Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

António Girão

Publications and source records attributed to António Girão.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Embedding induced trees in sparse expanding graphs

Inspired by the network routing literature \cite{aggarwal1996efficient}, we develop what we call a ``Pre-Emptive Greedy Algorithm" to embed bounded degree induced trees in sparse expanders. This generalises a powerful and central result of Friedman and Pippenger to the induced setting. As corollaries we obtain that a sparse random graph contains all bounded degree trees of linear order (whp) and that the induced and size induced Ramsey numbers of bounded degree trees are linear. No such linear bounds were previously known. We also prove a nearly-tight result on induced forests in bounded degree countable expanders. We expect that our new result will find many more applications.

math.CO↗

Two Ramsey problems in blowups of graphs

Given graphs $G$ and $H$, we say $G \stackrel{r}{\to} H$ if every $r$-colouring of the edges of $G$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. Let $H[t]$ denote the $t$-blowup of $H$. The blowup Ramsey number $B(G \stackrel{r}{\to} H;t)$ is the minimum $n$ such that $G[n] \stackrel{r}{\to} H[t]$. Fox, Luo and Wigderson refined an upper bound of Souza, showing that, given $G$, $H$ and $r$ such that $G \stackrel{r}{\to} H$, there exist constants $a=a(G,H,r)$ and $b=b(H,r)$ such that for all $t \in \mathbb{N}$, $B(G \stackrel{r}{\to} H;t) \leq ab^t$. They conjectured that there exist some graphs $H$ for which the constant $a$ depending on $G$ is necessary. We prove this conjecture by showing that the statement is true in the case of $H$ being $3$-chromatically connected, which in particular includes triangles. On the other hand, perhaps surprisingly, we show that for forests $F$, the function $B(G \stackrel{r}{\to} F;t)$ is independent of $G$. Second, we show that for any $r,t \in \mathbb{N}$, any sufficiently large $r$-edge coloured complete graph on $n$ vertices with $Ω(n^{2-1/t})$ edges in each colour contains a member from a certain finite family $\mathcal{F}^r_t$ of $r$-edge coloured complete graphs. This answers a conjecture of Bowen, Hansberg, Montejano and Müyesser.

math.CO↗

Induced subdivisions in $K_{s,s}$-free graphs with polynomial average degree

In this paper we prove that for every $s\geq 2$ and every graph $H$ the following holds. Let $G$ be a graph with average degree $Ω_H(s^{C|H|^2})$, for some absolute constant $C>0$, then $G$ either contains a $K_{s,s}$ or an induced subdivision of $H$. This is essentially tight and confirms a conjecture of Bonamy, Bousquet, Pilipczuk, Rzążewski, Thomassé, and Walczak. A slightly weaker form of this has been independently proved by Bourneuf, Bucić, Cook, and Davies. We actually prove a much more general result which implies the above (with worse dependence on $|H|$). We show that for every $ k\geq 2$ there is $C_k>0$ such that any graph $G$ with average degree $s^{C_k}$ either contains a $K_{s,s}$ or an induced subgraph $G'\subseteq G$ without $C_4$'s and with average degree at least $k$. Finally, using similar methods we can prove the following. For every $k,t\geq 2$ every graph $G$ with average degree at least $C_tk^{Ω(t)}$ must contain either a $K_k$, an induced $K_{t,t}$ or an induced subdivision of $K_k$. This is again essentially tight up to the implied constants and answers in a strong form a question of Davies.

