arXiv subjects

Peter Keevash

Publications and source records attributed to Peter Keevash.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

The structure of typical eye-free graphs and a Turan-type result for two weighted colours

The $(a,b)$-eye is the graph $I_{a,b} = K_{a+b}-K_b$ obtained by deleting the edges of a clique of size $b$ from a clique of size $a+b$. We show that for any $a,b \ge 2$ and $p \in (0,1)$, if we condition the random graph $G \sim G(n,p)$ on having no induced copy of $I_{a,b}$, then with high probability $G$ is close to an $a$-partite graph or the complement of a $(b-1)$-partite graph. Our proof uses the recently developed theory of hypergraph containers, and a stability result for an extremal problem with two weighted colours. We also apply the stability method to obtain an exact Turán-type result for this extremal problem.

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arXiv2016

Global rigidity of 2-dimensional direction-length frameworks

A 2-dimensional direction-length framework is a collection of points in the plane which are linked by pairwise constraints that fix the direction or length of the line segments joining certain pairs of points. We represent it as a pair $(G,p)$, where $G=(V;D,L)$ is a `mixed' graph and $p:V\to{\mathbb R}^2$ is a point configuration for $V$. It is globally rigid if every direction-length framework $(G,q)$ which satisfies the same constraints can be obtained from $(G,p)$ by a translation or a rotation by $180^\circ$. We show that the problem of characterising when a generic framework $(G,p)$ is globally rigid can be reduced to the case when $G$ belongs to a special family of `direction irreducible' mixed graphs, and prove that {every} generic realisation of a direction irreducible mixed graph $G$ is globally rigid if and only if $G$ is 2-connected, direction-balanced and redundantly rigid.

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arXiv2016

On the normalized Shannon capacity of a union

Let $G_1 \times G_2$ denote the strong product of graphs $G_1$ and $G_2$, i.e. the graph on $V(G_1) \times V(G_2)$ in which $(u_1,u_2)$ and $(v_1,v_2)$ are adjacent if for each $i=1,2$ we have $u_i=v_i$ or $u_iv_i \in E(G_i)$. The Shannon capacity of $G$ is $c(G) = \lim_{n\to \infty} α(G^n)^{1/n}$, where $G^n$ denotes the $n$-fold strong power of $G$, and $α(H)$ denotes the independence number of a graph $H$. The normalized Shannon capacity of $G$ is $C(G) = \frac {\log c(G)}{\log |V(G)|}$. Alon asked whether for every $ε> 0$ there are graphs $G$ and $G'$ satisfying $C(G), C(G') < ε$ but with $C(G + G') > 1 - ε$. We show that the answer is no.

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arXiv2016

Bounds for spherical codes

A set $C$ of unit vectors in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is called an $L$-spherical code if $x \cdot y \in L$ for any distinct $x,y$ in $C$. Spherical codes have been extensively studied since their introduction in the 1970's by Delsarte, Goethals and Seidel. In this note we prove a conjecture of Bukh on the maximum size of spherical codes. In particular, we show that for any set of $k$ fixed angles, one can choose at most $O(d^k)$ lines in $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that any pair of them forms one of these angles.

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arXiv2015

A Multipartite Hajnal-Szemerédi Theorem

The celebrated Hajnal-Szemerédi theorem gives the precise minimum degree threshold that forces a graph to contain a perfect K_k-packing. Fischer's conjecture states that the analogous result holds for all multipartite graphs except for those formed by a single construction. Recently, we deduced an approximate version of this conjecture from new results on perfect matchings in hypergraphs. In this paper, we apply a stability analysis to the extremal cases of this argument, thus showing that the exact conjecture holds for any sufficiently large graph.

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arXiv2015

Counting designs

We give estimates on the number of combinatorial designs, which prove (and generalise) a conjecture of Wilson from 1974 on the number of Steiner Triple Systems. This paper also serves as an expository treatment of our recently developed method of Randomised Algebraic Construction: we give a simpler proof of a special case of our result on clique decompositions of hypergraphs, namely triangle decompositions of quasirandom graphs.

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arXiv2014

Polynomial-time perfect matchings in dense hypergraphs

Let $H$ be a $k$-graph on $n$ vertices, with minimum codegree at least $n/k + cn$ for some fixed $c > 0$. In this paper we construct a polynomial-time algorithm which finds either a perfect matching in $H$ or a certificate that none exists. This essentially solves a problem of Karpiński, Ruciński and Szymańska; Szymańska previously showed that this problem is NP-hard for a minimum codegree of $n/k - cn$. Our algorithm relies on a theoretical result of independent interest, in which we characterise any such hypergraph with no perfect matching using a family of lattice-based constructions.

