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József Balogh

Publications and source records attributed to József Balogh.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Counting hypergraphs without linear cycles of fixed length

Let $C_{k}^{(r)}$ be the $r$-uniform linear cycle on $k$ hyperedges. An $r$-graph is $C_{k}^{(r)}$-free if it contains no copy of $C_{k}^{(r)}$. Let $\operatorname{ex}_{r}(n,C_{k}^{(r)})$ denote the maximum number of hyperedges in an $n$-vertex $C_{k}^{(r)}$-free $r$-graph. Balogh, Narayanan and Skokan asked whether, for every pair of integers $r,k\ge 3$, the number of $C_k^{(r)}$-free $r$-graphs on $n$ labelled vertices is \[ 2^{(1+o(1))\operatorname{ex}_{r}(n,C_{k}^{(r)})}. \] While the analogous statement is known to fail for graphs ($r=2$), by a construction of Morris and Saxton, the general question remained open for hypergraphs. Very recently, Jiang and Longbrake answered the question affirmatively when $r\geq5$. In this paper, we completely resolve the problem by proving that the answer is affirmative for every pair of integers $r,k\geq3$. When $(r,k)\neq(3,3)$, we establish balanced supersaturation results for linear cycles and combine them with the hypergraph container method. For $(r,k)=(3,3)$, we instead decompose $3$-graphs according to their pair-codegrees, encode the subhypergraph formed by the hyperedges that contain a large codegree pair as a directed graph, and apply a multicolour entropy theorem.

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arXiv2026

Clique covers and decompositions of cliques of graphs

In 1966, Erdős, Goodman, and Pósa showed that if $G$ is an $n$-vertex graph, then at most $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor$ cliques of $G$ are needed to cover the edges of $G$, and the bound is best possible as witnessed by the balanced complete bipartite graph. This was generalized independently by Győri--Kostochka, Kahn, and Chung, who showed that every $n$-vertex graph admits an edge-decomposition into cliques of total `cost' at most $2 \lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor$, where an $i$-vertex clique has cost $i$. Erdős suggested the following strengthening: every $n$-vertex graph admits an edge-decomposition into cliques of total cost at most $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor$, where now an $i$-vertex clique has cost $i-1$. We prove fractional relaxations and asymptotically optimal versions of both this conjecture and a conjecture of Dau, Milenkovic, and Puleo on covering the $t$-vertex cliques of a graph instead of the edges. Our proofs introduce a general framework for these problems using Zykov symmetrization, the Frankl-Rödl nibble method, and the Szemerédi Regularity Lemma.

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arXiv2026

The Spectrum of Triangle-free Graphs

Denote by $q_n(G)$ the smallest eigenvalue of the signless Laplacian matrix of an $n$-vertex graph $G$. Brandt conjectured in 1997 that for regular triangle-free graphs $q_n(G) \leq \frac{4n}{25}$. We prove a stronger result: If $G$ is a triangle-free graph then $q_n(G) \leq \frac{15n}{94}< \frac{4n}{25}$. Brandt's conjecture is a subproblem of two famous conjectures of Erdős: (1) Sparse-Half-Conjecture: Every $n$-vertex triangle-free graph has a subset of vertices of size $\left\lfloor\frac{n}{2}\right\rfloor$ spanning at most $n^2/50$ edges. (2) Every $n$-vertex triangle-free graph can be made bipartite by removing at most $n^2/25$ edges. In our proof we use linear algebraic methods to upper bound $q_n(G)$ by the ratio between the number of induced paths with 3 and 4 vertices. We give an upper bound on this ratio via the method of flag algebras.

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arXiv2026

Maximizing $K_r + I_r$ in graphs with fixed edge density

For every integer $r\ge4$, and $ρ\in [0,1]$, we asymptotically determine the maximum proportion of $r$-element sets of vertices that induce either a clique or an independent set in a large graph with density $ρ$. This generalizes a result of Olpp for $r=3$. After the initial idea for the main proof was found by the authors, various AI models were used to streamline the argument and perform the calculations necessary for completion of the proof.