math.CO↗

Ordered Ramsey numbers of powers of paths

Given two vertex-ordered graphs $G$ and $H$, the ordered Ramsey number $R_<(G,H)$ is the smallest $N$ such that whenever the edges of a vertex-ordered complete graph $K_N$ are red/blue-coloured, then there is a red (ordered) copy of $G$ or a blue (ordered) copy of $H$. Let $P_n^t$ denote the $t$-th power of a monotone path on $n$ vertices. The ordered Ramsey numbers of powers of paths have been extensively studied. We prove that there exists an absolute constant $C$ such that $R_<(K_s,P_n^t)\leq R(K_s,K_t)^{C} \cdot n$ holds for all $s,t,n$, which is tight up to the value of $C$. As a corollary, we obtain that there is an absolute constant $C$ such that $R_<(K_n,P_n^t)\leq n^{Ct}$. These results resolve a problem and a conjecture of Gishboliner, Jin and Sudakov. Furthermore, we show that $R_<(P_n^t,P_n^t)\leq n^{4+o(1)}$ for any fixed $t$. This answers questions of Balko, Cibulka, Král and Kynčl, and of Gishboliner, Jin and Sudakov.

math.CO↗

Chromatic number is not tournament-local

Scott and Seymour conjectured the existence of a function $f \colon \mathbb{N} \to \mathbb{N}$ such that, for every graph $G$ and tournament $T$ on the same vertex set, $χ(G) \geqslant f(k)$ implies that $χ(G[N_T^+(v)]) \geqslant k$ for some vertex $v$. In this note we disprove this conjecture even if $v$ is replaced by a vertex set of size $\mathcal{O}(\log{\lvert V(G)\rvert})$. As a consequence, we answer in the negative a question of Harutyunyan, Le, Thomassé, and Wu concerning the corresponding statement where the graph $G$ is replaced by another tournament, and disprove a related conjecture of Nguyen, Scott, and Seymour. We also show that the setting where chromatic number is replaced by degeneracy exhibits a quite different behaviour.

math.CO↗

Induced $C_4$-free subgraphs with large average degree

We prove that there exists a constant $C$ so that, for all $s,k \in \mathbb{N}$, if $G$ has average degree at least $k^{Cs^3}$ and does not contain $K_{s,s}$ as a subgraph then it contains an induced subgraph which is $C_4$-free and has average degree at least $k$. It was known that some function of $s$ and $k$ suffices, but this is the first explicit bound. We give several applications of this result, including short and streamlined proofs of the following two corollaries. We show that there exists a constant $C$ so that, for all $s,k \in \mathbb{N}$, if $G$ has average degree at least $k^{Cs^3}$ and does not contain $K_{s,s}$ as a subgraph then it contains an induced subdivision of $K_k$. This is the first quantitative improvement on a well-known theorem of Kühn and Osthus; their proof gives a bound that is triply exponential in both $k$ and $s$. We also show that for any hereditary degree-bounded class $\mathcal{F}$, there exists a constant $C=C_\mathcal{F}$ so that $C^{s^3}$ is a degree-bounding function for $\mathcal{F}$. This is the first bound of any type on the rate of growth of such functions. It is open whether there is always a polynomial degree-bounding function.

math.CO↗

Abundance: Asymmetric Graph Removal Lemmas and Integer Solutions to Linear Equations

We prove that a large family of pairs of graphs satisfy a polynomial dependence in asymmetric graph removal lemmas. In particular, we give an unexpected answer to a question of Gishboliner, Shapira, and Wigderson by showing that for every $t \geqslant 4$, there are $K_t$-abundant graphs of chromatic number $t$. Using similar methods, we also extend work of Ruzsa by proving that a set $\mathcal{A} \subset \{1,\dots,N\}$ which avoids solutions with distinct integers to an equation of genus at least two has size $\mathcal{O}(\sqrt{N})$. The best previous bound was $N^{1 - o(1)}$ and the exponent of $1/2$ is best possible in such a result. Finally, we investigate the relationship between polynomial dependencies in asymmetric removal lemmas and the problem of avoiding integer solutions to equations. The results suggest a potentially deep correspondence. Many open questions remain.

