Further applications of the Container Method

Abstract

Recently, Balogh--Morris--Samotij and Saxton--Thomason proved that hypergraphs satisfying some natural conditions have only few independent sets. Their main results already have several applications. However, the methods of proving these theorems are even more far reaching. The general idea is to describe some family of events, whose cardinality a priori could be large, only with a few certificates. Here, we show some applications of the methods, including counting $C_4$-free graphs, considering the size of a maximum $C_4$-free subgraph of a random graph and counting metric spaces with a given number of points. Additionally, we discuss some connections with the Szemer\'edi Regularity Lemma.Comment: This is a survey style paper written for the IMA volume "Recent Trends in Combinatorics" for the 2014-2015 Annual Thematic Program Discrete Structures: Analysis and Applications at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications during Fall 201