arXiv subjects

Jacob Fox

Publications and source records attributed to Jacob Fox.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Small subsets with large sumset: Beyond the Cauchy--Davenport bound

For a subset $A$ of an abelian group $G$, given its size $|A|$, its doubling $κ=|A+A|/|A|$, and a parameter $s$ which is small compared to $|A|$, we study the size of the largest sumset $A+A'$ that can be guaranteed for a subset $A'$ of $A$ of size at most $s$. We show that a subset $A'\subseteq A$ of size at most $s$ can be found so that $|A+A'| = Ω(\min(κ^{1/3},s)|A|)$. Thus a sumset significantly larger than the Cauchy--Davenport bound can be guaranteed by a bounded size subset assuming that the doubling $κ$ is large. Building up on the same ideas, we resolve a conjecture of Bollobás, Leader and Tiba that for subsets $A,B$ of $\mathbb{Z}_p$ of size at most $αp$ for an appropriate constant $α>0$, one only needs three elements $b_1,b_2,b_3\in B$ to guarantee $|A+\{b_1,b_2,b_3\}|\ge |A|+|B|-1$. Allowing the use of larger subsets $A'$, we show that for sets $A$ of bounded doubling, one only needs a subset $A'$ with $o(|A|)$ elements to guarantee that $A+A'=A+A$. We also address another conjecture and a question raised by Bollobás, Leader and Tiba on high-dimensional analogs and sets whose sumset cannot be saturated by a bounded size subset.

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arXiv2022

Hypergraph Ramsey numbers of cliques versus stars

Let $K_m^{(3)}$ denote the complete $3$-uniform hypergraph on $m$ vertices and $S_n^{(3)}$ the $3$-uniform hypergraph on $n+1$ vertices consisting of all $\binom{n}{2}$ edges incident to a given vertex. Whereas many hypergraph Ramsey numbers grow either at most polynomially or at least exponentially, we show that the off-diagonal Ramsey number $r(K_{4}^{(3)},S_n^{(3)})$ exhibits an unusual intermediate growth rate, namely, \[ 2^{c \log^2 n} \le r(K_{4}^{(3)},S_n^{(3)}) \le 2^{c' n^{2/3}\log n} \] for some positive constants $c$ and $c'$. The proof of these bounds brings in a novel Ramsey problem on grid graphs which may be of independent interest: what is the minimum $N$ such that any $2$-edge-coloring of the Cartesian product $K_N \square K_N$ contains either a red rectangle or a blue $K_n$?

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arXiv2022

The upper logarithmic density of monochromatic subset sums

We show that in any two-coloring of the positive integers there is a color for which the set of positive integers that can be represented as a sum of distinct elements with this color has upper logarithmic density at least $(2+\sqrt{3})/4$ and this is best possible. This answers a forty-year-old question of Erdős.

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arXiv2022

Threshold Ramsey multiplicity for paths and even cycles

The Ramsey number $r(H)$ of a graph $H$ is the minimum integer $n$ such that any two-coloring of the edges of the complete graph $K_n$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. While this definition only asks for a single monochromatic copy of $H$, it is often the case that every two-edge-coloring of the complete graph on $r(H)$ vertices contains many monochromatic copies of $H$. The minimum number of such copies over all two-colorings of $K_{r(H)}$ will be referred to as the threshold Ramsey multiplicity of $H$. Addressing a problem of Harary and Prins, who were the first to systematically study this quantity, we show that there is a positive constant $c$ such that the threshold Ramsey multiplicity of a path or an even cycle on $k$ vertices is at least $(ck)^k$. This bound is tight up to the constant $c$. We prove a similar result for odd cycles in a companion paper.

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arXiv2022

On random irregular subgraphs

Let $G$ be a $d$-regular graph on $n$ vertices. Frieze, Gould, Karoński and Pfender began the study of the following random spanning subgraph model $H=H(G)$. Assign independently to each vertex $v$ of $G$ a uniform random number $x(v) \in [0,1]$, and an edge $(u,v)$ of $G$ is an edge of $H$ if and only if $x(u)+x(v) \geq 1$. Addressing a problem of Alon and Wei, we prove that if $d = o(n/(\log n)^{12})$, then with high probability, for each nonnegative integer $k \leq d$, there are $(1+o(1))n/(d+1)$ vertices of degree $k$ in $H$.

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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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arXiv2022

Geometric and o-minimal Littlewood-Offord problems

The classical Erdős-Littlewood-Offord theorem says that for nonzero vectors $a_1,\dots,a_n\in \mathbb{R}^d$, any $x\in \mathbb{R}^d$, and uniformly random $(ξ_1,\dots,ξ_n)\in\{-1,1\}^n$, we have $\Pr(a_1ξ_1+\dots+a_nξ_n=x)=O(n^{-1/2})$. In this paper we show that $\Pr(a_1ξ_1+\dots+a_nξ_n\in S)\le n^{-1/2+o(1)}$ whenever $S$ is definable with respect to an o-minimal structure (for example, this holds when $S$ is any algebraic hypersurface), under the necessary condition that it does not contain a line segment. We also obtain an inverse theorem in this setting.

