arXiv subjects

Oliver Janzer

Publications and source records attributed to Oliver Janzer.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2024

Ordered Ramsey numbers of powers of paths

Given two vertex-ordered graphs $G$ and $H$, the ordered Ramsey number $R_<(G,H)$ is the smallest $N$ such that whenever the edges of a vertex-ordered complete graph $K_N$ are red/blue-coloured, then there is a red (ordered) copy of $G$ or a blue (ordered) copy of $H$. Let $P_n^t$ denote the $t$-th power of a monotone path on $n$ vertices. The ordered Ramsey numbers of powers of paths have been extensively studied. We prove that there exists an absolute constant $C$ such that $R_<(K_s,P_n^t)\leq R(K_s,K_t)^{C} \cdot n$ holds for all $s,t,n$, which is tight up to the value of $C$. As a corollary, we obtain that there is an absolute constant $C$ such that $R_<(K_n,P_n^t)\leq n^{Ct}$. These results resolve a problem and a conjecture of Gishboliner, Jin and Sudakov. Furthermore, we show that $R_<(P_n^t,P_n^t)\leq n^{4+o(1)}$ for any fixed $t$. This answers questions of Balko, Cibulka, Král and Kynčl, and of Gishboliner, Jin and Sudakov.

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arXiv2023

On the generalized Turán problem for odd cycles

In 1984, Erdős conjectured that the number of pentagons in any triangle-free graph on $n$ vertices is at most $(n/5)^5$, which is sharp by the balanced blow-up of a pentagon. This was proved by Grzesik, and independently by Hatami, Hladký, Král', Norine and Razborov. As an extension of this result for longer cycles, we prove that for each odd $k\geq 7$, the balanced blow-up of $C_k$ (uniquely) maximises the number of $k$-cycles among $C_{k-2}$-free graphs on $n$ vertices, as long as $n$ is sufficiently large. We also show that this is no longer true if $n$ is not assumed to be sufficiently large. Our result strengthens results of Grzesik and Kielak who proved that for each odd $k\geq 7$, the balanced blow-up of $C_k$ maximises the number of $k$-cycles among graphs with a given number of vertices and no odd cycles of length less than $k$. We further show that if $k$ and $\ell$ are odd and $k$ is sufficiently large compared to $\ell$, then the balanced blow-up of $C_{\ell+2}$ does not asymptotically maximise the number of $k$-cycles among $C_{\ell}$-free graphs on $n$ vertices. This disproves a conjecture of Grzesik and Kielak.

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arXiv2023

On MaxCut and the Lovász theta function

In this short note we prove a lower bound for the MaxCut of a graph in terms of the Lovász theta function of its complement. We combine this with known bounds on the Lovász theta function of complements of $H$-free graphs to recover many known results on the MaxCut of $H$-free graphs. In particular, we give a new, very short proof of a conjecture of Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov about the MaxCut of graphs with no cycles of length $r$.

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arXiv2023

Extremal number of graphs from geometric shapes

We study the Turán problem for highly symmetric bipartite graphs arising from geometric shapes and periodic tilings commonly found in nature. 1. The prism $C_{2\ell}^{\square}:=C_{2\ell}\square K_{2}$ is the graph consisting of two vertex disjoint $2\ell$-cycles and a matching pairing the corresponding vertices of these two cycles. We show that for every $\ell\ge 4$, ex$(n,C_{2\ell}^{\square})=Θ(n^{3/2})$. This resolves a conjecture of He, Li and Feng. 2. The hexagonal tiling in honeycomb is one of the most natural structures in the real world. We show that the extremal number of honeycomb graphs has the same order of magnitude as their basic building unit 6-cycles. 3. We also consider bipartite graphs from quadrangulations of the cylinder and the torus. We prove near optimal bounds for both configurations. In particular, our method gives a very short proof of a tight upper bound for the extremal number of the 2-dimensional grid, improving a recent result of Bradač, Janzer, Sudakov and Tomon. Our proofs mix several ideas, including shifting embedding schemes, weighted homomorphism and subgraph counts and asymmetric dependent random choice.

