arXiv subjects

Dhruv Mubayi

Publications and source records attributed to Dhruv Mubayi.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Ramsey theory constructions from hypergraph matchings

We give asymptotically optimal constructions in generalized Ramsey theory using results about conflict-free hypergraph matchings. For example, we present an edge-coloring of $K_{n,n}$ with $2n/3 + o(n)$ colors such that each $4$-cycle receives at least three colors on its edges. This answers a question of Axenovich, Füredi and the second author (On generalized Ramsey theory: the bipartite case, J. Combin. Theory Ser B 79 (2000), 66--86). We also exhibit an edge-coloring of $K_n$ with $5n/6+o(n)$ colors that assigns each copy of $K_4$ at least five colors. This gives an alternative very short solution to an old question of Erdős and Gyárfás that was recently answered by Bennett, Cushman, Dudek, and Pralat by analyzing a colored modification of the triangle removal process.

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arXiv2022

A unified approach to hypergraph stability

We present a method which provides a unified framework for most stability theorems that have been proved in graph and hypergraph theory. Our main result reduces stability for a large class of hypergraph problems to the simpler question of checking that a hypergraph $\mathcal H$ with large minimum degree that omits the forbidden structures is vertex-extendable. This means that if $v$ is a vertex of $\mathcal H$ and ${\mathcal H} -v$ is a subgraph of the extremal configuration(s), then $\mathcal H$ is also a subgraph of the extremal configuration(s). In many cases vertex-extendability is quite easy to verify. We illustrate our approach by giving new short proofs of hypergraph stability results of Pikhurko, Hefetz-Keevash, Brandt-Irwin-Jiang, Bene Watts-Norin-Yepremyan and others. Since our method always yields minimum degree stability, which is the strongest form of stability, in some of these cases our stability results are stronger than what was known earlier. Along the way, we clarify the different notions of stability that have been previously studied.

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arXiv2022

The feasible region of induced graphs

The feasible region $Ω_{\rm ind}(F)$ of a graph $F$ is the collection of points $(x,y)$ in the unit square such that there exists a sequence of graphs whose edge densities approach $x$ and whose induced $F$-densities approach $y$. A complete description of $Ω_{\rm ind}(F)$ is not known for any $F$ with at least four vertices that is not a clique or an independent set. The feasible region provides a lot of combinatorial information about $F$. For example, the supremum of $y$ over all $(x,y)\in Ω_{\rm ind}(F)$ is the inducibility of $F$ and $Ω_{\rm ind}(K_r)$ yields the Kruskal-Katona and clique density theorems. We begin a systematic study of $Ω_{\rm ind}(F)$ by proving some general statements about the shape of $Ω_{\rm ind}(F)$ and giving results for some specific graphs $F$. Many of our theorems apply to the more general setting of quantum graphs. For example, we prove a bound for quantum graphs that generalizes an old result of Bollobás for the number of cliques in a graph with given edge density. We also consider the problems of determining $Ω_{\rm ind}(F)$ when $F=K_r^-$, $F$ is a star, or $F$ is a complete bipartite graph. In the case of $K_r^-$ our results sharpen those predicted by the edge-statistics conjecture of Alon et. al. while also extending a theorem of Hirst for $K_4^-$ that was proved using computer aided techniques and flag algebras. The case of the 4-cycle seems particularly interesting and we conjecture that $Ω_{\rm ind}(C_4)$ is determined by the solution to the triangle density problem, which has been solved by Razborov.

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arXiv2022

Set-coloring Ramsey numbers via codes

For positive integers $n,r,s$ with $r > s$, the set-coloring Ramsey number $R(n;r,s)$ is the minimum $N$ such that if every edge of the complete graph $K_N$ receives a set of $s$ colors from a palette of $r$ colors, then there is guaranteed to be a monochromatic clique on $n$ vertices, that is, a subset of $n$ vertices where all of the edges between them receive a common color. In particular, the case $s=1$ corresponds to the classical multicolor Ramsey number. We prove general upper and lower bounds on $R(n;r,s)$ which imply that $R(n;r,s) = 2^{Θ(nr)}$ if $s/r$ is bounded away from $0$ and $1$. The upper bound extends an old result of Erdős and Szemerédi, who treated the case $s = r-1$, while the lower bound exploits a connection to error-correcting codes. We also study the analogous problem for hypergraphs.