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arXiv2014

Spectral extremal problems for hypergraphs

In this paper we consider spectral extremal problems for hypergraphs. We give two general criteria under which such results may be deduced from `strong stability' forms of the corresponding (pure) extremal results. These results hold for the α-spectral radius defined using the α-norm for any α>1; the usual spectrum is the case α=2. Our results imply that any hypergraph Turán problem which has the stability property and whose extremal construction satisfies some rather mild continuity assumptions admits a corresponding spectral result. A particular example is to determine the maximum α-spectral radius of any 3-uniform hypergraph on n vertices not containing the Fano plane, when n is sufficiently large. Another is to determine the maximum α-spectral radius of any graph on n vertices not containing some fixed colour-critical graph, when n is sufficiently large; this generalizes a theorem of Nikiforov who proved stronger results in the case α=2. We also obtain an α-spectral version of the Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem on t-intersecting k-uniform hypergraphs.

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arXiv2014

Frankl-Rödl type theorems for codes and permutations

We give a new proof of the Frankl-Rödl theorem on forbidden intersections, via the probabilistic method of dependent random choice. Our method extends to codes with forbidden distances, where over large alphabets our bound is significantly better than that obtained by Frankl and Rödl. We also apply our bound to a question of Ellis on sets of permutations with forbidden distances, and to establish a weak form of a conjecture of Alon, Shpilka and Umans on sunflowers.

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arXiv2013

A Geometric Theory for Hypergraph Matching

We develop a theory for the existence of perfect matchings in hypergraphs under quite general conditions. Informally speaking, the obstructions to perfect matchings are geometric, and are of two distinct types: 'space barriers' from convex geometry, and 'divisibility barriers' from arithmetic lattice-based constructions. To formulate precise results, we introduce the setting of simplicial complexes with minimum degree sequences, which is a generalisation of the usual minimum degree condition. We determine the essentially best possible minimum degree sequence for finding an almost perfect matching. Furthermore, our main result establishes the stability property: under the same degree assumption, if there is no perfect matching then there must be a space or divisibility barrier. This allows the use of the stability method in proving exact results. Besides recovering previous results, we apply our theory to the solution of two open problems on hypergraph packings: the minimum degree threshold for packing tetrahedra in 3-graphs, and Fischer's conjecture on a multipartite form of the Hajnal-Szemerédi Theorem. Here we prove the exact result for tetrahedra and the asymptotic result for Fischer's conjecture; since the exact result for the latter is technical we defer it to a subsequent paper.

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arXiv2013

A hypergraph Turán theorem via lagrangians of intersecting families

Let $\mc{K}_{3,3}^3$ be the 3-graph with 15 vertices $\{x_i, y_i: 1 \le i \le 3\}$ and $\{z_{ij}: 1 \le i,j \le 3\}$, and 11 edges $\{x_1, x_2, x_3\}$, $\{y_1, y_2, y_3\}$ and $\{\{x_i, y_j, z_{ij}\}: 1 \le i,j \le 3\}$. We show that for large $n$, the unique largest $\mc{K}_{3,3}^3$-free 3-graph on $n$ vertices is a balanced blow-up of the complete 3-graph on 5 vertices. Our proof uses the stability method and a result on lagrangians of intersecting families that has independent interest.

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arXiv2012

Turan numbers for bipartite graphs plus an odd cycle

For an odd integer $k$, let $\mathcal{C}_k = \{C_3,C_5,...,C_k\}$ denote the family of all odd cycles of length at most $k$ and let $\mathcal{C}$ denote the family of all odd cycles. Erdős and Simonovits \cite{ESi1} conjectured that for every family $\mathcal{F}$ of bipartite graphs, there exists $k$ such that $\ex{n}{\mathcal{F} \cup \mathcal{C}_k} \sim \ex{n}{\mathcal{F} \cup \mathcal{C}}$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$. This conjecture was proved by Erdős and Simonovits when $\mathcal{F} = \{C_4\}$, and for certain families of even cycles in \cite{KSV}. In this paper, we give a general approach to the conjecture using Scott's sparse regularity lemma. Our approach proves the conjecture for complete bipartite graphs $K_{2,t}$ and $K_{3,3}$: we obtain more strongly that for any odd $k \geq 5$, \[ \ex{n}{\mathcal{F} \cup \{C_k\}} \sim \ex{n}{\mathcal{F} \cup \mathcal{C}}\] and we show further that the extremal graphs can be made bipartite by deleting very few edges. In contrast, this formula does not extend to triangles -- the case $k = 3$ -- and we give an algebraic construction for odd $t \geq 3$ of $K_{2,t}$-free $C_3$-free graphs with substantially more edges than an extremal $K_{2,t}$-free bipartite graph on $n$ vertices. Our general approach to the Erdős-Simonovits conjecture is effective based on some reasonable assumptions on the maximum number of edges in an $m$ by $n$ bipartite $\mathcal{F}$-free graph.

