arXiv subjects

Xizhi Liu

Publications and source records attributed to Xizhi Liu.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

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

The Turán density of short tight cycles

The $3$-uniform tight $\ell$-cycle $C_\ell^{3}$ is the $3$-graph on $\{1,\dots,\ell\}$ consisting of all $\ell$ consecutive triples in the cyclic order. Let $\mathcal{C}$ be either the pair $\{C_{4}^{3}, C_{5}^{3}\}$ or the single tight $\ell$-cycle $C_{\ell}^{3}$ for some $\ell\ge 7$ not divisible by $3$. We show that the Turán density of $\mathcal{C}$, that is, the asymptotically maximal edge density of a large $\mathcal{C}$-free $3$-graph, is equal to $2\sqrt{3} - 3$. We also establish the corresponding Erdős-Simonovits-type stability result, informally stating that all almost maximum $\mathcal{C}$-free graphs are close in the edit distance to a 2-part recursive construction. This extends the earlier analogous results of Kamčev-Letzter-Pokrovskiy ["The Turán density of tight cycles in three-uniform hypergraphs", Int. Math. Res. Not. 6 (2024), 4804-4841] that apply for sufficiently large $\ell$ only. Additionally, we prove a finer structural result that allows us to determine the maximum number of edges in a $\{C_{4}^{3}, C_{5}^{3}\}$-free $3$-graph with a given number of vertices up to an additive $O(1)$ error term.

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arXiv2025

Phase transition of degenerate Turán problems in $p$-norms

For a positive real number $p$, the $p$-norm $\left\lVert G \right\rVert_p$ of a graph $G$ is the sum of the $p$-th powers of all vertex degrees. We study the maximum $p$-norm $\mathrm{ex}_{p}(n,F)$ of $F$-free graphs on $n$ vertices. Füredi and Kündgen \cite{FK06} show that for every bipartite graph $F$, there exists a threshold $p_F$ such that for $p< p_{F}$, the order of $\mathrm{ex}_{p}(n,F)$ is governed by pseudorandom constructions, while for $p > p_{F}$, it is governed by star-like constructions, assuming a mild assumption on the growth rate of $\mathrm{ex}(n,F)$. The main contribution of our paper is extending this result to hypergraph. Moreover, in the case of graph, our proof differs from that in \cite{FK06}, offering the advantage of producing the correct constant factor when $p > p_{F}$. When $p = p_F$, Füredi and Kündgen proved a general upper bound on $\mathrm{ex}_{p}(n,F)$, tight up to a $\log n$ factor, and conjectured that this factor is unnecessary. We confirm this conjecture for several well-studied bipartite graphs, including one-side degree-bounded graphs and families of short even cycles.

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arXiv2025

Random Turán and counting results for general position sets over finite fields

Let $α(\mathbb{F}_q^d,p)$ denote the maximum size of a general position set in a $p$-random subset of $\mathbb{F}_q^d$. We determine the order of magnitude of $α(\mathbb{F}_q^2,p)$ up to polylogarithmic factors for all possible values of $p$, improving the previous results obtained by Roche-Newton--Warren and Bhowmick--Roche-Newton. For $d \ge 3$ we prove upper bounds for $α(\mathbb{F}_q^d,p)$ that are essentially tight within certain ranges for $p$. We establish the upper bound $2^{(1+o(1))q}$ for the number of general position sets in $\mathbb{F}_q^d$, which matches the trivial lower bound $2^{q}$ asymptotically in the exponent. We also refine this counting result by proving an asymptotically tight (in the exponent) upper bound for the number of general position sets with a fixed size. The latter result for $d=2$ improves a result of Roche-Newton--Warren. Our proofs are grounded in the hypergraph container method, and additionally, for $d=2$ we also leverage the pseudorandomness of the point-line incidence graph of $\mathbb{F}_{q}^2$.

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arXiv2025

A note on the minimum size of Turán systems

For positive integers $n \ge s > r$, a \emph{Turán $(n,s,r)$-system} is an $n$-vertex $r$-graph in which every set of $s$ vertices contains at least one edge. Let $T(n,s,r)$ denote the the minimum size of a Turán $(n,s,r)$-system. Upper bounds on $T(n,s,r)$ were established by Sidorenko~\cite{Sid97} for the case $s-r = Ω(r/\ln r)$ (based on a construction of Frankl--Rödl~\cite{FR85}) and by a number of authors in the case $s-r = O(1)$. In this note, we establish upper bounds in the remaining range $O(1)<s-r = O(r/\ln r)$.