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arXiv2026

Subset selection problems in planar point sets

Given a finite point set satisfying condition $\mathcal{A}$, the subset selection problem asks, how large of a subset satisfying condition $\mathcal{B}$ can be extracted? In this paper, we make progress on three instances of subset selection problems in planar point sets. Let $n,s\in\mathbb{N}$ with $n\geq s$, and let $P\subseteq\mathbb{R}^2$ be a set of $n$ points, where at most $s$ points lie on the same line. Firstly, we select a general position subset of $P$. This problem was proposed by Erdős under the regime when $s$ is a constant. For $s$ being non-constant, we give new lower and upper bounds on the maximum size of such a subset. In particular, we show that in the worst case such a set can have size at most $O(n^{5/6+o(1)}/\sqrt{s})$ when $3\leq s\leq n^{1/3}$ and $O(n/s)$ when $n^{1/3}\leq s\leq n$. Secondly, we select a monotone general position subset of $P$, that is, a subset in general position where the points are ordered from left to right and their $y$-coordinates are either non-decreasing or non-increasing. We present bounds on the maximum size of such a subset. In particular, when $s=Ω(\sqrt{n})$, our upper and lower bounds differ at most by a logarithmic factor. Lastly, we select a subset of $P$ with pairwise distinct slopes. This problem was initially studied by Erdős, Graham, Ruzsa, and Taylor on the grid. We show that for $s=O(\sqrt{n})$ such a subset of size $Ω((n/\log{s})^{1/3})$ can always be found in $P$. When $s=Θ(\sqrt{n})$, this matches a lower bound given by Zhang on the grid. As for the upper bound, we show that in the worst case such a subset has size at most $O(\sqrt{n})$ for $2\leq s\leq n^{3/8}$ and $O((n/s)^{4/5})$ for $n^{3/8}\leq s=O(\sqrt{n})$. The proofs use a wide range of tools such as incidence geometry, probabilistic methods, the hypergraph container method, and additive combinatorics.

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arXiv2026

Even smaller universal posets

We show that for every $η>0$ and sufficiently large $n$, there exists a poset of size $2^{(1+η)n/2}$ containing all the $n$-element posets as induced subposets. This improves a recent result of Bastide, Groenland and Nenadov. Our proof provides a labeling scheme preserving transitivity, inspired by the Boolean lattice. Among other tools, we use the Szemerédi Regularity Lemma.

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arXiv2026

Density of rainbow triangles and properly colored $K_4$'s

We establish a sharp upper bound on the number of properly $3$-edge-colored $K_4$'s in graphs with $R$ red, $G$ green and $B$ blue edges. We give a computer-free flag-algebra proof of this bound, and we also convert our proof into a classical counting proof and an entropy proof. Additionally, for every $k\ge 4$, for a fixed rainbow coloring $F$ of a complete graph $K_k$, we give a sharp upper bound on the number copies of $F$ in a $\binom{k}{2}$-edge-colored graph. Our proof of this result relies on a new flag-algebra version of Hölder's inequality. We also give a computer-free flag-algebra proof of the fact that a graph with $R$ red, $G$ green, and $B$ blue edges has at most $\sqrt{2 RGB}$ rainbow triangles, which was originally proven by T.-W. Chao and H.-H. H. Yu using the entropy method. We also provide an even shorter entropy proof of their result.

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arXiv2026

Local maximum of inducibility profiles

For a graph $G$ and $e\in [0,1]$, denote by $I_G(e)$ the supremum of induced density of $G$ over $n$-vertex graphs with edge density $e$ as $n$ goes to infinity. Liu, Mubayi and Reiher asked if there exists a graph $G$, where $I_G(e)$ has a non-trivial local maximum. In this paper, we answer this problem affirmatively. We first show that $I_{K_{2,2,1}}(e)$ has at least two local maxima in $(0,1)$. Part of this proof is using flag algebras. Additionally, we determine $I_{K_{2,2,1}}(e)$, when $e=(k-1)/k$ for every integer $k\ge 3.$ We also prove that $I_{K_t^-}(e)$ has a non-global local maximum for every $t\in\{5,8,11,\ldots,$ $74\}$. The proof combines a symmetrization theorem of Schelp and Thomason with Reiher's clique density theorem.