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arXiv2023

On locally rainbow colourings

Given a graph $H$, let $g(n,H)$ denote the smallest $k$ for which the following holds. We can assign a $k$-colouring $f_v$ of the edge set of $K_n$ to each vertex $v$ in $K_n$ with the property that for any copy $T$ of $H$ in $K_n$, there is some $u\in V(T)$ such that every edge in $T$ has a different colour in $f_u$. The study of this function was initiated by Alon and Ben-Eliezer. They characterized the family of graphs $H$ for which $g(n,H)$ is bounded and asked whether it is true that for every other graph $g(n,H)$ is polynomial. We show that this is not the case and characterize the family of connected graphs $H$ for which $g(n,H)$ grows polynomially. Answering another question of theirs, we also prove that for every $\varepsilon>0$, there is some $r=r(\varepsilon)$ such that $g(n,K_r)\geq n^{1-\varepsilon}$ for all sufficiently large $n$. Finally, we show that the above problem is connected to the Erdős-Gyárfás function in Ramsey Theory, and prove a family of special cases of a conjecture of Conlon, Fox, Lee and Sudakov by showing that for each fixed $r$ the complete $r$-uniform hypergraph $K_n^{(r)}$ can be edge-coloured using a subpolynomial number of colours in such a way that at least $r$ colours appear among any $r+1$ vertices.

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arXiv2022

Rational exponents near two

A longstanding conjecture of Erdős and Simonovits states that for every rational $r$ between $1$ and $2$ there is a graph $H$ such that the largest number of edges in an $H$-free graph on $n$ vertices is $Θ(n^r)$. Answering a question raised by Jiang, Jiang and Ma, we show that the conjecture holds for all rationals of the form $2 - a/b$ with $b$ sufficiently large in terms of $a$.

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arXiv2022

Regular subgraphs of linear hypergraphs

We prove that the maximum number of edges in a 3-uniform linear hypergraph on $n$ vertices containing no 2-regular subhypergraph is $n^{1+o(1)}$. This resolves a conjecture of Dellamonica, Haxell, Luczak, Mubayi, Nagle, Person, Rödl, Schacht and Verstraëte. We use this result to show that the maximum number of edges in a $3$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices containing no immersion of a closed surface is $n^{2+o(1)}$. Furthermore, we present results on the maximum number of edges in $k$-uniform linear hypergraphs containing no $r$-regular subhypergraph.

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arXiv2022

Resolution of the Erdős-Sauer problem on regular subgraphs

In this paper we completely resolve the well-known problem of Erdős and Sauer from 1975 which asks for the maximum number of edges an $n$-vertex graph can have without containing a $k$-regular subgraph, for some fixed integer $k\geq 3$. We prove that any $n$-vertex graph with average degree at least $C_k\log \log n$ contains a $k$-regular subgraph. This matches the lower bound of Pyber, Rödl and Szemerédi and substantially improves an old result of Pyber, who showed that average degree at least $C_k\log n$ is enough. Our method can also be used to settle asymptotically a problem raised by Erdős and Simonovits in 1970 on almost regular subgraphs of sparse graphs and to make progress on the well-known question of Thomassen from 1983 on finding subgraphs with large girth and large average degree.

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arXiv2022

Small subgraphs with large average degree

In this paper we study the fundamental problem of finding small dense subgraphs in a given graph. For a real number $s>2$, we prove that every graph on $n$ vertices with average degree at least $d$ contains a subgraph of average degree at least $s$ on at most $nd^{-\frac{s}{s-2}}(\log d)^{O_s(1)}$ vertices. This is optimal up to the polylogarithmic factor, and resolves a conjecture of Feige and Wagner. In addition, we show that every graph with $n$ vertices and average degree at least $n^{1-\frac{2}{s}+\varepsilon}$ contains a subgraph of average degree at least $s$ on $O_{\varepsilon,s}(1)$ vertices, which is also optimal up to the constant hidden in the $O(.)$ notation, and resolves a conjecture of Verstraëte.

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arXiv2022

The Turán number of the grid

For a positive integer $t$, let $F_t$ denote the graph of the $t\times t$ grid. Motivated by a 50-year-old conjecture of Erdős about Turán numbers of $r$-degenerate graphs, we prove that there exists a constant $C=C(t)$ such that $\mathrm{ex}(n,F_t)\leq Cn^{3/2}$. This bound is tight up to the value of $C$. One of the interesting ingredients of our proof is a novel way of using the tensor power trick.

