arXiv subjects

Jianfeng Hou

Publications and source records attributed to Jianfeng Hou.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2026

On cliques in hypergraphs under bounded $(j,p)$-norm

Let $\mathcal{H}$ be an $r$-uniform hypergraph. For $S\in \binom{V(\mathcal{H})}{j}$, let $\mathrm{deg}(S)$ be the number of edges of $\mathcal{H}$ containing $S$, and define the $(j,p)$-norm of $\mathcal{H}$ by $\|\mathcal{H}\|_{j,p}=\left(\sum_{S\in \binom{V(\mathcal{H})}{j}}\mathrm{deg}(S)^p\right)^{1/p}$. Motivated by a problem of Chao, Dong, Shen and Yang, we determine the maximum number of $t$-cliques in an $n$-vertex $r$-graph with bounded $(j,p)$-norm in the range $p>(t-j)/(r-j)$. The proof uses an entropy argument adapted to hypergraphs, together with a continuous interpolation step. The bound is sharp whenever the corresponding Steiner systems exist.

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arXiv2026

Near-Optimal Algorithms for Maximal Clique Enumeration in Structurally Sparse Graphs

We study the exact enumeration of maximal cliques in graph classes defined by excluded clique minors and excluded clique immersions. For n-vertex K_t-minor-free graphs, we give an algorithm that lists all maximal cliques in n * 4^(2t/5+o(t)) time, significantly improving the previous n * 2^O(t log log t) bound of Eppstein, Löffler, and Strash. For n-vertex K_t-immersion-free graphs, we establish the first exact enumeration algorithm parameterized by immersion number, achieving a running time of n * 3^(t/3+o(t)). While both algorithms employ a common degeneracy-based root-assignment scheme, their analyses require distinct structural mechanisms. Crucially, rather than applying generic sparsity bounds, our algorithms deeply integrate the specific structural obstructions -- local density thresholds for minors and minimum-degree branchings for immersions -- directly into the enumeration logic. We also prove matching output-size lower bounds, up to sub-exponential factors in t, using specialized constructions. Consequently, the exponential bases 4^(2/5) and 3^(1/3) are asymptotically optimal.

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arXiv2026

Balanced clique subdivisions and cycles lengths in $K_{s, t}$-free graphs

Let $ t\ge s\ge2$ be integers. Confirming a conjecture of Mader, Liu and Montgomery [J. Lond. Math. Soc., 2017] showed that every $K_{s, t}$-free graph with average degree $d$ contains a subdivision of a clique with at least $Ω(d^{\frac{s}{2(s-1)}})$ vertices. We give an improvement by showing that such a graph contains a balanced subdivision of a clique with the same order, where a balanced subdivision is a subdivision in which each edge is subdivided the same number of times. In 1975, Erdős asked whether the sum of the reciprocals of the cycle lengths in a graph with infinite average degree $d$ is necessarily infinite. Recently, Liu and Montgomery [J. Amer. Math. Soc., 2023] confirmed the asymptotically correct lower bound on the reciprocals of the cycle lengths, and provided a lower bound of at least $(\frac{1}{2} -o_d(1)) \log d$. In this paper, we improve this low bound to $\left(\frac{s}{2(s-1)} -o_d(1)\right) \log d$ for $K_{s, t}$-free graphs. Both proofs of our results use the graph sublinear expansion property as well as some novel structural techniques.

