arXiv subjects

Kalina Petrova

Publications and source records attributed to Kalina Petrova.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On constructing small subgraphs in the budget-constrained random graph process

Consider the budget-constrained random graph process introduced by Frieze, Krivelevich and Michaeli, where each time an edge is offered through the (standard) random graph process we must irrevocably decide whether to "purchase" this edge or not, with our goal being to construct a graph which satisfies some property within a given time $t$ and while purchasing at most $b$ edges. We consider the problem of constructing graphs containing certain fixed small subgraphs. We provide an optimal strategy for building a graph which contains a copy of $K_4$, showing that budget $b=ω(\max\{n^8/t^5,n^2/t\})$ suffices and that if $b=o(\max\{n^8/t^5,n^2/t\})$ then no strategy can a.a.s. produce a graph containing a copy of $K_4$. This resolves a problem raised by Iľkovič, León and Shu. More generally, we obtain analogously tight results for containing a wheel of any fixed size, or a graph consisting of a tree plus one additional universal vertex. We also tackle the problem of constructing graphs containing a copy of $K_5$, obtaining both lower and upper bounds on the optimal budget, though a gap remains in this case.

math.CO↗

arXiv2026

Packing subdivisions into regular graphs

We show that, for any graph $F$ and $η>0$, there exists a $d_0=d_0(F,η)$ such that every $n$-vertex $d$-regular graph with $d \geq d_0$ has a collection of vertex-disjoint $F$-subdivisions covering at least $(1-η)n$ vertices. This verifies a conjecture of Verstraëte from 2002 and improves a recent result of Letzter, Methuku and Sudakov which additionally required $d$ to be at least polylogarithmic in $n$.

math.CO↗

arXiv2026

Ramsey number of a cycle versus a graph of a given size

In this paper, we prove that for every $k$ and every graph $H$ with $m$ edges and no isolated vertices, the Ramsey number $R(C_k,H)$ is at most $2m+\lfloor \frac{k-1}{2} \rfloor$, provided $m$ is sufficiently large with respect to $k$. This settles a problem of Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Odd-Ramsey numbers of Hamilton cycles

The odd-Ramsey number $r_{\text odd}(n,H)$ of a graph $H$, as introduced by Alon in his work on graph-codes, is the minimum number of colours needed to edge-colour $K_n$ so that every copy of $H$ intersects some colour class in an odd number of edges. In this paper, we determine the odd-Ramsey number of Hamilton cycles up to a small multiplicative factor, proving that $r_{\text odd}(n,C_n) = Θ(\sqrt{n})$. Our upper bound follows from an explicit finite-field construction, while the matching lower bound uses a combinatorial framework based on parity switches. We also initiate the study of odd-Ramsey numbers of Hamilton cycles in Dirac graphs, demonstrating that a small increase in the minimum degree beyond $n/2$ forces nontrivial odd-Ramsey numbers.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Extending Thomassen's conjecture to directed graphs

A famous conjecture by Thomassen from 1983 asserts that for any given $k,g\in \mathbb{N}$ there exists some $d=d(k,g)\in \mathbb{N}$ such that every graph of minimum degree at least $d$ contains a subgraph of minimum degree at least $k$ and girth at least $g$. In this paper, we initiate the systematic study of the directed analogs of Thomassen's conjecture one obtains when replacing minimum degree by minimum out-degree. Concretely, we study which digraphs $F$ are avoidable in the sense that there exists $d_F:\mathbb{N}\rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ such that every digraph of minimum out-degree at least $d_F(k)$ contains an $F$-free subdigraph of minimum out-degree at least $k$. Among our main results, we show that all orientations of $C_3$ and $C_5$ are avoidable, while one-directed orientations of complete bipartite graphs and all oriented trees are not avoidable. This, in particular, shows that the most direct extension of Thomassen's conjecture to digraphs is false. We also fully characterize which digraphs are avoidable when restricting the setting to regular host digraphs. Finally, we raise numerous attractive open problems in the hope of sparking further progress.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Size-Ramsey numbers of graphs with maximum degree three

The size-Ramsey number $\hat{r}(H)$ of a graph $H$ is the smallest number of edges a (host) graph $G$ can have, such that for any red/blue colouring of $G$, there is a monochromatic copy of $H$ in $G$. Recently, Conlon, Nenadov and Trujić showed that if $H$ is a graph on $n$ vertices and maximum degree three, then $\hat{r}(H) = O(n^{8/5})$, improving upon the upper bound of $n^{5/3 + o(1)}$ by Kohayakawa, Rödl, Schacht and Szemerédi. In this paper we show that $\hat{r}(H)\leq n^{3/2+o(1)}$. While the previously used host graphs were vanilla binomial random graphs, we prove our result using a novel host graph construction. Our bound hits a natural barrier of the existing methods.

math.CO↗

arXiv2025

Parities in random Latin squares

In a Latin square, every row can be interpreted as a permutation, and therefore has a parity (even or odd). We prove that in a uniformly random $n\times n$ Latin square, the $n$ row parities are very well approximated by a sequence of $n$ independent unbiased coin flips: for example, the total variation error of this approximation tends to zero as $n\to\infty$. This resolves a conjecture of Cameron. In fact, we prove a generalisation of Cameron's conjecture for the joint distribution of the row parities, column parities and symbol parities (the latter are defined by the symmetry between rows, columns and symbols of a Latin square). Along the way, we introduce several general techniques for the study of random Latin squares, including a new re-randomisation technique via `stable intercalate switchings', and a new approximation theorem comparing random Latin squares with a certain independent model.

math.PR↗

arXiv2025

Sharp thresholds for higher powers of Hamilton cycles in random graphs

For $k \geq 4$, we establish that $p = (e/n)^{1/k}$ is a sharp threshold for the existence of the $k$-th power $H$ of a Hamilton cycle in the binomial random graph model. Our proof builds upon an approach by Riordan based on the second moment method, which previously established a weak threshold for $H$. This method expresses the second moment bound through contributions of subgraphs of $H$, with two key quantities: the number of copies of each subgraph in $H$ and the subgraphs' densities. We control these two quantities more precisely by carefully restructuring Riordan's proof and treating sparse and dense subgraphs of $H$ separately. This allows us to determine the exact constant in the threshold.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Odd-Ramsey numbers of complete bipartite graphs

In his study of graph codes, Alon introduced the concept of the odd-Ramsey number of a family of graphs $\mathcal{H}$ in $K_n$, defined as the minimum number of colours needed to colour the edges of $K_n$ so that every copy of a graph $H\in \mathcal{H}$ intersects some colour class in an odd number of edges. In this paper, we focus on complete bipartite graphs. First, we completely resolve the problem when $\mathcal{H}$ is the family of all spanning complete bipartite graphs on $n$ vertices. We then focus on its subfamilies, that is, $\{K_{t,n-t}\colon t\in T\}$ for a fixed set of integers $T\subseteq [\lfloor n/2 \rfloor]$. We prove that the odd-Ramsey problem is equivalent to determining the maximum dimension of a linear binary code avoiding codewords of given weights, and leverage known results from coding theory to deduce asymptotically tight bounds in our setting. We conclude with bounds for the odd-Ramsey numbers of fixed (that is, non-spanning) complete bipartite subgraphs.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Randomly perturbed digraphs also have bounded-degree spanning trees

We show that a randomly perturbed digraph, where we start with a dense digraph $D_α$ and add a small number of random edges to it, will typically contain a fixed orientation of a bounded degree spanning tree. This answers a question posed by Araujo, Balogh, Krueger, Piga and Treglown and generalizes the corresponding result for randomly perturbed graphs by Krivelevich, Kwan and Sudakov. More specifically, we prove that there exists a constant $c = c(α, Δ)$ such that if $T$ is an oriented tree with maximum degree $Δ$ and $D_α$ is an $n$-vertex digraph with minimum semidegree $αn$, then the graph obtained by adding $cn$ uniformly random edges to $D_α$ will contain $T$ with high probability.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Linear-Time MaxCut in Multigraphs Parameterized Above the Poljak-Turzík Bound

