arXiv subjects

Andrew Suk

Publications and source records attributed to Andrew Suk.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

A survey of hypergraph Ramsey problems

The classical hypergraph Ramsey number $r_k(s,n)$ is the minimum $N$ such that for every red-blue coloring of the $k$-tuples of $\{1,\ldots, N\}$, there are $s$ integers such that every $k$-tuple among them is red, or $n$ integers such that every $k$-tuple among them is blue. We survey a variety of problems and results in hypergraph Ramsey theory that have grown out of understanding the quantitative aspects of $r_k(s,n)$. Our focus is on recent developments and open problems.

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arXiv2018

New lower bounds for hypergraph Ramsey numbers

The Ramsey number $r_k(s,n)$ is the minimum $N$ such that for every red-blue coloring of the $k$-tuples of $\{1,\ldots, N\}$, there are $s$ integers such that every $k$-tuple among them is red, or $n$ integers such that every $k$-tuple among them is blue. We prove the following new lower bounds for 4-uniform hypergraph Ramsey numbers: $$r_4(5,n) > 2^{n^{c\log n}} \qquad \hbox{ and } \qquad r_4(6,n) > 2^{2^{cn^{1/5}}},$$ where $c$ is an absolute positive constant. This substantially improves the previous best bounds of $2^{n^{c\log\log n}}$ and $2^{n^{c\log n}}$, respectively. Using previously known upper bounds, our result implies that the growth rate of $r_4(6,n)$ is double exponential in a power of $n$. As a consequence, we obtain similar bounds for the $k$-uniform Ramsey numbers $r_k(k+1, n)$ and $r_k(k+2, n)$ where the exponent is replaced by an appropriate tower function. This almost solves the question of determining the tower growth rate for {\emph {all}} classical off-diagonal hypergraph Ramsey numbers, a question first posed by Erd\H os and Hajnal in 1972. The only problem that remains is to prove that $r_4(5,n)$ is double exponential in a power of $n$.

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arXiv2018

Constructions in Ramsey theory

We provide several constructions for problems in Ramsey theory. First, we prove a superexponential lower bound for the classical 4-uniform Ramsey number $r_4(5,n)$, and the same for the iterated $(k-4)$-fold logarithm of the $k$-uniform version $r_k(k+1,n)$. This is the first improvement of the original exponential lower bound for $r_4(5,n)$ implicit in work of Erd\H os and Hajnal from 1972 and also improves the current best known bounds for larger $k$ due to the authors. Second, we prove an upper bound for the hypergraph Erd\H os-Rogers function $f^k_{k+1, k+2}(N)$ that is an iterated $(k-13)$-fold logarithm in $N$. This improves the previous upper bounds that were only logarithmic and addresses a question of Dudek and the first author that was reiterated by Conlon, Fox and Sudakov. Third, we generalize the results of Erd\H os and Hajnal about the 3-uniform Ramsey number of $K_4$ minus an edge versus a clique to $k$-uniform hypergraphs.

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arXiv2017

Erdos-Hajnal conjecture for graphs with bounded VC-dimension

The Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension (in short, VC-dimension) of a graph is defined as the VC-dimension of the set system induced by the neighborhoods of its vertices. We show that every $n$-vertex graph with bounded VC-dimension contains a clique or an independent set of size at least $e^{(\log n)^{1 - o(1)}}$. The dependence on the VC-dimension is hidden in the $o(1)$ term. This improves the general lower bound, $e^{c\sqrt{\log n}}$, due to Erdos and Hajnal, which is valid in the class of graphs satisfying any fixed nontrivial hereditary property. Our result is almost optimal and nearly matches the celebrated Erdos-Hajnal conjecture, according to which one can always find a clique or an independent set of size at least $e^{Ω(\log n)}$. Our results partially explain why most geometric intersection graphs arising in discrete and computational geometry have exceptionally favorable Ramsey-type properties. Our main tool is a partitioning result found by Lovász-Szegedy and Alon-Fischer-Newman, which is called the "ultra-strong regularity lemma" for graphs with bounded VC-dimension. We extend this lemma to $k$-uniform hypergraphs, and prove that the number of parts in the partition can be taken to be $(1/\varepsilon)^{O(d)}$, improving the original bound of $(1/\varepsilon)^{O(d^2)}$ in the graph setting. We show that this bound is tight up to an absolute constant factor in the exponent. Moreover, we give an $O(n^k)$-time algorithm for finding a partition meeting the requirements. Finally, we establish tight bounds on Ramsey-Turán numbers for graphs with bounded VC-dimension.