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arXiv2021

A note on explicit constructions of designs

An $(n,r,s)$-system is an $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices such that every pair of edges has an intersection of size less than $s$. Using probabilistic arguments, Rödl and Šiňajová showed that for all fixed integers $r> s \ge 2$, there exists an $(n,r,s)$-system with independence number $O\left(n^{1-δ+o(1)}\right)$ for some optimal constant $δ>0$ only related to $r$ and $s$. We show that for certain pairs $(r,s)$ with $s\le r/2$ there exists an explicit construction of an $(n,r,s)$-system with independence number $O\left(n^{1-ε}\right)$, where $ε> 0$ is an absolute constant only related to $r$ and $s$. Previously this was known only for $s>r/2$ by results of Chattopadhyay and Goodman

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arXiv2021

A hypergraph Turán problem with no stability

A fundamental barrier in extremal hypergraph theory is the presence of many near-extremal constructions with very different structures. Indeed, the classical constructions due to Kostochka imply that the notorious extremal problem for the tetrahedron exhibits this phenomenon assuming Turán's conjecture. Our main result is to construct a finite family of triple systems $\mathcal{M}$, determine its Turán number, and prove that there are two near-extremal $\mathcal{M}$-free constructions that are far from each other in edit-distance. This is the first extremal result for a hypergraph family that fails to have a corresponding stability theorem.

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arXiv2021

Hypergraphs with many extremal configurations

For every positive integer $t$ we construct a finite family of triple systems ${\mathcal M}_t$, determine its Turán number, and show that there are $t$ extremal ${\mathcal M}_t$-free configurations that are far from each other in edit-distance. We also prove a strong stability theorem: every ${\mathcal M}_t$-free triple system whose size is close to the maximum size is a subgraph of one of these $t$ extremal configurations after removing a small proportion of vertices. This is the first stability theorem for a hypergraph problem with an arbitrary (finite) number of extremal configurations. Moreover, the extremal hypergraphs have very different shadow sizes (unlike the case of the famous Turán tetrahedron conjecture). Hence a corollary of our main result is that the boundary of the feasible region of ${\mathcal M}_t$ has exactly $t$ global maxima.

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arXiv2021

Independent sets in hypergraphs omitting an intersection

A $k$-uniform hypergraph with $n$ vertices is an $(n,k,\ell)$-omitting system if it does not contain two edges whose intersection has size exactly $\ell$. If in addition it does not contain two edges whose intersection has size greater than $\ell$, then it is an $(n,k,\ell)$-system. Rödl and Šiňajová proved a lower bound for the independence number of $(n,k,\ell)$-systems that is sharp in order of magnitude for fixed $2 \le \ell \le k-1$. We consider the same question for the larger class of $(n,k,\ell)$-omitting systems. For $k\le 2\ell+1$, we believe that the behavior is similar to the case of $(n,k,\ell)$-systems and prove a nontrivial lower bound for the first open case $\ell=k-2$. For $k>2\ell+1$ we give new lower and upper bounds which show that the minimum independence number of $(n,k,\ell)$-omitting systems has a very different behavior than for $(n,k,\ell)$-systems. Our lower bound for $\ell=k-2$ uses some adaptations of the random greedy independent set algorithm, and our upper bounds (constructions) for $k> 2\ell+1$ are obtained from some pseudorandom graphs. We also prove some related results where we forbid more than two edges with a prescribed common intersection size and this leads to some applications in Ramsey theory. For example, we obtain good bounds for the Ramsey number $r_{k}(F^{k},t)$, where $F^{k}$ is the $k$-uniform Fan. Here the behavior is quite different than the case $k=2$ which reduces to the classical graph Ramsey number $r(3,t)$.