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arXiv2022

Asymptotics of the hypergraph bipartite Turán problem

For positive integers $s,t,r$, let $K_{s,t}^{(r)}$ denote the $r$-uniform hypergraph whose vertex set is the union of pairwise disjoint sets $X,Y_1,\dots,Y_t$, where $|X| = s$ and $|Y_1| = \dots = |Y_t| = r-1$, and whose edge set is $\{\{x\} \cup Y_i: x \in X, 1\leq i\leq t\}$. The study of the Turán function of $K_{s,t}^{(r)}$ received considerable interest in recent years. Our main results are as follows. First, we show that \begin{equation} \mathrm{ex}(n,K_{s,t}^{(r)}) = O_{s,r}(t^{\frac{1}{s-1}}n^{r - \frac{1}{s-1}}) \end{equation} for all $s,t\geq 2$ and $r\geq 3$, improving the power of $n$ in the previously best bound and resolving a question of Mubayi and Verstraëte about the dependence of $\mathrm{ex}(n,K_{2,t}^{(3)})$ on $t$. Second, we show that this upper bound is tight when $r$ is even and $t \gg s$. This disproves a conjecture of Xu, Zhang and Ge. Third, we show that the above upper bound is not tight for $r = 3$, namely that $\mathrm{ex}(n,K_{s,t}^{(3)}) = O_{s,t}(n^{3 - \frac{1}{s-1} - \varepsilon_s})$ (for all $s\geq 3$). This indicates that the behaviour of $\mathrm{ex}(n,K_{s,t}^{(r)})$ might depend on the parity of $r$. Lastly, we prove a conjecture of Ergemlidze, Jiang and Methuku on the hypergraph analogue of the bipartite Turán problem for graphs with bounded degrees on one side. Our tools include a novel twist on the dependent random choice method as well as a variant of the celebrated norm graphs constructed by Kollár, Rónyai and Szabó.

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arXiv2021

Disproof of a conjecture of Erdős and Simonovits on the Turán number of graphs with minimum degree 3

In 1981, Erdős and Simonovits conjectured that for any bipartite graph $H$ we have $\mathrm{ex}(n,H)=O(n^{3/2})$ if and only if $H$ is $2$-degenerate. Later, Erdős offered 250 dollars for a proof and 500 dollars for a counterexample. In this paper, we disprove the conjecture by finding, for any $\varepsilon>0$, a $3$-regular bipartite graph $H$ with $\mathrm{ex}(n,H)=O(n^{4/3+\varepsilon})$.

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arXiv2021

Tiling with monochromatic bipartite graphs of bounded maximum degree

We prove that for any $r\in \mathbb{N}$, there exists a constant $C_r$ such that the following is true. Let $\mathcal{F}=\{F_1,F_2,\dots\}$ be an infinite sequence of bipartite graphs such that $|V(F_i)|=i$ and $Δ(F_i)\leq Δ$ hold for all $i$. Then in any $r$-edge coloured complete graph $K_n$, there is a collection of at most $\exp(C_rΔ)$ monochromatic subgraphs, each of which is isomorphic to an element of $\mathcal{F}$, whose vertex sets partition $V(K_n)$. This proves a conjecture of Corsten and Mendonça in a strong form and generalizes results on the multicolour Ramsey numbers of bounded-degree bipartite graphs.

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arXiv2021

The maximum number of induced $C_5$'s in a planar graph

Finding the maximum number of induced cycles of length $k$ in a graph on $n$ vertices has been one of the most intriguing open problems of Extremal Graph Theory. Recently Balogh, Hu, Lidický and Pfender answered the question in the case $k=5$. In this paper we determine precisely, for all sufficiently large $n$, the maximum number of induced $5$-cycles that an $n$-vertex planar graph can contain.

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arXiv2021

On the Turán number of the blow-up of the hexagon

The $r$-blowup of a graph $F$, denoted by $F[r]$, is the graph obtained by replacing the vertices and edges of $F$ with independent sets of size $r$ and copies of $K_{r,r}$, respectively. For bipartite graphs $F$, very little is known about the order of magnitude of the Turán number of $F[r]$. In this paper we prove that $\mathrm{ex}(n,C_6[2])=O(n^{5/3})$ and, more generally, for any positive integer $t$, $\mathrm{ex}(n,θ_{3,t}[2])=O(n^{5/3})$. This is tight when $t$ is sufficiently large.

