Asymptotic multipartite version of the Alon-Yuster theorem

In this paper, we prove the asymptotic multipartite version of the Alon-Yuster theorem, which is a generalization of the Hajnal-Szemer\'edi theorem: If $k\geq 3$ is an integer, $H$ is a $k$-colorable graph and $\gamma>0$ is fixed, then, for every sufficiently large $n$, where $|V(H)|$ divides $n$, and for every balanced $k$-partite graph $G$ on $kn$ vertices with each of its corresponding $\binom{k}{2}$ bipartite subgraphs having minimum degree at least $(k-1)n/k+\gamma n$, $G$ has a subgraph consisting of $kn/|V(H)|$ vertex-disjoint copies of $H$. The proof uses the Regularity method together with linear programming.Comment: 22 pages, 1 figur

Exact Ramsey numbers of odd cycles via nonlinear optimisation

For a graph G, the k-colour Ramsey number R k(G) is the least integer N such that every k-colouring of the edges of the complete graph K N contains a monochromatic copy of G. Let C n denote the cycle on n vertices. We show that for fixed k≥2 and n odd and sufficiently large, R k(C n)=2 k−1(n−1)+1. This resolves a conjecture of Bondy and Erdős for large n. The proof is analytic in nature, the first step of which is to use the regularity method to relate this problem in Ramsey theory to one in nonlinear optimisation. This allows us to prove a stability-type generalisation of the above and establish a correspondence between extremal k-colourings for this problem and perfect matchings in the k-dimensional hypercube Q k

Report of the large-scale Structures in random graphs workshop

Peter Allen, Julia Böttcher and Jozef Skokan are in the discrete mathematics group of the Department of Mathematics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. They organised a workshop on “Large-scale structures in random graphs” in December 2016 which was hosted at Alan Turing Institute and generously jointly funded by the Heilbronn Institute and the Alan Turing Institute. Their write up of the event is produced below

Ramsey numbers of squares of paths

The Ramsey number R(G;H) has been actively studied for the past 40 years, and it was determined for a large family of pairs (G;H) of graphs. The Ramsey number of paths was determined very early on, but surprisingly very little is known about the Ramsey number for the powers of paths. The r-th power Pr n of a path on n vertices is obtained by joining any two vertices with distance at most r. We determine the exact value of R(P2 n; P2 n) for n large and discuss some related questions

Cycle-complete ramsey numbers

The Ramsey number r(Cℓ, Kn) is the smallest natural number N such that every red/blue edge-colouring of a clique of order N contains a red cycle of length ℓ or a blue clique of order n. In 1978, Erdos, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp conjectured that r(Cℓ, Kn) = (ℓ − 1)(n − 1) + 1 for ℓ ≥ n ≥ 3 provided (ℓ, n) 6= (3, 3). We prove that, for some absolute constant C ≥ 1, we have r(Cℓ, Kn) = (ℓ − 1)(n − 1) + 1 provided ℓ ≥ C logloglognn. Up to the value of C this is tight since we also show that, for any ε > 0 and n > n0(ε), we have r(Cℓ, Kn) ≫ (ℓ − 1)(n − 1) + 1 for all 3 ≤ ℓ ≤ (1 − ε)logloglognn. This proves the conjecture of Erdos, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp for large ℓ, a stronger form of the conjecture due to Nikiforov, and answers (up to multiplicative constants) two further questions of Erdos, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp

Cycle-complete Ramsey numbers

The Ramsey number $r(C_{\ell},K_n)$ is the smallest natural number $N$ such that every red/blue edge-colouring of a clique of order $N$ contains a red cycle of length $\ell$ or a blue clique of order $n$. In 1978, Erd\H{o}s, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp conjectured that $r(C_{\ell},K_n) = (\ell-1)(n-1)+1$ for $\ell \geq n\geq 3$ provided $(\ell,n) \neq (3,3)$. We prove that, for some absolute constant $C\ge 1$, we have $r(C_{\ell},K_n) = (\ell-1)(n-1)+1$ provided $\ell \geq C\frac {\log n}{\log \log n}$. Up to the value of $C$ this is tight since we also show that, for any $\varepsilon >0$ and $n> n_0(\varepsilon )$, we have $r(C_{\ell }, K_n) \gg (\ell -1)(n-1)+1$ for all $3 \leq \ell \leq (1-\varepsilon )\frac {\log n}{\log \log n}$. This proves the conjecture of Erd\H{o}s, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp for large $\ell$, a stronger form of the conjecture due to Nikiforov, and answers (up to multiplicative constants) two further questions of Erd\H{o}s, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp.Comment: 19 page

Stability for vertex cycle covers

In 1996 Kouider and Lonc proved the following natural generalization of Dirac’s Theorem: for any integer k > 2, if G is an n-vertex graph with minimum degree at least n/k, then there are k − 1 cycles in G that together cover all the vertices. This is tight in the sense that there are n-vertex graphs that have minimum degree n/k − 1 and that do not contain k − 1 cycles with this property. A concrete example is given by In,k = Kn \ K(k−1)n/k+1 (an edge-maximal graph on n vertices with an independent set of size (k − 1)n/k + 1). This graph has minimum degree n/k − 1 and cannot be covered with fewer than k cycles. More generally, given positive integers k1, . . . , kr summing to k, the disjoint union Ik1n/k,k1 +· · ·+Ikrn/k,kr is an n-vertex graph with the same properties. In this paper, we show that there are no extremal examples that differ substantially from the ones given by this construction. More precisely, we obtain the following stability result: if a graph G has n vertices and minimum degree nearly n/k, then it either contains k − 1 cycles covering all vertices, or else it must be close (in ‘edit distance’) to a subgraph of Ik1n/k,k1 + · · · + Ikrn/k,kr , for some sequence k1, . . . , kr of positive integers that sum to k. Our proof uses Szemer´edi’s Regularity Lemma and the related machinery

An asymptotic multipartite Kühn-Osthus theorem

In this paper we prove an asymptotic multipartite version of a well-known theorem of K¨uhn and Osthus by establishing, for any graph H with chromatic number r, the asymptotic multipartite minimum degree threshold which ensures that a large r-partite graph G admits a perfect H-tiling. We also give the threshold for an H-tiling covering all but a linear number of vertices of G, in a multipartite analogue of results of Koml´os and of Shokoufandeh and Zhao