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arXiv2020

Extremal problems for pairs of triangles

A convex geometric hypergraph or cgh consists of a family of subsets of a strictly convex set of points in the plane. There are eight pairwise nonisomorphic cgh's consisting of two disjoint triples. These were studied at length by Braß (2004) and by Aronov, Dujmović, Morin, Ooms, and da Silveira (2019). We determine the extremal functions exactly for seven of the eight configurations. The above results are about cyclically ordered hypergraphs. We extend some of them for triangle systems with vertices from a non-convex set. We also solve problems posed by P. Frankl, Holmsen and Kupavskii (2020), in particular, we determine the exact maximum size of an intersecting family of triangles whose vertices come from a set of $n$ points in the plane.

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arXiv2020

Random Turán theorem for hypergraph cycles

Given $r$-uniform hypergraphs $G$ and $H$ the Turán number $\rm ex(G, H)$ is the maximum number of edges in an $H$-free subgraph of $G$. We study the typical value of $\rm ex(G, H)$ when $G=G_{n,p}^{(r)}$, the Erdős-Rényi random $r$-uniform hypergraph, and $H=C_{2\ell}^{(r)}$, the $r$-uniform linear cycle of length $2\ell$. The case of graphs ($r=2$) is a longstanding open problem that has been investigated by many researchers. We determine $\rm ex(G_{n,p}^{(r)}, C_{2\ell}^{(r)})$ up to polylogarithmic factors for all but a small interval of values of $p=p(n)$ whose length decreases as $\ell$ grows. Our main technical contribution is a balanced supersaturation result for linear even cycles which improves upon previous such results by Ferber-Mckinley-Samotij and Balogh-Narayanan-Skokan. The novelty is that the supersaturation result depends on the codegree of some pairs of vertices in the underlying hypergraph. This approach could be used to prove similar results for other hypergraphs $H$.

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arXiv2020

Tight bounds for Katona's shadow intersection theorem

A fundamental result in extremal set theory is Katona's shadow intersection theorem, which extends the Kruskal-Katona theorem by giving a lower bound on the size of the shadow of an intersecting family of $k$-sets in terms of its size. We improve this classical result and a related result of Ahlswede, Aydinian, and Khachatrian by proving tight bounds for families that can be quite small. For example, when $k=3$ our result is sharp for all families with $n$ points and at least $3n-7$ triples. Katona's theorem was extended by Frankl to families with matching number $s$. We improve Frankl's result by giving tight bounds for large $n$.

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arXiv2020

On a generalized Erdős-Rademacher problem

The triangle covering number of a graph is the minimum number of vertices that hit all triangles. Given positive integers $s,t$ and an $n$-vertex graph $G$ with $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor +t$ edges and triangle covering number $s$, we determine (for large $n$) sharp bounds on the minimum number of triangles in $G$ and also describe the extremal constructions. Similar results are proved for cliques of larger size and color critical graphs. This extends classical work of Rademacher, Erd\H os, and Lovász-Simonovits whose results apply only to $s \le t$. Our results also address two conjectures of Xiao and Katona. We prove one of them and give a counterexample and prove a modified version of the other conjecture.

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arXiv2020

Cliques with many colors in triple systems

Erdős and Hajnal constructed a 4-coloring of the triples of an $N$-element set such that every $n$-element subset contains 2 triples with distinct colors, and $N$ is double exponential in $n$. Conlon, Fox and Rödl asked whether there is some integer $q\ge 3$ and a $q$-coloring of the triples of an $N$-element set such that every $n$-element subset has 3 triples with distinct colors, and $N$ is double exponential in $n$. We make the first nontrivial progress on this problem by providing a $q$-coloring with this property for all $q\geq 9$, where $N$ is exponential in $n^{2+cq}$ and $c>0$ is an absolute constant.