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arXiv2022

Extremal results on feedback arc sets in digraphs

A directed graph is oriented if it can be obtained by orienting the edges of a simple, undirected graph. For an oriented graph $G$, let $β(G)$ denote the size of a minimum feedback arc set, a smallest subset of edges whose deletion leaves an acyclic subgraph. A simple consequence of a result of Berger and Shor is that any oriented graph $G$ with $m$ edges satisfies $β(G) = m/2 - Ω(m^{3/4})$. We observe that if an oriented graph $G$ has a fixed forbidden subgraph $B$, the upper bound of $β(G) = m/2 - Ω(m^{3/4})$ is best possible as a function of the number of edges if $B$ is not bipartite, but the exponent $3/4$ in the lower order term can be improved if $B$ is bipartite. We also show that for every rational number $r$ between $3/4$ and $1$, there is a finite collection of digraphs $\mathcal{B}$ such that every $\mathcal{B}$-free digraph $G$ with $m$ edges satisfies $β(G) = m/2 - Ω(m^r)$, and this bound is best possible up to the implied constant factor. The proof uses a connection to Turán numbers and a result of Bukh and Conlon. Both of our upper bounds come equipped with randomized linear-time algorithms that construct feedback arc sets achieving those bounds. Finally, we give a characterization of quasirandom directed graphs via minimum feedback arc sets.

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arXiv2022

Minimum degree and the graph removal lemma

The clique removal lemma says that for every $r \geq 3$ and $\varepsilon>0$, there exists some $δ>0$ so that every $n$-vertex graph $G$ with fewer than $δn^r$ copies of $K_r$ can be made $K_r$-free by removing at most $\varepsilon n^2$ edges. The dependence of $δ$ on $\varepsilon$ in this result is notoriously difficult to determine: it is known that $δ^{-1}$ must be at least super-polynomial in $\varepsilon^{-1}$, and that it is at most of tower type in $\log \varepsilon^{-1}$. We prove that if one imposes an appropriate minimum degree condition on $G$, then one can actually take $δ$ to be a linear function of $\varepsilon$ in the clique removal lemma. Moreover, we determine the threshold for such a minimum degree requirement, showing that above this threshold we have linear bounds, whereas below the threshold the bounds are once again super-polynomial, as in the unrestricted removal lemma. We also investigate this question for other graphs besides cliques, and prove some general results about how minimum degree conditions affect the bounds in the graph removal lemma.

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arXiv2022

On the number of edges of separated multigraphs

We prove that the number of edges of a multigraph $G$ with $n$ vertices is at most $O(n^2\log n)$, provided that any two edges cross at most once, parallel edges are noncrossing, and the lens enclosed by every pair of parallel edges in $G$ contains at least one vertex. As a consequence, we prove the following extension of the Crossing Lemma of Ajtai, Chvátal, Newborn, Szemerédi and Leighton, if $G$ has $e \geq 4n$ edges, in any drawing of $G$ with the above property, the number of crossings is $Ω\left(\frac{e^3}{n^2\log(e/n)}\right)$. This answers a question of Kaufmann et al. and is tight up to the logarithmic factor.

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arXiv2022

Ramsey numbers of books and quasirandomness

The book graph $B_n^{(k)}$ consists of $n$ copies of $K_{k+1}$ joined along a common $K_k$. The Ramsey numbers of $B_n^{(k)}$ are known to have strong connections to the classical Ramsey numbers of cliques. Recently, the first author determined the asymptotic order of these Ramsey numbers for fixed $k$, thus answering an old question of Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau, and Schelp. In this paper, we first provide a simpler proof of this theorem. Next, answering a question of the first author, we present a different proof that avoids the use of Szemerédi's regularity lemma, thus providing much tighter control on the error term. Finally, we prove a conjecture of Nikiforov, Rousseau, and Schelp by showing that all extremal colorings for this Ramsey problem are quasirandom.

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arXiv2022

Multicolor list Ramsey numbers grow exponentially

The list Ramsey number $R_{\ell}(H,k)$, recently introduced by Alon, Bucić, Kalvari, Kuperwasser, and Szabó, is a list-coloring variant of the classical Ramsey number. They showed that if $H$ is a fixed $r$-uniform hypergraph that is not $r$-partite and the number of colors $k$ goes to infinity, $e^{Ω(\sqrt{k})} \le R_{\ell} (H,k) \le e^{O(k)}$. We prove that $R_{\ell}(H,k) = e^{Θ(k)}$ if and only if $H$ is not $r$-partite.