MaxCut is a classical NP-complete problem and a crucial building block in many combinatorial algorithms. The famous Edwards-Erdős bound states that any connected graph on n vertices with m edges contains a cut of size at least $m/2 + (n-1)/4$. Crowston, Jones and Mnich [Algorithmica, 2015] showed that the MaxCut problem on simple connected graphs admits an FPT algorithm, where the parameter k is the difference between the desired cut size c and the lower bound given by the Edwards-Erdős bound. This was later improved by Etscheid and Mnich [Algorithmica, 2017] to run in parameterized linear time, i.e., $f(k)\cdot O(m)$. We improve upon this result in two ways: Firstly, we extend the algorithm to work also for multigraphs (alternatively, graphs with positive integer weights). Secondly, we change the parameter; instead of the difference to the Edwards-Erdős bound, we use the difference to the Poljak-Turzík bound. The Poljak-Turzík bound states that any weighted graph G has a cut of size at least $w(G)/2 + w_{MSF}(G)/4$, where w(G) denotes the total weight of G, and $w_{MSF}(G)$ denotes the weight of its minimum spanning forest. In connected simple graphs the two bounds are equivalent, but for multigraphs the Poljak-Turzík bound can be larger and thus yield a smaller parameter k. Our algorithm also runs in parameterized linear time, i.e., $f(k)\cdot O(m+n)$.

cs.DS↗

arXiv2024

Improved bounds for polylogarithmic graph distances in scale-free percolation and related models

In this paper, we study graph distances in the geometric random graph models scale-free percolation SFP, geometric inhomogeneous random graphs GIRG, and hyperbolic random graphs HRG. Despite the wide success of the models, the parameter regime in which graph distances are polylogarithmic is poorly understood. We provide new and improved lower bounds. In a certain portion of the parameter regime, those match the known upper bounds. Compared to the best previous lower bounds by Hao and Heydenreich, our result has several advantages: it gives matching bounds for a larger range of parameters, thus settling the question for a larger portion of the parameter space. It strictly improves the lower bounds by Hao and Heydenreich for all parameters settings in which those bounds were not tight. It gives tail bounds on the probability of having short paths, which imply shape theorems for the $k$-neighbourhood of a vertex whenever our lower bounds are tight, and tight bounds for the size of this $k$-neighbourhood. And last but not least, our proof is much simpler and not much longer than two pages, and we demonstrate that it generalizes well by showing that the same technique also works for first passage percolation.

math.PR↗

arXiv2024

Embedding loose spanning trees in 3-uniform hypergraphs

In 1995, Komlós, Sárközy and Szemerédi showed that every large $n$-vertex graph with minimum degree at least $(1/2 + γ)n$ contains all spanning trees of bounded degree. We consider a generalization of this result to loose spanning hypertrees in 3-graphs, that is, linear hypergraphs obtained by successively appending edges sharing a single vertex with a previous edge. We show that for all $γ$ and $Δ$, and $n$ large, every $n$-vertex 3-uniform hypergraph of minimum vertex degree $(5/9 + γ)\binom{n}{2}$ contains every loose spanning tree $T$ with maximum vertex degree $Δ$. This bound is asymptotically tight, since some loose trees contain perfect matchings.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

Transference for loose Hamilton cycles in random $3$-uniform hypergraphs

A loose Hamilton cycle in a hypergraph is a cyclic sequence of edges covering all vertices in which only every two consecutive edges intersect and do so in exactly one vertex. With Dirac's theorem in mind, it is natural to ask what minimum $d$-degree condition guarantees the existence of a loose Hamilton cycle in a $k$-uniform hypergraph. For $k=3$ and each $d \in \{1,2\}$, the necessary and sufficient such condition is known precisely. We show that these results adhere to a `transference principle' to their sparse random analogues. The proof combines several ideas from the graph setting and relies on the absorbing method. In particular, we employ a novel approach of Kwan and Ferber for finding absorbers in subgraphs of sparse hypergraphs via a contraction procedure. In the case of $d = 2$, our findings are asymptotically optimal.