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arXiv2026

Bipartite cuts in Ramsey-Turán style

We prove that every $K_5$-free $n$-vertex graph with sublinear independence number can be made bipartite by removing at most $n^2(1/18+o(1))$ edges, where the constant $1/18$ is best possible. The proof method is related to extensions of Turán Theorem in edge-weighted settings, and part of the proof uses flag algebra.

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arXiv2026

Balanced bipartite distance of $K_4$-free graphs

We show that every $K_4$-free graph on $n$ vertices can be made balanced bipartite by removing at most $\frac{n^2}{9}$ edges. This proves a conjecture of Balogh, Clemen, and Lidický, and generalizes both Sudakov's result on the bipartite distance of $K_4$-free graphs and Reiher's result on the sparse half of $K_4$-free graphs.

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arXiv2026

Matchings in hypergraphs via Ore-degree conditions

Let $\mathcal{H} \subseteq \binom{[n]}{r}$ be an $r$-uniform hypergraph on vertex set $[n] = \{1,2,\dots, n\}$. For an $r$-set of vertices $S \subseteq [n]$, the \emph{degree} of $S$ is defined as $\textrm{deg}(S)=\sum_{v \in S}\textrm{deg}(v)$ and the minimum of $\textrm{deg}(S)$ over all non-edge $r$-subsets $S \not \in E(\mathcal{H})$ of $V({\cal H})$ is the {\it Ore-degree} of ${\cal H}$, denoted by ${σ_r}({\cal H})$. We prove several Ore-degree results about existence of matchings in hypergraphs: (1) For $n\geq 2r+2$, if ${\cal H}$ is an intersecting $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices, then $σ_r({\cal H})\leq r{n-2 \choose r-2}$, and there is equality only when ${\cal H}$ is a $1$-star. (2) For $r\geq 3$ and $n\geq 4r^2$, if is a non-trivial intersecting $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices, then $σ_r({\cal H})\leq r\left({n-2 \choose r-2}-{n-r-2 \choose r-2}\right)$. (3) For $s\geq 2$ and $n\geq 3r^2(s-1)$, if ${\cal H}$ is an $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices and $σ_r({\cal H})>r\left({n-1 \choose r-1}-{n-s \choose r-1}\right)$, then ${\cal H}$ contains $s$ pairwise disjoint edges.

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arXiv2026

Forbidding Exactly One Hamming Distance

Addressing questions raised in recent papers, we study the $r$-distance graph $H_r(n)$ on the Boolean cube $\{0,1\}^n$, where two vertices are adjacent if their Hamming distance is exactly $r$. For fixed integers $s \ge 2$ and even $r \ge 2$, we determine the asymptotic order of the $s$-independence number $α_s(H_r(n))$, showing that \[ α_s\left(H_r(n)\right)=Θ\left(\frac{2^n}{n^{r/2}}\right). \] The upper bound is derived via a reduction to extremal problems for sunflower-free set systems, while the lower bound is obtained using algebraic constructions based on BCH codes and constant-weight codes.

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arXiv2026

Infinitely many groups exhibiting intermediate growth in maximal sum-free sets

Given an Abelian groups $G$, denote $μ(G)$ the size of its largest sum-free subset and $f_{\max}(G)$ the number of maximal sum-free sets in $G$. Confirming a prediction by Liu and Sharifzadeh, we prove that all even-order $G\ne \mathbb{Z}_2^k$ have exponentially fewer maximal sum-free sets than $\mathbb{Z}_2^k$, i.e. $f_{\max}(G) \leq 2^{(1/2-c)μ(G)}$, where $c > 10^{-64}$. We construct an infinite family of Abelian groups $G$ with intermediate growth in the number of maximal sum-free sets, i.e., with $ 2^{(\frac{1}{2}+c)μ(G)}\leq f_{\max}(G) \leq 3^{(\frac{1}{3}-c)μ(G)} $, where $c=10^{-4}$. This disproves a conjecture of Liu and Sharifzadeh and also answers a question of Hassler and Treglown in the negative. Furthermore, we determine for every even-order group $G$, the number of maximal distinct sum-free sets (where a distinct sum is $a+b= c$ with distinct $a,b,c$): it is $ 2^{(1/2+o(1))μ(G)}$ with the only exception being $G=\mathbb{Z}_2^k \oplus \mathbb{Z}_3$, when this function is $3^{(1/3+o(1))μ(G)}$, refuting a conjecture of Hassler and Treglown. Our proofs rely on a container theorem due to Green and Ruzsa. Another key ingredient is a sharp upper bound we establish on the number of maximal independent sets in graphs with given matching number, which interpolates between the classical results of Moon and Moser, and Hujter and Tuza. A special case of our bound implies that every $n$-vertex graph with a perfect matching has at most $2^{n/2}$ maximal independent sets, resolving another conjecture of Hassler and Treglown.

