An Algorithmic Weakening of the Erd?s-Hajnal Conjecture

We study the approximability of the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem in H-free graphs (that is, graphs which do not admit H as an induced subgraph). As one motivation we investigate the following conjecture: for every fixed graph H, there exists a constant ? > 0 such that MIS can be n^{1-?}-approximated in H-free graphs, where n denotes the number of vertices of the input graph. We first prove that a constructive version of the celebrated Erd?s-Hajnal conjecture implies ours. We then prove that the set of graphs H satisfying our conjecture is closed under the so-called graph substitution. This, together with the known polynomial-time algorithms for MIS in H-free graphs (e.g. P?-free and fork-free graphs), implies that our conjecture holds for many graphs H for which the Erd?s-Hajnal conjecture is still open. We then focus on improving the constant ? for some graph classes: we prove that the classical Local Search algorithm provides an OPT^{1-1/t}-approximation in K_{t, t}-free graphs (hence a ?{OPT}-approximation in C?-free graphs), and, while there is a simple ?n-approximation in triangle-free graphs, it cannot be improved to n^{1/4-?} for any ? > 0 unless NP ? BPP. More generally, we show that there is a constant c such that MIS in graphs of girth ? cannot be n^{c/(?)}-approximated. Up to a constant factor in the exponent, this matches the ratio of a known approximation algorithm by Monien and Speckenmeyer, and by Murphy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first strong (i.e., ?(n^?) for some ? > 0) inapproximability result for Maximum Independent Set in a proper hereditary class

Degrees of nonlinearity in forbidden 0–1 matrix problems

AbstractA 0–1 matrix A is said to avoid a forbidden 0–1 matrix (or pattern) P if no submatrix of A matches P, where a 0 in P matches either 0 or 1 in A. The theory of forbidden matrices subsumes many extremal problems in combinatorics and graph theory such as bounding the length of Davenport–Schinzel sequences and their generalizations, Stanley and Wilf’s permutation avoidance problem, and Turán-type subgraph avoidance problems. In addition, forbidden matrix theory has proved to be a powerful tool in discrete geometry and the analysis of both geometric and non-geometric algorithms.Clearly a 0–1 matrix can be interpreted as the incidence matrix of a bipartite graph in which vertices on each side of the partition are ordered. Füredi and Hajnal conjectured that if P corresponds to an acyclic graph then the maximum weight (number of 1s) in an n×n matrix avoiding P is O(nlogn). In the first part of the article we refute of this conjecture. We exhibit n×n matrices with weight Θ(nlognloglogn) that avoid a relatively small acyclic matrix. The matrices are constructed via two complementary composition operations for 0–1 matrices. In the second part of the article we simplify one aspect of Keszegh and Geneson’s proof that there are infinitely many minimal nonlinear forbidden 0–1 matrices. In the last part of the article we investigate the relationship between 0–1 matrices and generalized Davenport–Schinzel sequences. We prove that all forbidden subsequences formed by concatenating two permutations have a linear extremal function

Power-law bounds for increasing subsequences in Brownian separable permutons and homogeneous sets in Brownian cographons

The Brownian separable permutons are a one-parameter family -- indexed by $p\in(0,1)$ -- of universal limits of random constrained permutations. We show that for each $p\in (0,1)$, there are explicit constants $1/2 < \alpha_*(p) \leq \beta^*(p) < 1$ such that the length of the longest increasing subsequence in a random permutation of size $n$ sampled from the Brownian separable permuton is between $n^{\alpha_*(p) - o(1)}$ and $n^{\beta^*(p) + o(1)}$ with probability tending to 1 as $n\to\infty$. In the symmetric case $p=1/2$, we have $\alpha_*(p) \approx 0.812$ and $\beta^*(p)\approx 0.975$. We present numerical simulations which suggest that the lower bound $\alpha_*(p)$ is close to optimal in the whole range $p\in(0,1)$. Our results work equally well for the closely related Brownian cographons. In this setting, we show that for each $p\in (0,1)$, the size of the largest clique (resp. independent set) in a random graph on $n$ vertices sampled from the Brownian cographon is between $n^{\alpha_*(p) - o(1)}$ and $n^{\beta^*(p) + o(1)}$ (resp. $n^{\alpha_*(1-p) - o(1)}$ and $n^{\beta^*(1-p) + o(1)}$) with probability tending to 1 as $n\to\infty$. Our proofs are based on the analysis of a fragmentation process embedded in a Brownian excursion introduced by Bertoin (2002). We expect that our techniques can be extended to prove similar bounds for uniform separable permutations and uniform cographs.Comment: New version before journal submissio

Clique number of tournaments

We introduce the notion of clique number of a tournament and investigate its relation with the dichromatic number. In particular, it permits defining \dic-bounded classes of tournaments, which is the paper's main topic

Halmazelmélet; Partíció kalkulus, Végtelen gráfok elmélete = Set Theory; Partition Calculus , Theory of Infinite Graphs

Előzetes tervünknek megfelelően a halmazelmélet alábbi területein végeztünk kutatást és értünk el számos eredményt: I. Kombinatorika II. A valósak számsosságinvariánsai és ideálelmélet III. Halmazelméleti topológia Ezek mellett Sági Gábor kiterjedt kutatást végzett a modellelmélet területén , amely eredmények kapcsolódnak a kombinatorikához is. Eredményeinket 38 közleményben publikáltuk, amelyek majdnem mind az adott terület vezető nemzetközi lapjaiban jelentel meg (5 cikket csak benyújtottunk). Számos nemzetközi konferencián is résztvettünk, és hárman közűlünk (Juhász, Sádi, Soukup) plenáris/meghívott előadók voltak számos alkalommal. | Following our research plan, we have mainly done research -- and established a number of significant results -- in several areas of set theory: I. Combinatorics II. Cardinal invariants of the continuum and ideal theory III. Set-theoretic topology In addition to these, G. Sági has done extended research in model theory that had ramifications to combinatorics. We presented our results in 38 publications, almost all of which appeared or will appear in the leading international journals of these fields (5 of these papers have been submitted but not accepted as yet). We also participated at a number of international conferences, three of us (Juhász, Sági, Soukup) as plenary and/or invited speakers at many of these

Towards the Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture for P5P_5-free graphs

The Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture is one of the most classical and well-known problems in extremal and structural combinatorics dating back to 1977. It asserts that in stark contrast to the case of a general $n$-vertex graph if one imposes even a little bit of structure on the graph, namely by forbidding a fixed graph $H$ as an induced subgraph, instead of only being able to find a polylogarithmic size clique or an independent set one can find one of polynomial size. Despite being the focus of considerable attention over the years the conjecture remains open. In this paper we improve the best known lower bound of $2^{\Omega(\sqrt{\log n})}$ on this question, due to Erd\H{o}s and Hajnal from 1989, in the smallest open case, namely when one forbids a $P_5$, the path on $5$ vertices. Namely, we show that any $P_5$-free $n$ vertex graph contains a clique or an independent set of size at least $2^{\Omega(\log n)^{2/3}}$. Our methods also lead to the same improvement for an infinite family of graphs