math.CO↗

arXiv2024

The Hamilton space of pseudorandom graphs

We show that if $n$ is odd and $p \ge C \log n / n$, then with high probability Hamilton cycles in $G(n,p)$ span its cycle space. More generally, we show this holds for a class of graphs satisfying certain natural pseudorandom properties. The proof is based on a novel idea of parity-switchers, which can be thought of as analogues of absorbers in the context of cycle spaces. As another application of our method, we show that Hamilton cycles in a near-Dirac graph $G$, that is, a graph $G$ with odd $n$ vertices and minimum degree $n/2 + C$ for sufficiently large constant $C$, span its cycle space.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

A note on digraph splitting

A tantalizing open problem, posed independently by Stiebitz in 1995 and by Alon in 2006, asks whether for every pair of integers $s,t \ge 1$ there exists a finite number $F(s,t)$ such that the vertex set of every digraph of minimum out-degree at least $F(s,t)$ can be partitioned into non-empty parts $A$ and $B$ such that the subdigraphs induced on $A$ and $B$ have minimum out-degree at least $s$ and $t$, respectively. In this short note, we prove that if $F(2,2)$ exists, then all the numbers $F(s,t)$ with $s,t\ge 1$ exist and satisfy $F(s,t)=Θ(s+t)$. In consequence, the problem of Alon and Stiebitz reduces to the case $s=t=2$. Moreover, the numbers $F(s,t)$ with $s,t \ge 2$ either all exist and grow linearly, or all of them do not exist.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

Size-Ramsey numbers of structurally sparse graphs

Size-Ramsey numbers are a central notion in combinatorics and have been widely studied since their introduction by Erdős, Faudree, Rousseau and Schelp in 1978. Research has mainly focused on the size-Ramsey numbers of $n$-vertex graphs with constant maximum degree $Δ$. For example, graphs which also have constant treewidth are known to have linear size-Ramsey numbers. On the other extreme, the canonical examples of graphs of unbounded treewidth are the grid graphs, for which the best known bound has only very recently been improved from $O(n^{3/2})$ to $O(n^{5/4})$ by Conlon, Nenadov and Trujić. In this paper, we prove a common generalization of these results by establishing new bounds on the size-Ramsey numbers in terms of treewidth (which may grow as a function of $n$). As a special case, this yields a bound of $\tilde{O}(n^{3/2 - 1/2Δ})$ for proper minor-closed classes of graphs. In particular, this bound applies to planar graphs, addressing a question of Kamcev, Liebenau, Wood and Yepremyan. Our proof combines methods from structural graph theory and classic Ramsey-theoretic embedding techniques, taking advantage of the product structure exhibited by graphs with bounded treewidth.

math.CO↗

arXiv2023

On Connectivity in Random Graph Models with Limited Dependencies

For any positive edge density $p$, a random graph in the Erdős-Renyi $G_{n,p}$ model is connected with non-zero probability, since all edges are mutually independent. We consider random graph models in which edges that do not share endpoints are independent while incident edges may be dependent and ask: what is the minimum probability $ρ(n)$, such that for any distribution $\mathcal{G}$ (in this model) on graphs with $n$ vertices in which each potential edge has a marginal probability of being present at least $ρ(n)$, a graph drawn from $\mathcal{G}$ is connected with non-zero probability? As it turns out, the condition ``edges that do not share endpoints are independent'' needs to be clarified and the answer to the question above is sensitive to the specification. In fact, we formalize this intuitive description into a strict hierarchy of five independence conditions, which we show to have at least three different behaviors for the threshold $ρ(n)$. For each condition, we provide upper and lower bounds for $ρ(n)$. In the strongest condition, the coloring model (which includes, e.g., random geometric graphs), we show that $ρ(n)\rightarrow 2-ϕ\approx 0.38$ for $n\rightarrow\infty$, proving a conjecture by Badakhshian, Falgas-Ravry, and Sharifzadeh. This separates the coloring models from the weaker independence conditions we consider, as there we prove that $ρ(n)>0.5-o(n)$. In stark contrast to the coloring model, for our weakest independence condition -- pairwise independence of non-adjacent edges -- we show that $ρ(n)$ lies within $O(1/n^2)$ of the threshold $1-2/n$ for completely arbitrary distributions.

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