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arXiv2026

A Jump in the Codegree Turán Densities of Long Tight Cycles

We study the codegree Turán density of $\mathcal{C}_\ell^r$, the $r$-uniform hypergraph tight cycle of length $\ell$. A result of Han, Lo, and Sanhueza-Matamala states that if $\ell$ is sufficiently large and $r/\gcd(r,\ell)$ is even, then the codegree Turán density of $\mathcal{C}_\ell^r$ is $1/2$. We prove that whenever the latter assumption is not satisfied, there is a significant drop in the codegree Turán density. That is, if $\ell$ is sufficiently large and $r/\gcd(r,\ell)$ is odd, then the codegree Turán density of $\mathcal{C}_\ell^r$ can be at most $1/3$. Moreover, this bound is tight for infinitely many uniformities $r$ and all sufficiently large $\ell$ in the corresponding residue classes modulo $r$. Our proof makes use of a group-theoretic connection between Turán-type theorems for tight cycles and ``oriented colorings'' of the edge set of a hypergraph.

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arXiv2026

Semi-Inducibility of some small graphs

Let $H$ be a fixed graph whose edges are colored red and blue and let $β\in [0,1]$. Let $I(H, β)$ be the (asymptotically normalized) maximum number of copies of $H$ in a large red/blue edge-colored complete graph $G$, where the density of red edges in $G$ is $β$. This refines the problem of determining the semi-inducibility of $H$, which is itself a generalization of the classical question of determining the inducibility of $H$. The function $I(H, β)$ for $β\in [0,1]$ was not known for any graph $H$ on more than three vertices, except when $H$ is a monochromatic clique (Kruskal-Katona) or a monochromatic star (Reiher-Wagner). We obtain sharp results for some four and five vertex graphs, addressing several recent questions posed by various authors. We also obtain some general results for trees and stars. Many open problems remain.

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arXiv2025

Improving Uniquely Decodable Codes in Binary Adder Channels

We present a general method to modify existing uniquely decodable codes in the $T$-user binary adder channel. If at least one of the original constituent codes does not have average weight exactly half of the dimension, then our method produces a new set of constituent codes in a higher dimension, with a strictly higher rate. Using our method we improve the highest known rate for the $T$-user binary adder channel for all $T \geq 2$. This information theory problem is equivalent to co-Sidon problems initiated by Lindstr{ö}m in the 1960s, and also the multi-set union-free problem. Our results improve the known lower bounds in these settings as well.

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arXiv2025

Sunflowers in set systems with small VC-dimension

A family of $r$ distinct sets $\{A_1,\ldots, A_r\}$ is an $r$-sunflower if for all $1 \leqslant i < j \leqslant r$ and $1 \leqslant i' < j' \leqslant r$, we have $A_i \cap A_j = A_{i'} \cap A_{j'}$. Erdős and Rado conjectured in 1960 that every family $\mathcal{H}$ of $\ell$-element sets of size at least $K(r)^\ell$ contains an $r$-sunflower, where $K(r)$ is some function that depends only on $r$. We prove that if $\mathcal{H}$ is a family of $\ell$-element sets of VC-dimension at most $d$ and $|\mathcal{H}| > (C r (\log d+\log^\ast \ell))^\ell$ for some absolute constant $C > 0$, then $\mathcal{H}$ contains an $r$-sunflower. This improves a recent result of Fox, Pach, and Suk. When $d=1$, we obtain a sharp bound, namely that $|\mathcal{H}| > (r-1)^\ell$ is sufficient. Along the way, we establish a strengthening of the Kahn-Kalai conjecture for set families of bounded VC-dimension, which is of independent interest.

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