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arXiv2025

On a hypergraph Mantel theorem

An $r$-graph is a triangle if there exists a positive integer $i \le \lceil r/2 \rceil$ such that it is isomorphic to the following $r$-graph with three edges: \begin{align*} \left\{\{1, \ldots, r\},~\{1, \ldots, i, r+1, \ldots, 2r-i\},~\{i+1, \ldots, r, r+1, 2r-i+1, \ldots,2r-1\}\right\}. \end{align*} We prove an Andr{á}sfai--Erdős--Sós-type stability theorem for triangle-free $r$-graphs. In particular, it implies that for large $n$, the unique extremal triangle-free construction on $n$ vertices is the balanced complete $r$-partite $r$-graph. The latter result answers a question by Mubayi and Pikhurko~{\cite[Problem~20]{MPS11}} on weakly triangle-free $r$-graphs for large $n$ in a stronger form. The proof combines the recently introduced entropic technique of Chao--Yu~\cite{CY24} with the framework developed in~\cite{LMR23unif,HLZ24}.

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arXiv2025

Tiling $H$ in dense graphs

We determine asymptotically the two extremal constructions for the tiling problem of the $H$-shaped tree. In particular, the first extremal construction is close to the complement of two cliques, in contrast to previously studied bipartite graphs, where the first extremal construction is close to the complement of a single clique. This result refutes one of Lang's conjectures [arXiv:2308.12281], which seeks to generalize the Erdős Matching Conjecture.

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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

Positive codegree Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós theorem for the generalized triangle

The celebrated Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós Theorem from 1974 shows that every $n$-vertex triangle-free graph with minimum degree greater than $2n/5$ must be bipartite. We establish a positive codegree extension of this result for the $r$-uniform generalized triangle $\mathrm{T}_{r} = \left\{\{1,\ldots, r-1,r\}, \{1,\ldots, r-1,r+1\},\{r,r+1, \ldots, 2r-1\}\right\}$$\colon$ For every $n \ge (r-1)(2r+1)/2$, if $\mathcal{H}$ is an $n$-vertex $\mathrm{T}_{r}$-free $r$-uniform hypergraph in which each $(r-1)$-tuple of vertices is contained in either zero edges or more than $2n/(2r+1)$ edges of $\mathcal{H}$, then $\mathcal{H}$ is $r$-partite. This result provides the first tight positive codegree Andr{á}sfai--Erdős--Sós type theorem for hypergraphs. It also immediately implies that the positive codegree Turán number of $\mathrm{T}_{r}$ is $\lfloor n/r \rfloor$ for all $r$. Additionally, for $r=3$, our result answers one of the questions posed by Hou et al.~\cite{HLYZZ22} in a strong form.

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arXiv2024

Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós theorem for the generalized triangle

The celebrated Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós Theorem from 1974 shows that every $n$-vertex triangle-free graph with minimum degree greater than $2n/5$ must be bipartite. Its extensions to $3$-uniform hypergraphs without the generalized triangle $F_5 = \{abc, abd, cde\}$ have been explored in several previous works such as~\cite{LMR23unif,HLZ24}, demonstrating the existence of $\varepsilon > 0$ such that for large $n$, every $n$-vertex $F_5$-free $3$-graph with minimum degree greater than $(1/9-\varepsilon) n^2$ must be $3$-partite. We determine the optimal value for $\varepsilon$ by showing that for $n \ge 5000$, every $n$-vertex $F_5$-free $3$-graph with minimum degree greater than $4n^2/45$ must be $3$-partite, thus establishing the first tight Andrásfai--Erdős--Sós type theorem for hypergraphs. As a corollary, for all positive $n$, every $n$-vertex cancellative $3$-graph with minimum degree greater than $4n^2/45$ must be $3$-partite. This result is also optimal and considerably strengthens prior work, such as that by Bollobás~\cite{Bol74} and Keevash--Mubayi~\cite{KM04Cancel}.