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arXiv2020

Partitioning ordered hypergraphs

An {\em ordered $r$-graph} is an $r$-uniform hypergraph whose vertex set is linearly ordered. Given $2\leq k\leq r$, an ordered $r$-graph $H$ is {\em interval} $k$-{\em partite} if there exist at least $k$ disjoint intervals in the ordering such that every edge of $H$ has nonempty intersection with each of the intervals and is contained in their union. Our main result implies that for each $α> k - 1$ and $d>0$, every $n$-vertex ordered $r$-graph with $d \,n^α$ edges has for some $m\leq n$ an $m$-vertex interval $k$-partite subgraph with $Ω(d\, m^α)$ edges. This is an extension to ordered $r$-graphs of the observation by Erd\H os and Kleitman that every $r$-graph contains an $r$-partite subgraph with a constant proportion of the edges. The restriction $α> k-1$ is sharp. We also present applications of the main result to several extremal problems for ordered hypergraphs.

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arXiv2020

Tight paths in convex geometric hypergraphs

In this paper, we prove a theorem on tight paths in convex geometric hypergraphs, which is asymptotically sharp in infinitely many cases. Our geometric theorem is a common generalization of early results of Hopf and Pannwitz [12], Sutherland [19], Kupitz and Perles [16] for convex geometric graphs, as well as the classical Erdős-Gallai Theorem [6] for graphs. As a consequence, we obtain the first substantial improvement on the Turán problem for tight paths in uniform hypergraphs.

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arXiv2020

Extremal problems for hypergraph blowups of trees

In this paper we present a novel approach in extremal set theory which may be viewed as an asymmetric version of Katona's permutation method. We use it to find more Turán numbers of hypergraphs in the Erdős--Ko--Rado range. An $(a,b)$-path $P$ of length $2k-1$ consists of $2k-1$ sets of size $r=a+b$ as follows. Take $k$ pairwise disjoint $a$-element sets $A_0, A_2, \dots, A_{2k-2}$ and other $k$ pairwise disjoint $b$-element sets $B_1, B_3, \dots, B_{2k-1}$ and order them linearly as $A_0, B_1, A_2, B_3, A_4\dots$. Define the (hyper)edges of $P_{2k-1}(a,b)$ as the sets of the form $A_i\cup B_{i+1}$ and $B_j\cup A_{j+1}$. The members of $P$ can be represented as $r$-element intervals of the $ak+bk$ element underlying set. Our main result is about hypergraphs that are blowups of trees, and implies that for fixed $k,a,b$, as $n\to \infty$ \[ {\rm ex}_r(n,P_{2k-1}(a,b)) = (k - 1){n \choose r - 1} + o(n^{r - 1}).\] This generalizes the Erdős--Gallai theorem for graphs which is the case of $a=b=1$. We also determine the asymptotics when $a+b$ is even; the remaining cases are still open.

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arXiv2020

A note on the Erdős-Hajnal hypergraph Ramsey problem

We show that there is an absolute constant $c>0$ such that the following holds. For every $n > 1$, there is a 5-uniform hypergraph on at least $2^{2^{cn^{1/4}}}$ vertices with independence number at most $n$, where every set of 6 vertices induces at most 3 edges. The double exponential growth rate for the number of vertices is sharp. By applying a stepping-up lemma established by the first two authors, analogous sharp results are proved for $k$-uniform hypergraphs. This answers the penultimate open case of a conjecture in Ramsey theory posed by Erdős and Hajnal in 1972.

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arXiv2020

Polynomial to exponential transition in Ramsey theory

Given $s \ge k\ge 3$, let $h^{(k)}(s)$ be the minimum $t$ such that there exist arbitrarily large $k$-uniform hypergraphs $H$ whose independence number is at most polylogarithmic in the number of vertices and in which every $s$ vertices span at most $t$ edges. Erd\H os and Hajnal conjectured (1972) that $h^{(k)}(s)$ can be calculated precisely using a recursive formula and Erd\H os offered \$500 for a proof of this. For $k=3$ this has been settled for many values of $s$ including powers of three but it was not known for any $k\geq 4$ and $s\geq k+2$. Here we settle the conjecture for all $s \ge k \ge 4$. We also answer a question of Bhat and Rödl by constructing, for each $k \ge 4$, a quasirandom sequence of $k$-uniform hypergraphs with positive density and upper density at most $k!/(k^k-k)$. This result is sharp.

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