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arXiv2016

A polynomial regularity lemma for semi-algebraic hypergraphs and its applications in geometry and property testing

Fox, Gromov, Lafforgue, Naor, and Pach proved a regularity lemma for semi-algebraic $k$-uniform hypergraphs of bounded complexity, showing that for each $ε>0$ the vertex set can be equitably partitioned into a bounded number of parts (in terms of $ε$ and the complexity) so that all but an $ε$-fraction of the $k$-tuples of parts are homogeneous. We prove that the number of parts can be taken to be polynomial in $1/ε$. Our improved regularity lemma can be applied to geometric problems and to the following general question on property testing: is it possible to decide, with query complexity polynomial in the reciprocal of the approximation parameter, whether a hypergraph has a given hereditary property? We give an affirmative answer for testing typical hereditary properties for semi-algebraic hypergraphs of bounded complexity.

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arXiv2016

Approximating the rectilinear crossing number

A straight-line drawing of a graph $G$ is a mapping which assigns to each vertex a point in the plane and to each edge a straight-line segment connecting the corresponding two points. The rectilinear crossing number of a graph $G$, $\overline{cr}(G)$, is the minimum number of crossing edges in any straight-line drawing of $G$. Determining or estimating $\overline{cr}(G)$ appears to be a difficult problem, and deciding if $\overline{cr}(G)\leq k$ is known to be NP-hard. In fact, the asymptotic behavior of $\overline{cr}(K_n)$ is still unknown. In this paper, we present a deterministic $n^{2+o(1)}$-time algorithm that finds a straight-line drawing of any $n$-vertex graph $G$ with $\overline{cr}(G) + o(n^4)$ crossing edges. Together with the well-known Crossing Lemma due to Ajtai et al. and Leighton, this result implies that for any dense $n$-vertex graph $G$, one can efficiently find a straight-line drawing of $G$ with $(1 + o(1))\overline{cr}(G)$ crossing edges.

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arXiv2016

On the Erdos-Szekeres convex polygon problem

Let $ES(n)$ be the smallest integer such that any set of $ES(n)$ points in the plane in general position contains $n$ points in convex position. In their seminal 1935 paper, Erdos and Szekeres showed that $ES(n) \leq {2n - 4\choose n-2} + 1 = 4^{n -o(n)}$. In 1960, they showed that $ES(n) \geq 2^{n-2} + 1$ and conjectured this to be optimal. In this paper, we nearly settle the Erdos-Szekeres conjecture by showing that $ES(n) =2^{n +o(n)}$.

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arXiv2016

The Erdős-Hajnal hypergraph Ramsey problem

Given integers $2\le t \le k+1 \le n$, let $g_k(t,n)$ be the minimum $N$ such that every red/blue coloring of the $k$-subsets of $\{1, \ldots, N\}$ yields either a $(k+1)$-set containing $t$ red $k$-subsets, or an $n$-set with all of its $k$-subsets blue. Erdős and Hajnal proved in 1972 that for fixed $2\le t \le k$, there are positive constants $c_1$ and $c_2$ such that $$ 2^{c_1 n} < g_k(t, n) < twr_{t-1} (n^{c_2}),$$ where $twr_{t-1}$ is a tower of 2's of height $t-2$. They conjectured that the tower growth rate in the upper bound is correct. Despite decades of work on closely related and special cases of this problem by many researchers, there have been no improvements of the lower bound for $2<t<k$. Here we settle the Erdős-Hajnal conjecture in almost all cases in a strong form, by determining the correct tower growth rate, and in half of the cases we also determine the correct power of $n$ within the tower. Specifically, we prove that if $2<t<k-1$ and $k - t$ is even, then $$g_k(t, n) = twr_{t-1} (n^{k-t+1 + o(1)}).$$ Similar results are proved for $k - t$ odd.

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arXiv2016

New bounds on the maximum number of edges in $k$-quasi-planar graphs

A topological graph is $k$-quasi-planar if it does not contain $k$ pairwise crossing edges. A 20-year-old conjecture asserts that for every fixed $k$, the maximum number of edges in a $k$-quasi-planar graph on $n$ vertices is $O(n)$. Fox and Pach showed that every $k$-quasi-planar graph with $n$ vertices has at most $n(\log n)^{O(\log k)}$ edges. We improve this upper bound to $2^{α(n)^c}n\log n$, where $α(n)$ denotes the inverse Ackermann function and $c$ depends only on $k$, for $k$-quasi-planar graphs in which any two edges intersect in a bounded number of points. We also show that every $k$-quasi-planar graph with $n$ vertices in which any two edges have at most one point in common has at most $O(n\log n)$ edges. This improves the previously known upper bound of $2^{α(n)^c}n\log n$ obtained by Fox, Pach, and Suk.