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arXiv2021

Counting $H$-free orientations of graphs

In 1974, Erdős posed the following problem. Given an oriented graph $H$, determine or estimate the maximum possible number of $H$-free orientations of an $n$-vertex graph. When $H$ is a tournament, the answer was determined precisely for sufficiently large $n$ by Alon and Yuster. In general, when the underlying undirected graph of $H$ contains a cycle, one can obtain accurate bounds by combining an observation of Kozma and Moran with celebrated results on the number of $F$-free graphs. As the main contribution of the paper, we resolve all remaining cases in an asymptotic sense, thereby giving a rather complete answer to Erdős's question. Moreover, we determine the answer exactly when $H$ is an odd cycle and $n$ is sufficiently large, answering a question of Araújo, Botler and Mota.

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arXiv2021

New results for MaxCut in $H$-free graphs

The MaxCut problem asks for the size ${\rm mc}(G)$ of a largest cut in a graph $G$. It is well known that ${\rm mc}(G)\ge m/2$ for any $m$-edge graph $G$, and the difference ${\rm mc}(G)-m/2$ is called the surplus of $G$. The study of the surplus of $H$-free graphs was initiated by Erdős and Lovász in the 70s, who in particular asked what happens for triangle-free graphs. This was famously resolved by Alon, who showed that in the triangle-free case the surplus is $Ω(m^{4/5})$, and found constructions matching this bound. We prove several new results in this area. Firstly, we show that for every fixed odd $r\ge 3$, any $C_r$-free graph with $m$ edges has surplus $Ω_r\big(m^{\frac{r+1}{r+2}}\big)$. This is tight, as is shown by a construction of pseudorandom $C_r$-free graphs due to Alon and Kahale. It improves previous results of several researchers, and complements a result of Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov which is the same bound when $r$ is even. Secondly, generalizing the result of Alon, we allow the graph to have triangles, and show that if the number of triangles is a bit less than in a random graph with the same density, then the graph has large surplus. For regular graphs our bounds on the surplus are sharp. Thirdly, we prove that an $n$-vertex graph with few copies of $K_r$ and average degree $d$ has surplus $Ω_r(d^{r-1}/n^{r-3})$, which is tight when $d$ is close to $n$ provided that a conjectured dense pseudorandom $K_r$-free graph exists. This result is used to improve the best known lower bound (as a function of $m$) on the surplus of $K_r$-free graphs. Our proofs combine techniques from semidefinite programming, probabilistic reasoning, as well as combinatorial and spectral arguments.

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arXiv2021

Rainbow Turán number of even cycles, repeated patterns and blow-ups of cycles

The rainbow Turán number $\mathrm{ex}^*(n,H)$ of a graph $H$ is the maximum possible number of edges in a properly edge-coloured $n$-vertex graph with no rainbow subgraph isomorphic to $H$. We prove that for any integer $k\geq 2$, $\mathrm{ex}^*(n,C_{2k})=O(n^{1+1/k})$. This is tight and establishes a conjecture of Keevash, Mubayi, Sudakov and Verstraëte. We use the same method to prove several other conjectures in various topics. First, we prove that there exists a constant $c$ such that any properly edge-coloured $n$-vertex graph with more than $cn(\log n)^4$ edges contains a rainbow cycle. It is known that there exist properly edge-coloured $n$-vertex graphs with $Ω(n\log n)$ edges which do not contain any rainbow cycle. Secondly, we show that in any proper edge-colouring of $K_n$ with $o(n^{\frac{r}{r-1}\cdot \frac{k-1}{k}})$ colours, there exist $r$ colour-isomorphic, pairwise vertex-disjoint copies of $C_{2k}$. This proves in a strong form a conjecture of Conlon and Tyomkyn, and a strenghtened version proposed by Xu, Zhang, Jing and Ge. Moreover, we answer a question of Jiang and Newman by showing that there exists a constant $c=c(r)$ such that any $n$-vertex graph with more than $cn^{2-1/r}(\log n)^{7/r}$ edges contains the $r$-blowup of an even cycle. Finally, we prove that the $r$-blowup of $C_{2k}$ has Turán number $O(n^{2-\frac{1}{r}+\frac{1}{k+r-1}+o(1)})$, which can be used to disprove an old conjecture of Erd\H os and Simonovits.

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