The Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture for caterpillars and their complements

The celebrated Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture states that for every proper hereditary graph class $\mathcal{G}$ there exists a constant $\varepsilon = \varepsilon(\mathcal{G}) > 0$ such that every graph $G \in \mathcal{G}$ contains a clique or an independent set of size $|V(G)|^\varepsilon$. Recently, there has been a growing interest in the symmetrized variant of this conjecture, where one additionally requires $\mathcal{G}$ to be closed under complementation. We show that any hereditary graph class that is closed under complementation and excludes a fixed caterpillar as an induced subgraph satisfies the Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture. Here, a caterpillar is a tree whose vertices of degree at least three lie on a single path (i.e., our caterpillars may have arbitrarily long legs). In fact, we prove a stronger property of such graph classes, called in the literature the strong Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal property: for every such graph class $\mathcal{G}$, there exists a constant $\delta = \delta(\mathcal{G}) > 0$ such that every graph $G \in \mathcal{G}$ contains two disjoint sets $A,B \subseteq V(G)$ of size at least $\delta|V(G)|$ each so that either all edges between $A$ and $B$ are present in $G$, or none of them. This result significantly extends the family of graph classes for which we know that the strong Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal property holds; for graph classes excluding a graph $H$ and its complement it was previously known only for paths [Bousquet, Lagoutte, Thomass\'{e}, JCTB 2015] and hooks (i.e., paths with an additional pendant vertex at third vertex of the path) [Choromanski, Falik, Liebenau, Patel, Pilipczuk, arXiv:1508.00634]

Asymptotic enumeration of graphs by degree sequence, and the degree sequence of a random graph

In this paper we relate a fundamental parameter of a random graph, its degree sequence, to a simple model of nearly independent binomial random variables. This confirms a conjecture made in 1997. As a result, many interesting functions of the joint distribution of graph degrees, such as the distribution of the median degree, become amenable to estimation. Our result is established by proving an asymptotic formula conjectured in 1990 for the number of graphs with given degree sequence. In particular, this gives an asymptotic formula for the number of $d$-regular graphs for all $d$, as $n\to\infty$.Comment: The new version contains a modification of the main proof that makes the calculation component easie

A non-trivial upper bound on the threshold bias of the Oriented-cycle game

In the Oriented-cycle game, introduced by Bollob\'as and Szab\'o, two players, called OMaker and OBreaker, alternately direct edges of $K_n$. OMaker directs exactly one edge, whereas OBreaker is allowed to direct between one and $b$ edges. OMaker wins if the final tournament contains a directed cycle, otherwise OBreaker wins. Bollob\'as and Szab\'o conjectured that for a bias as large as $n-3$ OMaker has a winning strategy if OBreaker must take exactly $b$ edges in each round. It was shown recently by Ben-Eliezer, Krivelevich and Sudakov, that OMaker has a winning strategy for this game whenever $b\leq \frac{n}{2}-2$. In this paper, we show that OBreaker has a winning strategy whenever $b\geq \frac{5n}{6}+2$. Moreover, in case OBreaker is required to direct exactly $b$ edges in each move, we show that OBreaker wins for $b\geq \frac{19n}{20}$, provided that $n$ is large enough. This refutes the conjecture by Bollob\'as and Szab\'o.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figure

Ramsey equivalence of KnK_n and Kn+Kn−1K_n+K_{n-1}

We prove that, for $n\geq 4$, the graphs $K_n$ and $K_n+K_{n-1}$ are Ramsey equivalent. That is, if $G$ is such that any red-blue colouring of its edges creates a monochromatic $K_n$ then it must also possess a monochromatic $K_n+K_{n-1}$

On the Concentration of the Domination Number of the Random Graph

In this paper we study the behaviour of the domination number of the Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi random graph $\mathcal{G}(n,p)$. Extending a result of Wieland and Godbole we show that the domination number of $\mathcal{G}(n,p)$ is equal to one of two values asymptotically almost surely whenever $p \gg \frac{\ln^2n}{\sqrt{n}}$. The explicit values are exactly at the first moment threshold, that is where the expected number of dominating sets starts to tend to infinity. For small $p$ we also provide various non-concentration results which indicate why some sort of lower bound on the probability $p$ is necessary in our first theorem. Concentration, though not on a constant length interval, is proven for every $p\gg 1/n$. These results show that unlike in the case of $p \gg \frac{\ln^2n}{\sqrt{n}}$ where concentration of the domination number happens around the first moment threshold, for $p = O(\ln n/n)$ it does so around the median. In particular, in this range the two are far apart from each other

