Large unavoidable subtournaments

Let $D_k$ denote the tournament on $3k$ vertices consisting of three disjoint vertex classes $V_1, V_2$ and $V_3$ of size $k$, each of which is oriented as a transitive subtournament, and with edges directed from $V_1$ to $V_2$, from $V_2$ to $V_3$ and from $V_3$ to $V_1$. Fox and Sudakov proved that given a natural number $k$ and $\epsilon > 0$ there is $n_0(k,\epsilon )$ such that every tournament of order $n_0(k,\epsilon )$ which is $\epsilon$-far from being transitive contains $D_k$ as a subtournament. Their proof showed that $n_0(k,\epsilon ) \leq \epsilon ^{-O(k/\epsilon ^2)}$ and they conjectured that this could be reduced to $n_0(k,\epsilon ) \leq \epsilon ^{-O(k)}$. Here we prove this conjecture.Comment: 9 page

Forbidding intersection patterns between layers of the cube

A family ${\mathcal A} \subset {\mathcal P} [n]$ is said to be an antichain if $A \not \subset B$ for all distinct $A,B \in {\mathcal A}$. A classic result of Sperner shows that such families satisfy $|{\mathcal A}| \leq \binom {n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}$, which is easily seen to be best possible. One can view the antichain condition as a restriction on the intersection sizes between sets in different layers of ${\mathcal P} [n]$. More generally one can ask, given a collection of intersection restrictions between the layers, how large can families respecting these restrictions be? Answering a question of Kalai, we show that for most collections of such restrictions, layered families are asymptotically largest. This extends results of Leader and the author.Comment: 16 page

Forbidden vector-valued intersections

We solve a generalised form of a conjecture of Kalai motivated by attempts to improve the bounds for Borsuk's problem. The conjecture can be roughly understood as asking for an analogue of the Frankl-R\"odl forbidden intersection theorem in which set intersections are vector-valued. We discover that the vector world is richer in surprising ways: in particular, Kalai's conjecture is false, but we prove a corrected statement that is essentially best possible, and applies to a considerably more general setting. Our methods include the use of maximum entropy measures, VC-dimension, Dependent Random Choice and a new correlation inequality for product measures.Comment: 40 page

Forbidding a Set Difference of Size 1

How large can a family \cal A \subset \cal P [n] be if it does not contain A,B with |A\setminus B| = 1? Our aim in this paper is to show that any such family has size at most \frac{2+o(1)}{n} \binom {n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor }. This is tight up to a multiplicative constant of $2$. We also obtain similar results for families \cal A \subset \cal P[n] with |A\setminus B| \neq k, showing that they satisfy |{\mathcal A}| \leq \frac{C_k}{n^k}\binom {n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor }, where C_k is a constant depending only on k.Comment: 8 pages. Extended to include bound for families \cal A \subset \cal P [n] satisfying |A\setminus B| \neq k for all A,B \in \cal

Random walks on quasirandom graphs

Let G be a quasirandom graph on n vertices, and let W be a random walk on G of length alpha n^2. Must the set of edges traversed by W form a quasirandom graph? This question was asked by B\"ottcher, Hladk\'y, Piguet and Taraz. Our aim in this paper is to give a positive answer to this question. We also prove a similar result for random embeddings of trees.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure