High dimensional Hoffman bound and applications in extremal combinatorics

One powerful method for upper-bounding the largest independent set in a graph is the Hoffman bound, which gives an upper bound on the largest independent set of a graph in terms of its eigenvalues. It is easily seen that the Hoffman bound is sharp on the tensor power of a graph whenever it is sharp for the original graph. In this paper, we introduce the related problem of upper-bounding independent sets in tensor powers of hypergraphs. We show that many of the prominent open problems in extremal combinatorics, such as the Tur\'an problem for (hyper-)graphs, can be encoded as special cases of this problem. We also give a new generalization of the Hoffman bound for hypergraphs which is sharp for the tensor power of a hypergraph whenever it is sharp for the original hypergraph. As an application of our Hoffman bound, we make progress on the problem of Frankl on families of sets without extended triangles from 1990. We show that if $\frac{1}{2}n\le2k\le\frac{2}{3}n,$ then the extremal family is the star, i.e. the family of all sets that contains a given element. This covers the entire range in which the star is extremal. As another application, we provide spectral proofs for Mantel's theorem on triangle-free graphs and for Frankl-Tokushige theorem on $k$-wise intersecting families

Essentially tight bounds for rainbow cycles in proper edge-colourings

An edge-coloured graph is said to be rainbow if no colour appears more than once. Extremal problems involving rainbow objects have been a focus of much research over the last decade as they capture the essence of a number of interesting problems in a variety of areas. A particularly intensively studied question due to Keevash, Mubayi, Sudakov and Verstra\"ete from 2007 asks for the maximum possible average degree of a properly edge-coloured graph on $n$ vertices without a rainbow cycle. Improving upon a series of earlier bounds, Tomon proved an upper bound of $(\log n)^{2+o(1)}$ for this question. Very recently, Janzer-Sudakov and Kim-Lee-Liu-Tran independently removed the $o(1)$ term in Tomon's bound, showing a bound of $O(\log^2 n)$. We prove an upper bound of $(\log n)^{1+o(1)}$ for this maximum possible average degree when there is no rainbow cycle. Our result is tight up to the $o(1)$ term, and so it essentially resolves this question. In addition, we observe a connection between this problem and several questions in additive number theory, allowing us to extend existing results on these questions for abelian groups to the case of non-abelian groups

On some interconnections between combinatorial optimization and extremal graph theory

The uniting feature of combinatorial optimization and extremal graph theory is that in both areas one should find extrema of a function defined in most cases on a finite set. While in combinatorial optimization the point is in developing efficient algorithms and heuristics for solving specified types of problems, the extremal graph theory deals with finding bounds for various graph invariants under some constraints and with constructing extremal graphs. We analyze by examples some interconnections and interactions of the two theories and propose some conclusions

Tur\'{a}n's inequality, nonnegative linearization and amenability properties for associated symmetric Pollaczek polynomials

An elegant and fruitful way to bring harmonic analysis into the theory of orthogonal polynomials and special functions, or to associate certain Banach algebras with orthogonal polynomials satisfying a specific but frequently satisfied nonnegative linearization property, is the concept of a polynomial hypergroup. Polynomial hypergroups (or the underlying polynomials, respectively) are accompanied by $L^1$-algebras and a rich, well-developed and unified harmonic analysis. However, the individual behavior strongly depends on the underlying polynomials. We study the associated symmetric Pollaczek polynomials, which are a two-parameter generalization of the ultraspherical polynomials. Considering the associated $L^1$-algebras, we will provide complete characterizations of weak amenability and point amenability by specifying the corresponding parameter regions. In particular, we shall see that there is a large parameter region for which none of these amenability properties holds (which is very different to $L^1$-algebras of locally compact groups). Moreover, we will rule out right character amenability. The crucial underlying nonnegative linearization property will be established, too, which particularly establishes a conjecture of R. Lasser (1994). Furthermore, we shall prove Tur\'{a}n's inequality for associated symmetric Pollaczek polynomials. Our strategy relies on chain sequences, asymptotic behavior, further Tur\'{a}n type inequalities and transformations into more convenient orthogonal polynomial systems.Comment: Main changes towards first version: The part on associated symmetric Pollaczek polynomials was extended (with more emphasis on Tur\'{a}n's inequality and including a larger parameter region), and the part on little $q$-Legendre polynomials became a separate paper. We added several references and corrected a few typos. Title, abstract and MSC class were change