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arXiv2024

Exact results for some extremal problems on expansions I

The expansion of a graph $F$, denoted by $F^3$, is the $3$-graph obtained from $F$ by adding a new vertex to each edge such that different edges receive different vertices. For large $n$, we establish tight upper bounds for: The maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $3$-graph that does not contain $T^3$ for certain class $\mathcal{T}$ of trees, sharpening (partially) a result of Kostochka--Mubayi--Verstraëte. The minimum number of colors needed to color the complete $n$-vertex $3$-graph to ensure the existence of a rainbow copy of $F^3$ when $F$ is a graph obtained from some tree $T\in \mathcal{T}$ by adding a new edge, extending anti-Ramsey results on $P_{2t}^3$ by Gu--Li--Shi and $C_{2t}^3$ by Tang--Li--Yan. The maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $3$-graph whose shadow does not contain the shadow of $C_{k}^3$ or $T^3$ for $T\in \mathcal{T}$, answering a question of Lv \etal on generalized Turán problems.

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arXiv2024

Hypergraph anti-Ramsey theorems

The anti-Ramsey number $\mathrm{ar}(n,F)$ of an $r$-graph $F$ is the minimum number of colors needed to color the complete $n$-vertex $r$-graph to ensure the existence of a rainbow copy of $F$. We establish a removal-type result for the anti-Ramsey problem of $F$ when $F$ is the expansion of a hypergraph with a smaller uniformity. We present two applications of this result. First, we refine the general bound $\mathrm{ar}(n,F) = \mathrm{ex}(n,F_{-}) + o(n^r)$ proved by Erd{\H o}s--Simonovits--S{\' o}s, where $F_{-}$ denotes the family of $r$-graphs obtained from $F$ by removing one edge. Second, we determine the exact value of $\mathrm{ar}(n,F)$ for large $n$ in cases where $F$ is the expansion of a specific class of graphs. This extends results of Erd{\H o}s--Simonovits--S{\' o}s on complete graphs to the realm of hypergraphs.

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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.]

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arXiv2024

A note on extremal constructions for the Erdős--Rademacher problem

For given positive integers $r\ge 3$, $n$ and $e\le \binom{n}{2}$, the famous Erd\H os--Rademacher problem asks for the minimum number of $r$-cliques in a graph with $n$ vertices and $e$ edges. A conjecture of Lovász and Simonovits from the 1970s states that, for every $r\ge 3$, if $n$ is sufficiently large then, for every $e\le \binom{n}{2}$, at least one extremal graph can be obtained from a complete partite graph by adding a triangle-free graph into one part. In this note, we explicitly write the minimum number of $r$-cliques predicted by the above conjecture. Also, we describe what we believe to be the set of extremal graphs for any $r\ge 4$ and all large~$n$, amending the previous conjecture of Pikhurko and Razborov.

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arXiv2024

Finite Hypergraph Families with Rich Extremal Turán Constructions via Mixing Patterns

We prove that, for any finite set of minimal $r$-graph patterns, there is a finite family $\mathcal F$ of forbidden $r$-graphs such that the extremal Turán constructions for $\mathcal F$ are precisely the maximum $r$-graphs obtainable from mixing the given patterns in any way via blowups and recursion. This extends the result by the second author \cite{PI14}, where the above statement was established for a single pattern. We present two applications of this result. First, we construct a finite family $\mathcal F$ of $3$-graphs such that there are exponentially many maximum $\mathcal F$-free $3$-graphs of each large order $n$ and, moreover, the corresponding Turán problem is not finitely stable. Second, we show that there exists a finite family $\mathcal{F}$ of $3$-graphs whose feasible region function attains its maximum on a Cantor-type set of positive Hausdorff dimension.

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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

Uniquely colorable hypergraphs

An $r$-uniform hypergraph is uniquely $k$-colorable if there exists exactly one partition of its vertex set into $k$ parts such that every edge contains at most one vertex from each part. For integers $k \ge r \ge 2$, let $Φ_{k,r}$ denote the minimum real number such that every $n$-vertex $k$-partite $r$-uniform hypergraph with positive codegree greater than $Φ_{k,r} \cdot n$ and no isolated vertices is uniquely $k$-colorable. A classic result by of Bollobás\cite{Bol78} established that $Φ_{k,2} = \frac{3k-5}{3k-2}$ for every $k \ge 2$. We consider the uniquely colorable problem for hypergraphs. Our main result determines the precise value of $Φ_{k,r}$ for all $k \ge r \ge 3$. In particular, we show that $Φ_{k,r}$ exhibits a phase transition at approximately $k = \frac{4r-2}{3}$, a phenomenon not seen in the graph case. As an application of the main result, combined with a classic theorem by Frankl--Füredi--Kalai, we derive general bounds for the analogous problem on minimum positive $i$-degrees for all $1\leq i<r$, which are tight for infinitely many cases.

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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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