Random algebraic construction of extremal graphs

In this expository paper, we present a motivated construction of large graphs not containing a given complete bipartite subgraph. The key insight is that the algebraic constructions yield very non-smooth probability distributions.Comment: 8 page

Non-trivial solutions to a linear equation in integers

For k>=3 let A \subset [1,N] be a set not containing a solution to a_1 x_1+...+a_k x_k=a_1 x_{k+1}+...+a_k x_{2k} in distinct integers. We prove that there is an epsilon>0 depending on the coefficients of the equation such that every such A has O(N^{1/2-epsilon}) elements. This answers a question of I. Ruzsa.Comment: 5 pages, typos corrected, stronger result give

Twins in words and long common subsequences in permutations

A large family of words must contain two words that are similar. We investigate several problems where the measure of similarity is the length of a common subsequence. We construct a family of n^{1/3} permutations on n letters, such that LCS of any two of them is only cn^{1/3}, improving a construction of Beame, Blais, and Huynh-Ngoc. We relate the problem of constructing many permutations with small LCS to the twin word problem of Axenovich, Person and Puzynina. In particular, we show that every word of length n over a k-letter alphabet contains two disjoint equal subsequences of length cnk^{-2/3}. Many problems are left open.Comment: 18+epsilon page