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arXiv2026

A note on the $t$-partite link problem of Füredi

Motivated by the Erdős--Sós bipartite link conjecture, Füredi (Oberwolfach, 2004) asked for the asymptotic maximum edge density $π_{\mathrm{link}}(t)$ of $3$-graphs in which the link graph of every vertex is $t$-partite. Goldwasser's recursive blow-up construction based on projective planes gives the lower bound $π_{\mathrm{link}}(t)\ge 1-t^{-1}-(2+o_t(1))t^{-2}$ whenever $t-1$ is a prime power. In this note, we prove the upper bound $π_{\mathrm{link}}(t)\le 1-t^{-1}-t^{-2}/12$ for every $t \ge 2$. Together with Goldwasser's construction, this determines, up to a constant factor, the correct order of the gap between $π_{\mathrm{link}}(t)$ and the trivial averaging upper bound $1-t^{-1}$ for all prime-power values of $t-1$. In fact, our argument applies in the more general setting of $3$-graphs with no generalized daisies, equivalently, $3$-graphs in which the link graph of every vertex is $K_{t+1}$-free. We also establish an analogous upper bound for the positive $(r-1)$-codegree Turán density of generalized daisies.

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arXiv2026

On a refinement of the Ahlswede--Katona Theorem

A classical theorem of Ahlswede and Katona determines the maximum density of the $2$-edge star in a graph with a given edge density. Motivated by its application in hypergraph Turán problems, we establish a refinement of their result under the additional assumption that the graph contains a large independent set in which every vertex has high degree.

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arXiv2025

Tetrahedron Conjecture in the $\ell_2$-norm

The famous Tetrahedron Conjecture of Turán from the 1940s asserts that the number of edges in an $n$-vertex $3$-graph without the tetrahedron, the complete $3$-graph on four vertices, cannot exceed that of the balanced complete cyclic $3$-partite $3$-graph, whose edges are of types $V_1 V_2 V_3$, $V_1 V_1 V_2$, $V_2 V_2 V_3$, and $V_3 V_3 V_1$. A recent surprising result of Balogh-Clemen-Lidický [J. Lond. Math. Soc. (2) 106 (2022)] shows that this conjecture is asymptotically true in the $\ell_2$-norm, where the number of edges is replaced by the sum of squared codegrees. They further conjectured that, in this $\ell_2$-norm setting, the $3$-partite construction is uniquely extremal for large $n$. We confirm this conjecture. Two key ingredients in our proofs include establishing a Mantel theorem for vertex-colored graphs that forbid certain types of triangles, and introducing a novel procedure integrated into Simonovits' stability method, which essentially reduces the task to verifying that the $\ell_2$-norm of certain near-extremal constructions increases under suitable local modifications. The strategy in the latter may be of independent interest and potentially applicable to other extremal problems.

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arXiv2025

Tight bounds towards Zarankiewicz problem in hypergraph

The classical Zarankiewicz problem, which concerns the maximum number of edges in a bipartite graph without a forbidden complete bipartite subgraph, motivates a direct analogue for hypergraphs. Let $K_{s_1,\ldots, s_r}$ be the complete $r$-partite $r$-graph such that the $i$-th part has $s_i$ vertices. We say an $r$-partite $r$-graph $H=H(V_1,\ldots,V_r)$ contains an ordered $K_{s_1,\ldots, s_r}$ if $K_{s_1,\ldots, s_r}$ is a subgraph of $H$ and the set of size $s_i$ vertices is embedded in $V_i$. The Zarankiewicz number for $r$-graph, denoted by $z(m_1, \ldots, m_{r}; s_1,, \ldots,s_{r})$, is the maximum number of edges of the $r$-partite $r$-graph whose $i$-th part has $m_i$ vertices and does not contain an ordered $K_{s_1,\ldots, s_r}$. In this paper, we show that $$z(m_1,m_2, \cdots, m_{r-1},n ; s_1,s_2, \cdots,s_{r-1}, t)=Θ\left(m_1m_2\cdots m_{r-1} n^{1-1 / s_1s_2\cdots s_{r-1}}\right)$$ for a range of parameters. This extends a result of Conlon [Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. (2022)].