math.CO↗

Induced subgraphs of induced subgraphs of large chromatic number

We prove that, for every graph $F$ with at least one edge, there is a constant $c_F$ such that there are graphs of arbitrarily large chromatic number and the same clique number as $F$ in which every $F$-free induced subgraph has chromatic number at most $c_F$. This generalises recent theorems of Briański, Davies and Walczak, and Carbonero, Hompe, Moore and Spirkl. Our results imply that for every $r\geq 3$ the class of $K_r$-free graphs has a very strong vertex Ramsey-type property, giving a vast generalisation of a result of Folkman from 1970. We also prove related results for tournaments, hypergraphs and infinite families of graphs, and show an analogous statement for graphs where clique number is replaced by odd girth.

math.CO↗

Tower Gaps in Multicolour Ramsey Numbers

Resolving a problem of Conlon, Fox, and Rödl, we construct a family of hypergraphs with arbitrarily large tower height separation between their $2$-colour and $q$-colour Ramsey numbers. The main lemma underlying this construction is a new variant of the Erdős--Hajnal stepping-up lemma for a generalized Ramsey number $r_k(t;q,p)$, which we define as the smallest integer $n$ such that every $q$-colouring of the $k$-sets on $n$ vertices contains a set of $t$ vertices spanning fewer than $p$ colours. Our results provide the first tower-type lower bounds on these numbers.

math.CO↗

Flashes and rainbows in tournaments

Colour the edges of the complete graph with vertex set $\{1, 2, \dotsc, n\}$ with an arbitrary number of colours. What is the smallest integer $f(l,k)$ such that if $n > f(l,k)$ then there must exist a monotone monochromatic path of length $l$ or a monotone rainbow path of length $k$? Lefmann, Rödl, and Thomas conjectured in 1992 that $f(l, k) = l^{k - 1}$ and proved this for $l \ge (3 k)^{2 k}$. We prove the conjecture for $l \geq k^3 (\log k)^{1 + o(1)}$ and establish the general upper bound $f(l, k) \leq k (\log k)^{1 + o(1)} \cdot l^{k - 1}$. This reduces the gap between the best lower and upper bounds from exponential to polynomial in $k$. We also generalise some of these results to the tournament setting.

math.CO↗

A note on interval colourings of graphs

A graph is said to be interval colourable if it admits a proper edge-colouring using palette $\mathbb{N}$ in which the set of colours incident to each vertex is an interval. The interval colouring thickness of a graph $G$ is the minimum $k$ such that $G$ can be edge-decomposed into $k$ interval colourable graphs. We show that $θ(n)$, the maximum interval colouring thickness of an $n$-vertex graph, satisfies $θ(n) =Ω(\log(n)/\log\log(n))$ and $θ(n)\leq n^{5/6+o(1)}$, which improves on the trivial lower bound and an upper bound of the first author and Zheng. As a corollary, we answer a question of Asratian, Casselgren, and Petrosyan and disprove a conjecture of Borowiecka-Olszewska, Drgas-Burchardt, Javier-Nol, and Zuazua. We also confirm a conjecture of the first author that any interval colouring of an $n$-vertex planar graph uses at most $3n/2-2$ colours.

math.CO↗

Reconstructing a point set from a random subset of its pairwise distances

Let $V$ be a set of $n$ points on the real line. Suppose that each pairwise distance is known independently with probability $p$. How much of $V$ can be reconstructed up to isometry? We prove that $p = (\log n)/n$ is a sharp threshold for reconstructing all of $V$ which improves a result of Benjamini and Tzalik. This follows from a hitting time result for the random process where the pairwise distances are revealed one-by-one uniformly at random. We also show that $1/n$ is a weak threshold for reconstructing a linear proportion of $V$.

math.CO↗

A note on unavoidable patterns in locally dense colourings

We show that there is a constant $C$ such that for every $\varepsilon>0$ any $2$-coloured $K_n$ with minimum degree at least $n/4+\varepsilon n$ in both colours contains a complete subgraph on $2t$ vertices where one colour class forms a $K_{t,t}$, provided that $n\geq \varepsilon^{-Ct}$. Also, we prove that if $K_n$ is $2$-coloured with minimum degree at least $\varepsilon n$ in both colours then it must contain one of two natural colourings of a complete graph. Both results are tight up to the value of $C$ and they answer two recent questions posed by Kamčev and Müyesser.