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arXiv2015

A semi-algebraic version of Zarankiewicz's problem

A bipartite graph $G$ is semi-algebraic in $\mathbb{R}^d$ if its vertices are represented by point sets $P,Q \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ and its edges are defined as pairs of points $(p,q) \in P\times Q$ that satisfy a Boolean combination of a fixed number of polynomial equations and inequalities in $2d$ coordinates. We show that for fixed $k$, the maximum number of edges in a $K_{k,k}$-free semi-algebraic bipartite graph $G = (P,Q,E)$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with $|P| = m$ and $|Q| = n$ is at most $O((mn)^{2/3} + m + n)$, and this bound is tight. In dimensions $d \geq 3$, we show that all such semi-algebraic graphs have at most $C\left((mn)^{ \frac{d}{d+1} + \varepsilon} + m + n\right)$ edges, where here $\varepsilon$ is an arbitrarily small constant and $C = C(d,k,t,\varepsilon)$. This result is a far-reaching generalization of the classical Szemerédi-Trotter incidence theorem. The proof combines tools from several fields: VC-dimension and shatter functions, polynomial partitioning, and Hilbert polynomials. We also present various applications of our theorem. For example, a general point-variety incidence bound in $\mathbb{R}^d$, an improved bound for a $d$-dimensional variant of the Erdős unit distances problem, and more.

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arXiv2015

Semi-algebraic Ramsey numbers

Given a finite point set $P \subset \mathbb{R}^d$, a $k$-ary semi-algebraic relation $E$ on $P$ is the set of $k$-tuples of points in $P$, which is determined by a finite number of polynomial equations and inequalities in $kd$ real variables. The description complexity of such a relation is at most $t$ if the number of polynomials and their degrees are all bounded by $t$. The Ramsey number $R^{d,t}_k(s,n)$ is the minimum $N$ such that any $N$-element point set $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ equipped with a $k$-ary semi-algebraic relation $E$, such that $E$ has complexity at most $t$, contains $s$ members such that every $k$-tuple induced by them is in $E$, or $n$ members such that every $k$-tuple induced by them is not in $E$. We give a new upper bound for $R^{d,t}_k(s,n)$ for $k\geq 3$ and $s$ fixed. In particular, we show that for fixed integers $d,t,s$, $R^{d,t}_3(s,n) \leq 2^{n^{o(1)}},$ establishing a subexponential upper bound on $R^{d,t}_3(s,n)$. This improves the previous bound of $2^{n^C}$ due to Conlon, Fox, Pach, Sudakov, and Suk, where $C$ is a very large constant depending on $d,t,$ and $s$. As an application, we give new estimates for a recently studied Ramsey-type problem on hyperplane arrangements in $\mathbb{R}^d$. We also study multi-color Ramsey numbers for triangles in our semi-algebraic setting, achieving some partial results.

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arXiv2015

Disjoint edges in topological graphs and the tangled-thrackle conjecture

It is shown that for a constant $t\in \mathbb{N}$, every simple topological graph on $n$ vertices has $O(n)$ edges if it has no two sets of $t$ edges such that every edge in one set is disjoint from all edges of the other set (i.e., the complement of the intersection graph of the edges is $K_{t,t}$-free). As an application, we settle the \emph{tangled-thrackle} conjecture formulated by Pach, Radoičić, and Tóth: Every $n$-vertex graph drawn in the plane such that every pair of edges have precisely one point in common, where this point is either a common endpoint, a crossing, or a point of tangency, has at most $O(n)$ edges.