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arXiv2025

Odd hypergraph Mantel theorems

A classical result of Sidorenko (1989) shows that the Turán density of every $r$-uniform hypergraph with three edges is bounded from above by $1/2$. For even $r$, this bound is tight, as demonstrated by Mantel's theorem on triangles and Frankl's theorem on expanded triangles. In this note, we prove that for odd $r$, the bound $1/2$ is never attained, thereby answering a question of Keevash and revealing a fundamental difference between hypergraphs of odd and even uniformity. Moreover, our result implies that the expanded triangles form the unique class of three-edge hypergraphs whose Turán density attains $1/2$.

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arXiv2025

Max-Bisections of graphs without even cycles

For an integer $k\ge 2$, let $G$ be a graph with $m$ edges and without cycles of length $2k$. The pivotal Alon-Krivelevich-Sudakov Theorem on Max-Cuts states that $G$ has a bipartite subgraph with at least $m/2+Ω(m^{(2k+1)/(2k+2)})$ edges. In this paper, we present a bisection variant of it by showing that if $G$ has minimum degree at least $k$, then $G$ has a balanced bipartite subgraph with at least $m/2+Ω(m^{(2k+1)/(2k+2)})$ edges. It not only answers a problem of Fan, Hou and Yu in full generality but also enhances a recent result given by Hou, Wu and Zhong. Our approach hinges on a key bound for bisections of graphs with sparse neighborhoods concerning the degree sequence. The result is inspired by the celebrated approximation algorithm of Goemans and Williamson and appears to be worthy of future exploration.

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arXiv2025

Turán density of tight cycles minus one edge in the $\ell_2$-norm

The $3$-uniform tight $\ell$-cycle minus one edge $C_{\ell}^{3-}$ is the $3$-graph on $\ell$ vertices consisting of $\ell-1$ consecutive triples in the cyclic order. We show that for every integer $\ell \ge 5$ satisfying $\ell\not\equiv 0\pmod3$, every $C_{\ell}^{3-}$-free $3$-graph whose $\ell_2$-norm, that is, the sum of codegree squares, is close to the maximum must be structurally close to the iterative blowup of a single triple. This confirms a conjecture of Balogh--Clemen--Lidický~[Surveys in combinatorics 2022, 21-63] in a stronger form.

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arXiv2025

Density Hajnal--Szemerédi theorem for cliques of size four

The celebrated Corrádi--Hajnal Theorem~\cite{CH63} and the Hajnal--Szemerédi Theorem~\cite{HS70} determined the exact minimum degree thresholds for a graph on $n$ vertices to contain $k$ vertex-disjoint copies of $K_r$, for $r=3$ and general $r \ge 4$, respectively. The edge density version of the Corrádi--Hajnal Theorem was established by Allen--Böttcher--Hladký--Piguet~\cite{ABHP15} for large $n$. Remarkably, they determined the four classes of extremal constructions corresponding to different intervals of $k$. They further proposed the natural problem of establishing a density version of the Hajnal--Szemerédi Theorem: For $r \ge 4$, what is the edge density threshold that guarantees a graph on $n$ vertices contains $k$ vertex-disjoint copies of $K_r$ for $k \le n/r$. They also remarked, ``We are not even sure what the complete family of extremal graphs should be.'' We take the first step toward this problem by determining asymptotically the five classes of extremal constructions for $r=4$. Furthermore, we propose a candidate set comprising $r+1$ classes of extremal constructions for general $r \ge 5$.

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arXiv2024

Max-Bisections of graphs without perfect matching

A bisection of a graph is a bipartition of its vertex set such that the two resulting parts differ in size by at most 1, and its size is the number of edges that connect vertices in the two parts. The perfect matching condition and forbidden even cycles subgraphs are essential in finding large bisections of graphs. In this paper, we show that the perfect matching condition can be replaced by the minimum degree condition. Let $C_{\ell}$ be a cycle of length $\ell$ for $\ell\ge 3$, and let $G$ be a $\{C_4, C_6\}$-free graph with $m$ edges and minimum degree at least 2. We prove that $G$ has a bisection of size at least $m/2+Ω\left(\sum_{v\in V(G)}\sqrt{d(v)}\right)$. As a corollary, if $G$ is also $C_{2k}$-free for $k\ge3$, then $G$ has a bisection of size at least $m / 2+Ω\left(m^{(2 k+1) /(2 k+2)}\right)$, thereby confirming a conjecture proposed by Lin and Zeng [J. Comb. Theory A, 180 (2021), 105404].