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arXiv2022

Ramsey numbers of sparse digraphs

Burr and Erdős in 1975 conjectured, and Chvátal, Rödl, Szemerédi and Trotter later proved, that the Ramsey number of any bounded degree graph is linear in the number of vertices. In this paper, we disprove the natural directed analogue of the Burr--Erdős conjecture, answering a question of Bucić, Letzter, and Sudakov. If $H$ is an acyclic digraph, the oriented Ramsey number of $H$, denoted $\overrightarrow{r_{1}}(H)$, is the least $N$ such that every tournament on $N$ vertices contains a copy of $H$. We show that for any $Δ\geq 2$ and any sufficiently large $n$, there exists an acyclic digraph $H$ with $n$ vertices and maximum degree $Δ$ such that \[ \overrightarrow{r_{1}}(H)\ge n^{Ω(Δ^{2/3}/ \log^{5/3} Δ)}. \] This proves that $\overrightarrow{r_{1}}(H)$ is not always linear in the number of vertices for bounded-degree $H$. On the other hand, we show that $\overrightarrow{r_{1}}(H)$ is nearly linear in the number of vertices for typical bounded-degree acyclic digraphs $H$, and obtain linear or nearly linear bounds for several natural families of bounded-degree acyclic digraphs. For multiple colors, we prove a quasi-polynomial upper bound $\overrightarrow{r_{k}}(H)=2^{(\log n)^{O_{k}(1)}}$ for all bounded-degree acyclic digraphs $H$ on $n$ vertices, where $\overrightarrow{r_k}(H)$ is the least $N$ such that every $k$-edge-colored tournament on $N$ vertices contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. For $k\geq 2$ and $n\geq 4$, we exhibit an acyclic digraph $H$ with $n$ vertices and maximum degree $3$ such that $\overrightarrow{r_{k}}(H)\ge n^{Ω(\log n/\log\log n)}$, showing that these Ramsey numbers can grow faster than any polynomial in the number of vertices.

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arXiv2022

Removal lemmas and approximate homomorphisms

We study quantitative relationships between the triangle removal lemma and several of its variants. One such variant, which we call the triangle-free lemma, states that for each $ε>0$ there exists $M$ such that every triangle-free graph $G$ has an $ε$-approximate homomorphism to a triangle-free graph $F$ on at most $M$ vertices (here an $ε$-approximate homomorphism is a map $V(G) \to V(F)$ where all but at most $ε|V(G)|^2$ edges of $G$ are mapped to edges of $F$). One consequence of our results is that the least possible $M$ in the triangle-free lemma grows faster than exponential in any polynomial in $ε^{-1}$. We also prove more general results for arbitrary graphs, as well as arithmetic analogues over finite fields, where the bounds are close to optimal.

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arXiv2021

Discrepancy of arithmetic progressions in grids

We prove that the the discrepancy of arithmetic progressions in the $d$-dimensional grid $\{1, \dots, N\}^d$ is within a constant factor depending only on $d$ of $N^{\frac{d}{2d+2}}$. This extends the case $d=1$, which is a celebrated result of Roth and of Matoušek and Spencer, and removes the polylogarithmic factor from the previous upper bound of Valkó from about two decades ago. We further prove similarly tight bounds for grids of differing side lengths in many cases.

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arXiv2021

The regularity method for graphs with few 4-cycles

We develop a sparse graph regularity method that applies to graphs with few 4-cycles, including new counting and removal lemmas for 5-cycles in such graphs. Some applications include: * Every $n$-vertex graph with no 5-cycle can be made triangle-free by deleting $o(n^{3/2})$ edges. * For $r \geq 3$, every $n$-vertex $r$-graph with girth greater than $5$ has $o(n^{3/2})$ edges. * Every subset of $[n]$ without a nontrivial solution to the equation $x_1 + x_2 + 2x_3 = x_4 + 3x_5$ has size $o(\sqrt{n})$.

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arXiv2021

Threshold Ramsey multiplicity for odd cycles

The Ramsey number $r(H)$ of a graph $H$ is the minimum $n$ such that any two-coloring of the edges of the complete graph $K_n$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$. The threshold Ramsey multiplicity $m(H)$ is then the minimum number of monochromatic copies of $H$ taken over all two-edge-colorings of $K_{r(H)}$. The study of this concept was first proposed by Harary and Prins almost fifty years ago. In a companion paper, the authors have shown that there is a positive constant $c$ such that the threshold Ramsey multiplicity for a path or even cycle with $k$ vertices is at least $(ck)^k$, which is tight up to the value of $c$. Here, using different methods, we show that the same result also holds for odd cycles with $k$ vertices.

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arXiv2021

Which graphs can be counted in $C_4$-free graphs?

For which graphs $F$ is there a sparse $F$-counting lemma in $C_4$-free graphs? We are interested in identifying graphs $F$ with the property that, roughly speaking, if $G$ is an $n$-vertex $C_4$-free graph with on the order of $n^{3/2}$ edges, then the density of $F$ in $G$, after a suitable normalization, is approximately at least the density of $F$ in an $ε$-regular approximation of $G$. In recent work, motivated by applications in extremal and additive combinatorics, we showed that $C_5$ has this property. Here we construct a family of graphs with the property.

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