Many TT copies in HH-free graphs

For two graphs $T$ and $H$ with no isolated vertices and for an integer $n$, let $ex(n,T,H)$ denote the maximum possible number of copies of $T$ in an $H$-free graph on $n$ vertices. The study of this function when $T=K_2$ is a single edge is the main subject of extremal graph theory. In the present paper we investigate the general function, focusing on the cases of triangles, complete graphs, complete bipartite graphs and trees. These cases reveal several interesting phenomena. Three representative results are: (i) $ex(n,K_3,C_5) \leq (1+o(1)) \frac{\sqrt 3}{2} n^{3/2},$ (ii) For any fixed $m$, $s \geq 2m-2$ and $t \geq (s-1)!+1$, $ex(n,K_m,K_{s,t})=\Theta(n^{m-\binom{m}{2}/s})$ and (iii) For any two trees $H$ and $T$, $ex(n,T,H) =\Theta (n^m)$ where $m=m(T,H)$ is an integer depending on $H$ and $T$ (its precise definition is given in Section 1). The first result improves (slightly) an estimate of Bollob\'as and Gy\H{o}ri. The proofs combine combinatorial and probabilistic arguments with simple spectral techniques

Triangles in graphs without bipartite suspensions

Given graphs $T$ and $H$, the generalized Tur\'an number ex$(n,T,H)$ is the maximum number of copies of $T$ in an $n$-vertex graph with no copies of $H$. Alon and Shikhelman, using a result of Erd\H os, determined the asymptotics of ex$(n,K_3,H)$ when the chromatic number of $H$ is greater than 3 and proved several results when $H$ is bipartite. We consider this problem when $H$ has chromatic number 3. Even this special case for the following relatively simple 3-chromatic graphs appears to be challenging. The suspension $\widehat H$ of a graph $H$ is the graph obtained from $H$ by adding a new vertex adjacent to all vertices of $H$. We give new upper and lower bounds on ex$(n,K_3,\widehat{H})$ when $H$ is a path, even cycle, or complete bipartite graph. One of the main tools we use is the triangle removal lemma, but it is unclear if much stronger statements can be proved without using the removal lemma.Comment: New result about path with 5 edges adde

Generalized Tur\'an problems for even cycles

Given a graph $H$ and a set of graphs $\mathcal F$, let $ex(n,H,\mathcal F)$ denote the maximum possible number of copies of $H$ in an $\mathcal F$-free graph on $n$ vertices. We investigate the function $ex(n,H,\mathcal F)$, when $H$ and members of $\mathcal F$ are cycles. Let $C_k$ denote the cycle of length $k$ and let $\mathscr C_k=\{C_3,C_4,\ldots,C_k\}$. Some of our main results are the following. (i) We show that $ex(n, C_{2l}, C_{2k}) = \Theta(n^l)$ for any $l, k \ge 2$. Moreover, we determine it asymptotically in the following cases: We show that $ex(n,C_4,C_{2k}) = (1+o(1)) \frac{(k-1)(k-2)}{4} n^2$ and that the maximum possible number of $C_6$'s in a $C_8$-free bipartite graph is $n^3 + O(n^{5/2})$. (ii) Solymosi and Wong proved that if Erd\H{o}s's Girth Conjecture holds, then for any $l \ge 3$ we have $ex(n,C_{2l},\mathscr C_{2l-1})=\Theta(n^{2l/(l-1)})$. We prove that forbidding any other even cycle decreases the number of $C_{2l}$'s significantly: For any $k > l$, we have $ex(n,C_{2l},\mathscr C_{2l-1} \cup \{C_{2k}\})=\Theta(n^2).$ More generally, we show that for any $k > l$ and $m \ge 2$ such that $2k \neq ml$, we have $ex(n,C_{ml},\mathscr C_{2l-1} \cup \{C_{2k}\})=\Theta(n^m).$ (iii) We prove $ex(n,C_{2l+1},\mathscr C_{2l})=\Theta(n^{2+1/l}),$ provided a strong version of Erd\H{o}s's Girth Conjecture holds (which is known to be true when $l = 2, 3, 5$). Moreover, forbidding one more cycle decreases the number of $C_{2l+1}$'s significantly: More precisely, we have $ex(n, C_{2l+1}, \mathscr C_{2l} \cup \{C_{2k}\}) = O(n^{2-\frac{1}{l+1}}),$ and $ex(n, C_{2l+1}, \mathscr C_{2l} \cup \{C_{2k+1}\}) = O(n^2)$ for $l > k \ge 2$. (iv) We also study the maximum number of paths of given length in a $C_k$-free graph, and prove asymptotically sharp bounds in some cases.Comment: 37 Pages; Substantially revised, contains several new results. Mistakes corrected based on the suggestions of a refere

Rainbow Turán Problems

For a fixed graph H, we define the rainbow Turán number ex^*(n,H) to be the maximum number of edges in a graph on n vertices that has a proper edge-colouring with no rainbow H. Recall that the (ordinary) Turán number ex(n,H) is the maximum number of edges in a graph on n vertices that does not contain a copy of H. For any non-bipartite H we show that ex^*(n,H)=(1+o(1))ex(n,H), and if H is colour-critical we show that ex^{*}(n,H)=ex(n,H). When H is the complete bipartite graph K_{s,t} with s ≤ t we show ex^*(n,K_{s,t}) = O(n^{2-1/s}), which matches the known bounds for ex(n,K_{s,t}) up to a constant. We also study the rainbow Turán problem for even cycles, and in particular prove the bound ex^*(n,C_6) = O(n^{4/3}), which is of the correct order of magnitude

Maxima of the Q-index: forbidden 4-cycle and 5-cycle

This paper gives tight upper bounds on the largest eigenvalue q(G) of the signless Laplacian of graphs with no 4-cycle and no 5-cycle. If n is odd, let F_{n} be the friendship graph of order n; if n is even, let F_{n} be F_{n-1} with an edge hanged to its center. It is shown that if G is a graph of order n, with no 4-cycle, then q(G)<q(F_{n}), unless G=F_{n}. Let S_{n,k} be the join of a complete graph of order k and an independent set of order n-k. It is shown that if G is a graph of order n, with no 5-cycle, then q(G)<q(S_{n,2}), unless G=S_{n,k}. It is shown that these results are significant in spectral extremal graph problems. Two conjectures are formulated for the maximum q(G) of graphs with forbidden cycles.Comment: 12 page