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arXiv2012

An approximate isoperimetric inequality for r-sets

We prove a vertex-isoperimetric inequality for [n]^(r), the set of all r-element subsets of {1,2,...,n}, where x,y \in [n]^(r) are adjacent if |x Δy|=2. Namely, if \mathcal{A} \subset [n]^(r) with |\mathcal{A}|=α{n \choose r}, then the vertex-boundary b(\mathcal{A}) satisfies |b(\mathcal{A})| \geq c\sqrt{\frac{n}{r(n-r)}} α(1-α) {n \choose r}, where c is a positive absolute constant. For αbounded away from 0 and 1, this is sharp up to a constant factor (independent of n and r).

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arXiv2011

On a conjecture of Erdos and Simonovits: Even Cycles

Let $\mc{F}$ be a family of graphs. A graph is {\em $\mc{F}$-free} if it contains no copy of a graph in $\mc{F}$ as a subgraph. A cornerstone of extremal graph theory is the study of the {\em Turán number} $ex(n,\mc{F})$, the maximum number of edges in an $\mc{F}$-free graph on $n$ vertices. Define the {\em Zarankiewicz number} $z(n,\mc{F})$ to be the maximum number of edges in an $\mc{F}$-free {\em bipartite} graph on $n$ vertices. Let $C_k$ denote a cycle of length $k$, and let $\mc{C}_k$ denote the set of cycles $C_{\ell}$, where $3 \le \ell \leq k$ and $\ell$ and $k$ have the same parity. Erdős and Simonovits conjectured that for any family $\mc{F}$ consisting of bipartite graphs there exists an odd integer $k$ such that $ex(n,\mc{F} \cup \mc{C}_k) \sim z(n,\mc{F})$. They proved this when $\mc{F}={C_4}$ by showing that $ex(n,\{C_4,C_5\}) \sim z(n,C_4)$. In this paper, we extend this result by showing that if $\ell \in \{2,3,5\}$ and $k > 2\ell$ is odd, then ${ex(n,\mc{C}_{2\ell} \cup {C_k}) \sim z(n,\mc{C}_{2\ell})$. Furthermore, if $k > 2\ell + 2$ is odd, then for infinitely many $n$ we show that the extremal $\mc{C}_{2\ell} \cup \{C_k\}$-free graphs are bipartite incidence graphs of generalized polygons. We observe that this exact result does not hold for any odd $k < 2\ell$, and furthermore the asymptotic result does not hold when $(\ell,k)$ is $(3,3)$, $(5,3)$ or $(5,5)$. Our proofs make use of pseudorandomness properties of nearly extremal graphs that are of independent interest.

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arXiv2011

The Turán number of $F_{3,3}$

Let $F_{3,3}$ be the 3-graph on 6 vertices, labelled abcxyz, and 10 edges, one of which is abc, and the other 9 of which are all triples that contain 1 vertex from abc and 2 vertices from xyz. We show that for all $n \ge 6$, the maximum number of edges in an $F_{3,3}$-free 3-graph on $n$ vertices is $\binom{n}{3} - \binom{\lfloor n/2 \rfloor}{3} - \binom{\lceil n/2 \rceil}{3}$. This sharpens results of Zhou and of the second author and Rödl.

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arXiv2010

Loose Hamilton cycles in hypergraphs

We prove that any k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices with minimum degree at least n/(2(k-1))+o(n) contains a loose Hamilton cycle. The proof strategy is similar to that used by Kühn and Osthus for the 3-uniform case. Though some additional difficulties arise in the k-uniform case, our argument here is considerably simplified by applying the recent hypergraph blow-up lemma of Keevash.

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arXiv2010

A hypergraph blow-up lemma

We obtain a hypergraph generalisation of the graph blow-up lemma proved by Komlos, Sarkozy and Szemeredi, showing that hypergraphs with sufficient regularity and no atypical vertices behave as if they were complete for the purpose of embedding bounded degree hypergraphs.

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arXiv2010

A semi-exact degree condition for Hamilton cycles in digraphs

The paper is concerned with directed versions of Posa's theorem and Chvatal's theorem on Hamilton cycles in graphs. We show that for each a>0, every digraph G of sufficiently large order n whose outdegree and indegree sequences d_1^+ \leq ... \leq d_n^+ and d_1^- \leq >... \leq d_n^- satisfy d_i^+, d_i^- \geq min{i + a n, n/2} is Hamiltonian. In fact, we can weaken these assumptions to (i) d_i^+ \geq min{i + a n, n/2} or d^-_{n - i - a n} \geq n-i; (ii) d_i^- \geq min{i + a n, n/2} or d^+_{n - i - a n} \geq n-i; and still deduce that G is Hamiltonian. This provides an approximate version of a conjecture of Nash-Williams from 1975 and improves a previous result of Kühn, Osthus and Treglown.

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