(m)}$, for a fixed $p$. We prove that this is true if each color class is defined semi-algebraically with bounded complexity. The order of magnitude of this bound is tight. Our proof is based on the Cutting Lemma of Chazelle {\em et al.}, and on a Szemer\'edi-type regularity lemma for multicolored semi-algebraic graphs, which is of independent interest. The same technique is used to address the semi-algebraic variant of a more general Ramsey-type problem of Erd\H{o}s and Shelah

Erdos-Szekeres-type statements: Ramsey function and decidability in dimension 1

A classical and widely used lemma of Erdos and Szekeres asserts that for every n there exists N such that every N-term sequence a of real numbers contains an n-term increasing subsequence or an n-term nondecreasing subsequence; quantitatively, the smallest N with this property equals (n-1)^2+1. In the setting of the present paper, we express this lemma by saying that the set of predicates Phi={x_1<x_2,x_1\ge x_2}$ is Erdos-Szekeres with Ramsey function ES_Phi(n)=(n-1)^2+1. In general, we consider an arbitrary finite set Phi={Phi_1,...,Phi_m} of semialgebraic predicates, meaning that each Phi_j=Phi_j(x_1,...,x_k) is a Boolean combination of polynomial equations and inequalities in some number k of real variables. We define Phi to be Erdos-Szekeres if for every n there exists N such that each N-term sequence a of real numbers has an n-term subsequence b such that at least one of the Phi_j holds everywhere on b, which means that Phi_j(b_{i_1},...,b_{i_k}) holds for every choice of indices i_1,i_2,...,i_k, 1<=i_1<i_2<... <i_k<= n. We write ES_Phi(n) for the smallest N with the above property. We prove two main results. First, the Ramsey functions in this setting are at most doubly exponential (and sometimes they are indeed doubly exponential): for every Phi that is Erd\H{o}s--Szekeres, there is a constant C such that ES_Phi(n) < exp(exp(Cn)). Second, there is an algorithm that, given Phi, decides whether it is Erdos-Szekeres; thus, one-dimensional Erdos-Szekeres-style theorems can in principle be proved automatically.Comment: minor fixes of the previous version. to appear in Duke Math.

Lower bounds on geometric Ramsey functions

We continue a sequence of recent works studying Ramsey functions for semialgebraic predicates in $\mathbb{R}^d$. A $k$-ary semialgebraic predicate $\Phi(x_1,\ldots,x_k)$ on $\mathbb{R}^d$ is a Boolean combination of polynomial equations and inequalities in the $kd$ coordinates of $k$ points $x_1,\ldots,x_k\in\mathbb{R}^d$. A sequence $P=(p_1,\ldots,p_n)$ of points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is called $\Phi$-homogeneous if either $\Phi(p_{i_1}, \ldots,p_{i_k})$ holds for all choices $1\le i_1 < \cdots < i_k\le n$, or it holds for no such choice. The Ramsey function $R_\Phi(n)$ is the smallest $N$ such that every point sequence of length $N$ contains a $\Phi$-homogeneous subsequence of length $n$. Conlon, Fox, Pach, Sudakov, and Suk constructed the first examples of semialgebraic predicates with the Ramsey function bounded from below by a tower function of arbitrary height: for every $k\ge 4$, they exhibit a $k$-ary $\Phi$ in dimension $2^{k-4}$ with $R_\Phi$ bounded below by a tower of height $k-1$. We reduce the dimension in their construction, obtaining a $k$-ary semialgebraic predicate $\Phi$ on $\mathbb{R}^{k-3}$ with $R_\Phi$ bounded below by a tower of height $k-1$. We also provide a natural geometric Ramsey-type theorem with a large Ramsey function. We call a point sequence $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ order-type homogeneous if all $(d+1)$-tuples in $P$ have the same orientation. Every sufficiently long point sequence in general position in $\mathbb{R}^d$ contains an order-type homogeneous subsequence of length $n$, and the corresponding Ramsey function has recently been studied in several papers. Together with a recent work of B\'ar\'any, Matou\v{s}ek, and P\'or, our results imply a tower function of $\Omega(n)$ of height $d$ as a lower bound, matching an upper bound by Suk up to the constant in front of $n$.Comment: 12 page

Ramsey-type theorems for lines in 3-space

We prove geometric Ramsey-type statements on collections of lines in 3-space. These statements give guarantees on the size of a clique or an independent set in (hyper)graphs induced by incidence relations between lines, points, and reguli in 3-space. Among other things, we prove that: (1) The intersection graph of n lines in R^3 has a clique or independent set of size Omega(n^{1/3}). (2) Every set of n lines in R^3 has a subset of n^{1/2} lines that are all stabbed by one line, or a subset of Omega((n/log n)^{1/5}) such that no 6-subset is stabbed by one line. (3) Every set of n lines in general position in R^3 has a subset of Omega(n^{2/3}) lines that all lie on a regulus, or a subset of Omega(n^{1/3}) lines such that no 4-subset is contained in a regulus. The proofs of these statements all follow from geometric incidence bounds -- such as the Guth-Katz bound on point-line incidences in R^3 -- combined with Tur\'an-type results on independent sets in sparse graphs and hypergraphs. Although similar Ramsey-type statements can be proved using existing generic algebraic frameworks, the lower bounds we get are much larger than what can be obtained with these methods. The proofs directly yield polynomial-time algorithms for finding subsets of the claimed size.Comment: 18 pages including appendi

Combinatorial complexity in o-minimal geometry

In this paper we prove tight bounds on the combinatorial and topological complexity of sets defined in terms of $n$ definable sets belonging to some fixed definable family of sets in an o-minimal structure. This generalizes the combinatorial parts of similar bounds known in the case of semi-algebraic and semi-Pfaffian sets, and as a result vastly increases the applicability of results on combinatorial and topological complexity of arrangements studied in discrete and computational geometry. As a sample application, we extend a Ramsey-type theorem due to Alon et al., originally proved for semi-algebraic sets of fixed description complexity to this more general setting.Comment: 25 pages. Revised version. To appear in the Proc. London Math. So