An improvement on Łuczak's connected matchings method

A connected matching in a graph G is a matching contained in a connected component of G. A well-known method due to Łuczak reduces problems about monochromatic paths and cycles in complete graphs to problems about monochromatic connected matchings in almost complete graphs. We show that these can be further reduced to problems about monochromatic connected matchings in complete graphs. We illustrate the potential of this new reduction by showing how it can be used to determine the 3-colour Ramsey number of long paths, using a simpler argument than the original one by Gyárfás, Ruszinkó, Sárközy, and Szemerédi (2007)

Ramsey properties of randomly perturbed graphs: cliques and cycles

Given graphs $H_1,H_2$, a graph $G$ is $(H_1,H_2)$-Ramsey if for every colouring of the edges of $G$ with red and blue, there is a red copy of $H_1$ or a blue copy of $H_2$. In this paper we investigate Ramsey questions in the setting of randomly perturbed graphs: this is a random graph model introduced by Bohman, Frieze and Martin in which one starts with a dense graph and then adds a given number of random edges to it. The study of Ramsey properties of randomly perturbed graphs was initiated by Krivelevich, Sudakov and Tetali in 2006; they determined how many random edges must be added to a dense graph to ensure the resulting graph is with high probability $(K_3,K_t)$-Ramsey (for $t\ge 3$). They also raised the question of generalising this result to pairs of graphs other than $(K_3,K_t)$. We make significant progress on this question, giving a precise solution in the case when $H_1=K_s$ and $H_2=K_t$ where $s,t \ge 5$. Although we again show that one requires polynomially fewer edges than in the purely random graph, our result shows that the problem in this case is quite different to the $(K_3,K_t)$-Ramsey question. Moreover, we give bounds for the corresponding $(K_4,K_t)$-Ramsey question; together with a construction of Powierski this resolves the $(K_4,K_4)$-Ramsey problem. We also give a precise solution to the analogous question in the case when both $H_1=C_s$ and $H_2=C_t$ are cycles. Additionally we consider the corresponding multicolour problem. Our final result gives another generalisation of the Krivelevich, Sudakov and Tetali result. Specifically, we determine how many random edges must be added to a dense graph to ensure the resulting graph is with high probability $(C_s,K_t)$-Ramsey (for odd $s\ge 5$ and $t\ge 4$).Comment: 24 pages + 12-page appendix; v2: cited independent work of Emil Powierski, stated results for cliques in graphs of low positive density separately (Theorem 1.6) for clarity; v3: author accepted manuscript, to appear in CP

On the structure of graphs with forbidden induced substructures

One of the central goals in extremal combinatorics is to understand how the global structure of a combinatorial object, e.g. a graph, hypergraph or set system, is affected by local constraints. In this thesis we are concerned with structural properties of graphs and hypergraphs which locally do not look like some type of forbidden induced pattern. Patterns can be single subgraphs, families of subgraphs, or in the multicolour version colourings or families of colourings of subgraphs. Erdős and Szekeres\u27s quantitative version of Ramsey\u27s theorem asserts that in every $2$-edge-colouring of the complete graph on $n$ vertices there is a monochromatic clique on at least $\frac{1}{2}\log n$ vertices. The famous Erdős-Hajnal conjecture asserts that forbidding fixed colourings on subgraphs ensures much larger monochromatic cliques. The conjecture is open in general, though a few partial results are known. The first part of this thesis will be concerned with different variants of this conjecture: A bipartite variant, a multicolour variant, and an order-size variant for hypergraphs. In the second part of this thesis we focus more on order-size pairs; an order-size pair $(n,e)$ is the family consisting of all graphs of order $n$ and size $e$, i.e. on $n$ vertices with $e$ edges. We consider order-size pairs in different settings: The graph setting, the bipartite setting and the hypergraph setting. In all these settings we investigate the existence of absolutely avoidable pairs, i.e. fixed pairs that are avoided by all order-size pairs with sufficiently large order, and also forcing densities of order-size pairs $(m,f)$, i.e. for $n$ approaching infinity, the limit superior of the fraction of all possible sizes $e$, such that the order-size pair $(n,e)$ does not avoid the pair $(m,f)$

3‐Color bipartite Ramsey number of cycles and paths

The k-colour bipartite Ramsey number of a bipartite graph H is the least integer n for which every k-edge-coloured complete bipartite graph Kn,n contains a monochromatic copy of H. The study of bipartite Ramsey numbers was initiated, over 40 years ago, by Faudree and Schelp and, independently, by Gy´arf´as and Lehel, who determined the 2-colour Ramsey number of paths. In this paper we determine asymptotically the 3-colour bipartite Ramsey number of paths and (even) cycles

Improved bounds on the multicolor Ramsey numbers of paths and even cycles

We study the multicolor Ramsey numbers for paths and even cycles, $R_k(P_n)$ and $R_k(C_n)$, which are the smallest integers $N$ such that every coloring of the complete graph $K_N$ has a monochromatic copy of $P_n$ or $C_n$ respectively. For a long time, $R_k(P_n)$ has only been known to lie between $(k-1+o(1))n$ and $(k + o(1))n$. A recent breakthrough by S\'ark\"ozy and later improvement by Davies, Jenssen and Roberts give an upper bound of $(k - \frac{1}{4} + o(1))n$. We improve the upper bound to $(k - \frac{1}{2}+ o(1))n$. Our approach uses structural insights in connected graphs without a large matching. These insights may be of independent interest