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arXiv2024

Toward a density Corrádi--Hajnal theorem for degenerate hypergraphs

Given an $r$-graph $F$ with $r \ge 2$, let $\mathrm{ex}(n, (t+1) F)$ denote the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $r$-graph with at most $t$ pairwise vertex-disjoint copies of $F$. Extending several old results and complementing prior work [J. Hou, H. Li, X. Liu, L.-T. Yuan, and Y. Zhang. A step towards a general density Corrádi--Hajnal theorem. arXiv:2302.09849, 2023.] on nondegenerate hypergraphs, we initiate a systematic study on $\mathrm{ex}(n, (t+1) F)$ for degenerate hypergraphs $F$. For a broad class of degenerate hypergraphs $F$, we present near-optimal upper bounds for $\mathrm{ex}(n, (t+1) F)$ when $n$ is sufficiently large and $t$ lies in intervals $\left[0, \frac{\varepsilon \cdot \mathrm{ex}(n,F)}{n^{r-1}}\right]$, $\left[\frac{\mathrm{ex}(n,F)}{\varepsilon n^{r-1}}, \varepsilon n \right]$, and $\left[ (1-\varepsilon)\frac{n}{v(F)}, \frac{n}{v(F)} \right]$, where $\varepsilon > 0$ is a constant depending only on $F$. Our results reveal very different structures for extremal constructions across the three intervals, and we provide characterizations of extremal constructions within the first interval. Additionally, for graphs, we offer a characterization of extremal constructions within the second interval. Our proof for the first interval also applies to a special class of nondegenerate hypergraphs, including those with undetermined Turán densities, partially improving a result in [J. Hou, H. Li, X. Liu, L.-T. Yuan, and Y. Zhang. A step towards a general density Corrádi--Hajnal theorem. arXiv:2302.09849, 2023.]

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Generalized Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós theorems for odd cycles

In this note, we establish Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós-type stability theorems for two generalized Turán problems involving odd cycles, both of which are extensions of the Erdős Pentagon Problem. Our results strengthen previous results by Lidický--Murphy~\cite{LM21} and Beke--Janzer~\cite{BJ24}, while also simplifying parts of their proofs.

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arXiv2024

On the boundedness of degenerate hypergraphs

We investigate the impact of a high-degree vertex in Turán problems for degenerate hypergraphs (including graphs). We say an $r$-graph $F$ is bounded if there exist constants $α, β>0$ such that for large $n$, every $n$-vertex $F$-free $r$-graph with a vertex of degree at least $α\binom{n-1}{r-1}$ has fewer than $(1-β) \cdot \mathrm{ex}(n,F)$ edges. The boundedness property is crucial for recent works~\cite{HHLLYZ23a,DHLY24} that aim to extend the classical Hajnal--Szemerédi Theorem and the anti-Ramsey theorems of Erdős--Simonovits--Sós. We show that many well-studied degenerate hypergraphs, such as all even cycles, most complete bipartite graphs, and the expansion of most complete bipartite graphs, are bounded. In addition, to prove the boundedness of the expansion of complete bipartite graphs, we introduce and solve a Zarankiewicz-type problem for $3$-graphs, strengthening a theorem by Kostochka--Mubayi--Verstraëte~\cite{KMV15}.