math.CO↗

Hamiltonicity of graphs perturbed by a random regular graph

We study Hamiltonicity and pancyclicity in the graph obtained as the union of a deterministic $n$-vertex graph $H$ with $δ(H)\geqαn$ and a random $d$-regular graph $G$, for $d\in\{1,2\}$. When $G$ is a random $2$-regular graph, we prove that a.a.s. $H\cup G$ is pancyclic for all $α\in(0,1]$, and also extend our result to a range of sublinear degrees. When $G$ is a random $1$-regular graph, we prove that a.a.s. $H\cup G$ is pancyclic for all $α\in(\sqrt{2}-1,1]$, and this result is best possible. Furthermore, we show that this bound on $δ(H)$ is only needed when $H$ is `far' from containing a perfect matching, as otherwise we can show results analogous to those of random $2$-regular graphs. Our proofs provide polynomial-time algorithms to find cycles of any length.

math.CO↗

Defective Colouring of Hypergraphs

We prove that the vertices of every $(r + 1)$-uniform hypergraph with maximum degree $Δ$ may be coloured with $c(\fracΔ{d + 1})^{1/r}$ colours such that each vertex is in at most $d$ monochromatic edges. This result, which is best possible up to the value of the constant $c$, generalises the classical result of Erdős and Lovász who proved the $d = 0$ case.

math.CO↗

Hamiltonicity of random subgraphs of the hypercube

We study Hamiltonicity in random subgraphs of the hypercube $\mathcal{Q}^n$. Our first main theorem is an optimal hitting time result. Consider the random process which includes the edges of $\mathcal{Q}^n$ according to a uniformly chosen random ordering. Then, with high probability, as soon as the graph produced by this process has minimum degree $2k$, it contains $k$ edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, for any fixed $k\in\mathbb{N}$. Secondly, we obtain a perturbation result: if $H\subseteq\mathcal{Q}^n$ satisfies $δ(H)\geqαn$ with $α>0$ fixed and we consider a random binomial subgraph $\mathcal{Q}^n_p$ of $\mathcal{Q}^n$ with $p\in(0,1]$ fixed, then with high probability $H\cup\mathcal{Q}^n_p$ contains $k$ edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles, for any fixed $k\in\mathbb{N}$. In particular, both results resolve a long standing conjecture, posed e.g. by Bollobás, that the threshold probability for Hamiltonicity in the random binomial subgraph of the hypercube equals $1/2$. Our techniques also show that, with high probability, for all fixed $p\in(0,1]$ the graph $\mathcal{Q}^n_p$ contains an almost spanning cycle. Our methods involve branching processes, the Rödl nibble, and absorption.

math.CO↗

Path decompositions of tournaments

In 1976, Alspach, Mason, and Pullman conjectured that any tournament $T$ of even order can be decomposed into exactly ${\rm ex}(T)$ paths, where ${\rm ex}(T):= \frac{1}{2}\sum_{v\in V(T)}|d_T^+(v)-d_T^-(v)|$. We prove this conjecture for all sufficiently large tournaments. We also prove an asymptotically optimal result for tournaments of odd order.

math.CO↗

Immersion of complete digraphs in Eulerian digraphs

A digraph $G$ \emph{immerses} a digraph $H$ if there is an injection $f : V(H) \to V(G)$ and a collection of pairwise edge-disjoint directed paths $P_{uv}$, for $uv \in E(H)$, such that $P_{uv}$ starts at $u$ and ends at $v$. We prove that every Eulerian digraph with minimum out-degree $t$ immerses a complete digraph on $Ω(t)$ vertices, thus answering a question of DeVos, Mcdonald, Mohar, and Scheide.

math.CO↗