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arXiv2015

Off-diagonal hypergraph Ramsey numbers

The Ramsey number $r_k(s,n)$ is the minimum $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the $k$-subsets of $\{1, \ldots, N\}$ contains a red set of size $s$ or a blue set of size $n$, where a set is red (blue) if all of its $k$-subsets are red (blue). A $k$-uniform \emph{tight path} of size $s$, denoted by $P_{s}$, is a set of $s$ vertices $v_1 < \cdots < v_{s}$ in $\mathbb{Z}$, and all $s-k+1$ edges of the form $\{v_j,v_{j+1},\ldots, v_{j + k -1}\}$. Let $r_k(P_s, n)$ be the minimum $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the $k$-subsets of $\{1, \ldots, N\}$ results in a red $P_{s}$ or a blue set of size $n$. The problem of estimating both $r_k(s,n)$ and $r_k(P_s, n)$ for $k=2$ goes back to the seminal work of Erdos and Szekeres from 1935, while the case $k\ge 3$ was first investigated by Erdos and Rado in 1952. In this paper, we deduce a quantitative relationship between multicolor variants of $r_k(P_s, n)$ and $r_k(n, n)$. This yields several consequences including the following: (1) We determine the correct tower growth rate for both $r_k(s,n)$ and $r_k(P_s, n)$ for $s \ge k+3$. The question of determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(s,n)$ for all $s \ge k+1$ was posed by Erdos and Hajnal in 1972. (2) We show that determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(P_{k+1}, n)$ is equivalent to determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(n,n)$, which is a notorious conjecture of Erdos, Hajnal and Rado from 1965 that remains open. Some related off-diagonal hypergraph Ramsey problems are also explored.

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arXiv2014

A Ramsey-type result for geometric l-hypergraphs

Let n \geq l \geq 2 and q \geq 2. We consider the minimum N such that whenever we have N points in the plane in general position and the l-subsets of these points are colored with q colors, there is a subset S of n points all of whose l-subsets have the same color and furthermore S is in convex position. This combines two classical areas of intense study over the last 75 years: the Ramsey problem for hypergraphs and the Erd\H os-Szekeres theorem on convex configurations in the plane. For the special case l = 2, we establish a single exponential bound on the minimum N, such that every complete $N$-vertex geometric graph whose edges are colored with q colors, yields a monochromatic convex geometric graph on n vertices. For fixed l \geq 2 and q \geq 4, our results determine the correct exponential tower growth rate for N as a function of n, similar to the usual hypergraph Ramsey problem, even though we require our monochromatic set to be in convex position. Our results also apply to the case of l=3 and q=2 by using a geometric variation of the stepping up lemma of Erd\H os and Hajnal. This is in contrast to the fact that the upper and lower bounds for the usual 3-uniform hypergraph Ramsey problem for two colors differ by one exponential in the tower.

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arXiv2013

The joints problem for matroids

We prove that in a simple matroid, the maximal number of joints that can be formed by L lines is o(L^2) and Omega(L^{2 - epsilon}) for any epsilon > 0.

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arXiv2013

A note on order-type homogeneous point sets

Let OT_d(n) be the smallest integer N such that every N-element point sequence in R^d in general position contains an order-type homogeneous subset of size n, where a set is order-type homogeneous if all (d+1)-tuples from this set have the same orientation. It is known that a point sequence in R^d that is order-type homogeneous forms the vertex set of a convex polytope that is combinatorially equivalent to a cyclic polytope in R^d. Two famous theorems of Erdos and Szekeres from 1935 imply that OT_1(n) = Theta(n^2) and OT_2(n) = 2^(Theta(n)). For d \geq 3, we give new bounds for OT_d(n). In particular: 1. We show that OT_3(n) = 2^(2^(Theta(n))), answering a question of Eliáš and Matoušek. 2. For d \geq 4, we show that OT_d(n) is bounded above by an exponential tower of height d with O(n) in the topmost exponent.

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arXiv2013

Coloring intersection graphs of x-monotone curves in the plane

A class of graphs G is chi-bounded if the chromatic number of the graphs in G is bounded by some function of their clique number. We show that the class of intersection graphs of simple x-monotone curves in the plane intersecting a vertical line is chi-bounded. As a corollary we show that the class of intersection graphs of rays in the plane is chi-bounded, and the class of intersection graphs of unit segments in the plane is chi-bounded

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arXiv2013

Density theorems for intersection graphs of t-monotone curves

A curve γin the plane is t-monotone if its interior has at most t-1 vertical tangent points. A family of t-monotone curves F is \emph{simple} if any two members intersect at most once. It is shown that if F is a simple family of n t-monotone curves with at least εn^2 intersecting pairs (disjoint pairs), then there exists two subfamilies F_1,F_2 \subset F of size δn each, such that every curve in F_1 intersects (is disjoint to) every curve in F_2, where δdepends only on ε. We apply these results to find pairwise disjoint edges in simple topological graphs.

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