The random graph intuition for the tournament game

In the tournament game two players, called Maker and Breaker, alternately take turns in claiming an unclaimed edge of the complete graph on n vertices and selecting one of the two possible orientations. Before the game starts, Breaker fixes an arbitrary tournament T_k on k vertices. Maker wins if, at the end of the game, her digraph contains a copy of T_k; otherwise Breaker wins. In our main result, we show that Maker has a winning strategy for k = (2-o(1))log_2 n, improving the constant factor in previous results of Beck and the second author. This is asymptotically tight since it is known that for k = (2-o(1))log_2 n Breaker can prevent that the underlying graph of Maker's graph contains a k-clique. Moreover the precise value of our lower bound differs from the upper bound only by an additive constant of 12. We also discuss the question whether the random graph intuition, which suggests that the threshold for k is asymptotically the same for the game played by two "clever" players and the game played by two "random" players, is supported by the tournament game: It will turn out that, while a straightforward application of this intuition fails, a more subtle version of it is still valid. Finally, we consider the orientation-game version of the tournament game, where Maker wins the game if the final digraph -- containing also the edges directed by Breaker -- possesses a copy of T_k. We prove that in that game Breaker has a winning strategy for k = (4+o(1))log_2 n

On minimal Ramsey graphs and Ramsey equivalence in multiple colours

For an integer $q\ge 2$, a graph $G$ is called $q$-Ramsey for a graph $H$ if every $q$-colouring of the edges of $G$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. If $G$ is $q$-Ramsey for $H$, yet no proper subgraph of $G$ has this property then $G$ is called $q$-Ramsey-minimal for $H$. Generalising a statement by Burr, Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il and R\"odl from 1977 we prove that, for $q\ge 3$, if $G$ is a graph that is not $q$-Ramsey for some graph $H$ then $G$ is contained as an induced subgraph in an infinite number of $q$-Ramsey-minimal graphs for $H$, as long as $H$ is $3$-connected or isomorphic to the triangle. For such $H$, the following are some consequences. (1) For $2\le r< q$, every $r$-Ramsey-minimal graph for $H$ is contained as an induced subgraph in an infinite number of $q$-Ramsey-minimal graphs for $H$. (2) For every $q\ge 3$, there are $q$-Ramsey-minimal graphs for $H$ of arbitrarily large maximum degree, genus, and chromatic number. (3) The collection $\{{\cal M}_q(H) : H \text{ is 3-connected or } K_3\}$ forms an antichain with respect to the subset relation, where ${\cal M}_q(H)$ denotes the set of all graphs that are $q$-Ramsey-minimal for $H$. We also address the question which pairs of graphs satisfy ${\cal M}_q(H_1)={\cal M}_q(H_2)$, in which case $H_1$ and $H_2$ are called $q$-equivalent. We show that two graphs $H_1$ and $H_2$ are $q$-equivalent for even $q$ if they are $2$-equivalent, and that in general $q$-equivalence for some $q\ge 3$ does not necessarily imply $2$-equivalence. Finally we indicate that for connected graphs this implication may hold: Results by Ne\v{s}et\v{r}il and R\"odl and by Fox, Grinshpun, Liebenau, Person and Szab\'o imply that the complete graph is not $2$-equivalent to any other connected graph. We prove that this is the case for an arbitrary number of colours

Fast strategies in Maker-Breaker games played on random boards

In this paper we analyze classical Maker-Breaker games played on the edge set of a sparse random board G\sim \gnp. We consider the Hamiltonicity game, the perfect matching game and the $k$-connectivity game. We prove that for $p(n)\geq \text{polylog}(n)/n$, the board G\sim \gnp is typically such that Maker can win these games asymptotically as fast as possible, i.e. within $n+o(n)$, $n/2+o(n)$ and $kn/2+o(n)$ moves respectively

Asymptotic enumeration of digraphs and bipartite graphs by degree sequence

We provide asymptotic formulae for the numbers of bipartite graphs with given degree sequence, and of loopless digraphs with given in- and out-degree sequences, for a wide range of parameters. Our results cover medium range densities and close the gaps between the results known for the sparse and dense ranges. In the case of bipartite graphs, these results were proved by Greenhill, McKay and Wang in 2006 and by Canfield, Greenhill and McKay in 2008, respectively. Our method also essentially covers the sparse range, for which much less was known in the case of loopless digraphs. For the range of densities which our results cover, they imply that the degree sequence of a random bipartite graph with m edges is accurately modelled by a sequence of independent binomial random variables, conditional upon the sum of variables in each part being equal to m. A similar model also holds for loopless digraphs

Caterpillars in Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal

Let $T$ be a tree such that all its vertices of degree more than two lie on one path, that is, $T$ is a caterpillar subdivision. We prove that there exists $\epsilon>0$ such that for every graph $G$ with $|V(G)|\ge 2$ not containing $T$ as an induced subgraph, either some vertex has at least $\epsilon|V(G)|$ neighbours, or there are two disjoint sets of vertices $A,B$, both of cardinality at least $\epsilon|V(G)|$, where there is no edge joining $A$ and $B$. A consequence is: for every caterpillar subdivision $T$, there exists $c>0$ such that for every graph $G$ containing neither of $T$ and its complement as an induced subgraph, $G$ has a clique or stable set with at least $|V(G)|^c$ vertices. This extends a theorem of Bousquet, Lagoutte and Thomass\'e [JCTB 2015], who proved the same when $T$ is a path, and a recent theorem of Choromanski, Falik, Liebenau, Patel and Pilipczuk [Electron. J. Combin. 2018], who proved it when $T$ is a "hook"