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arXiv2024

Tight bounds for rainbow partial $F$-tiling in edge-colored complete hypergraphs

For an $r$-graph $F$ and integers $n,t$ satisfying $t \le n/v(F)$, let $\mathrm{ar}(n,tF)$ denote the minimum integer $N$ such that every edge-coloring of $K_{n}^{r}$ using $N$ colors contains a rainbow copy of $tF$, where $tF$ is the $r$-graphs consisting of $t$ vertex-disjoint copies of $F$. The case $t=1$ is the classical anti-Ramsey problem proposed by Erdős--Simonovits--Sós~\cite{ESS75}. When $F$ is a single edge, this becomes the rainbow matching problem introduced by Schiermeyer~\cite{Sch04} and Özkahya--Young~\cite{OY13}. We conduct a systematic study of $\mathrm{ar}(n,tF)$ for the case where $t$ is much smaller than $\mathrm{ex}(n,F)/n^{r-1}$. Our first main result provides a reduction of $\mathrm{ar}(n,tF)$ to $\mathrm{ar}(n,2F)$ when $F$ is bounded and smooth, two properties satisfied by most previously studied hypergraphs. Complementing the first result, the second main result, which utilizes gaps between Turán numbers, determines $\mathrm{ar}(n,tF)$ for relatively smaller $t$. Together, these two results determine $\mathrm{ar}(n,tF)$ for a large class of hypergraphs. Additionally, the latter result has the advantage of being applicable to hypergraphs with unknown Turán densities, such as the famous tetrahedron $K_{4}^{3}$.

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arXiv2024

A criterion for Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós type theorems and applications

The classical Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós Theorem states that for $\ell\ge 2$, every $n$-vertex $K_{\ell+1}$-free graph with minimum degree greater than $\frac{3\ell-4}{3\ell-1}n$ must be $\ell$-partite. We establish a simple criterion for $r$-graphs, $r \geq 2$, to exhibit an Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós type property, also known as degree-stability. This leads to a classification of most previously studied hypergraph families with this property. An immediate application of this result, combined with a general theorem by Keevash--Lenz--Mubayi, solves the spectral Turán problems for a large class of hypergraphs. For every $r$-graph $F$ with degree-stability, there is a simple algorithm to decide the $F$-freeness of an $n$-vertex $r$-graph with minimum degree greater than $(π(F) - \varepsilon_F)\binom{n}{r-1}$ in time $O(n^r)$, where $\varepsilon_F >0$ is a constant. In particular, for the complete graph $K_{\ell+1}$, we can take $\varepsilon_{K_{\ell+1}} = (3\ell^2-\ell)^{-1}$, and this bound is tight up to some multiplicative constant factor unless $\mathbf{W[1]} = \mathbf{FPT}$. Based on a result by Chen--Huang--Kanj--Xia, we further show that for every fixed $C > 0$, this problem cannot be solved in time $n^{o(\ell)}$ if we replace $\varepsilon_{K_{\ell+1}}$ with $(C\ell)^{-1}$ unless $\mathbf{ETH}$ fails. Furthermore, we apply the degree-stability of $K_{\ell+1}$ to decide the $K_{\ell+1}$-freeness of graphs whose size is close to the Turán bound in time $(\ell+1)n^2$, partially improving a recent result by Fomin--Golovach--Sagunov--Simonov. As an intermediate step, we show that for a specific class of $r$-graphs $F$, the (surjective) $F$-coloring problem can be solved in time $O(n^r)$, provided the input $r$-graph has $n$ vertices and a large minimum degree, refining several previous results.

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arXiv2023

Hypergraphs with infinitely many extremal constructions

We give the first exact and stability results for a hypergraph Turán problem with infinitely many extremal constructions that are far from each other in edit-distance. This includes an example of triple systems with Turán density $2/9$, thus answering some questions posed by the third and fourth authors and Reiher about the feasible region of hypergraphs. Our results also provide extremal constructions whose shadow density is a transcendental number. Our novel approach is to construct certain multilinear polynomials that attain their maximum (in the standard simplex) on a line segment and then to use these polynomials to define an operation on hypergraphs that gives extremal constructions.

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