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Zach Hunter

Publications and source records attributed to Zach Hunter.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2025

Cyclic subsets of tournaments

Let $G$ be a Dirac graph, and let $S$ be a vertex subset of $G$, chosen uniformly at random. How likely is the induced subgraph $G[S]$ to be Hamiltonian? This question, proposed by Erdős and Faudree in 1996, was recently resolved by Draganić, Keevash and Müyesser, in the setting of graphs. In this paper, we study a similar question for tournaments -- if $T$ is a tournament of high minimum degree, how likely is it for a random induced subtournament of $T$ to be Hamiltonian? We prove an optimal bound on this probability, and extend the results to the regime where the subset is not sampled uniformly at random, but according to a $p$-biased measure.

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arXiv2025

An improved construction for the triangle removal lemma

We construct $n$-vertex graphs $G$ where $εn^2$ edges must be deleted to become triangle-free, which contain less than $ε^{(C_{\text{new}}-o(1))\log_2 1/ε}n^3$ triangles for $C_{\text{new}}= \frac{1}{4\log_2(4/3)} \approx 1.6601$. Previously, a bound of the same shape was known, but with $C_{\text{new}}$ replaced by $C_{\text{old}} := C_{\text{new}}/2$. Our construction uses ideas from additive combinatorics, drawing especially from the corners problem, but does not yield new bounds for those problems.

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arXiv2025

$C_4$-free subgraphs of high degree with geometric applications

The Zarankiewicz problem, a cornerstone problem in extremal graph theory, asks for the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex graph that does not contain the complete bipartite graph $K_{s,s}$. While the problem remains widely open in the case of general graphs, the past two decades have seen significant progress on this problem for various restricted graph classes -- particularly those arising from geometric settings -- leading to a deeper understanding of their structure. In this paper, we develop a new structural tool for addressing Zarankiewicz-type problems. More specifically, we show that for any positive integer $k$, every graph with average degree $d$ either contains an induced $C_4$-free subgraph with average degree at least $k$, or it contains a $d$-vertex subgraph with $Ω_k(d^2)$ edges. As an application of this dichotomy, we propose a unified approach to a large number of Zarankiewicz-type problems in geometry, obtaining optimal bounds in each case.

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arXiv2025

Kővári-Sós-Turán theorem for hereditary families

The celebrated Kővári-Sós-Turán theorem states that any $n$-vertex graph containing no copy of the complete bipartite graph $K_{s,s}$ has at most $O_s(n^{2-1/s})$ edges. In the past two decades, motivated by the applications in discrete geometry and structural graph theory, a number of results demonstrated that this bound can be greatly improved if the graph satisfies certain structural restrictions. We propose the systematic study of this phenomenon, and state the conjecture that if $H$ is a bipartite graph, then an induced $H$-free and $K_{s,s}$-free graph cannot have much more edges than an $H$-free graph. We provide evidence for this conjecture by considering trees, cycles, the cube graph, and bipartite graphs with degrees bounded by $k$ on one side, obtaining in all the cases similar bounds as in the non-induced setting. Our results also have applications to the Erdős-Hajnal conjecture, the problem of finding induced $C_4$-free subgraphs with large degree and bounding the average degree of $K_{s, s}$-free graphs which do not contain induced subdivisions of a fixed graph.

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arXiv2024

On off-diagonal Ramsey numbers for vector spaces over $\mathbb{F}_{2}$

For every positive integer $d$, we show that there must exist an absolute constant $c > 0$ such that the following holds: for any integer $n \geq cd^{7}$ and any red-blue coloring of the one-dimensional subspaces of $\mathbb{F}_{2}^{n}$, there must exist either a $d$-dimensional subspace for which all of its one-dimensional subspaces get colored red or a $2$-dimensional subspace for which all of its one-dimensional subspaces get colored blue. This answers recent questions of Nelson and Nomoto, and confirms that for any even plane binary matroid $N$, the class of $N$-free, claw-free binary matroids is polynomially $χ$-bounded. Our argument will proceed via a reduction to a well-studied additive combinatorics problem, originally posed by Green: given a set $A \subset \mathbb{F}_{2}^{n}$ with density $α\in [0,1]$, what is the largest subspace that we can find in $A+A$? Our main contribution to the story is a new result for this problem in the regime where $1/α$ is large with respect to $n$, which utilizes ideas from the recent breakthrough paper of Kelley and Meka on sets of integers without three-term arithmetic progressions.

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arXiv2024

Monochromatic odd cycles in edge-coloured complete graphs

It is easy to see that every $q$-edge-colouring of the complete graph on $2^q+1$ vertices must contain a monochromatic odd cycle. A natural question raised by Erdős and Graham in $1973$ asks for the smallest $L(q)$ such that every $q$-edge-colouring of $K_{2^q+1}$ must contain a monochromatic odd cycle of length at most $L(q)$. In here, we show that $L(q)=O\left(\frac{2^q}{q^{1-o(1)}}\right)$ giving the first non-trivial upper bound on $L(q)$.

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arXiv2024

Disjoint pairs in set systems and combinatorics of low rank matrices

We study and solve several problems in two closely related settings: set families in $2^{[n]}$ with many disjoint pairs of sets and low rank matrices with many zero entries. - More than 40 years ago, Daykin and Erdős asked for the maximum number of disjoint pairs of sets in a family $F\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ of size $2^{(1/2+δ)n}$ and conjectured it contains at most $o(|F|^2)$ such pairs. This was proven by Alon and Frankl in 1985. In this paper we completely resolve this problem, proving an optimal dependence of the number of disjoint pairs on the size of family $F$. We also prove the natural variant of the Daykin-Erdős conjecture in which disjoint pairs are replaced by pairs with intersection $λ\neq 0$. - Motivated by a conjecture of Lovett related to the famous log-rank conjecture, Singer and Sudan asked to show that for two families $A, B \subseteq 2^{[n]}$ with a positive constant fraction of set pairs $(a,b)\in A\times B$ being disjoint, there are $R\subset A$ and $S\subset B$ such that all set pairs $(r, s)\in R\times S$ are disjoint, and $|R|\geq 2^{-O(\sqrt{n})}|A|$ and $|S|\geq 2^{-O(\sqrt{n})}|B|$. We prove this conjecture in a strong quantitative form. - We prove the following generalizations of the best known bounds for the log-rank conjecture. If $M$ is an $n\times n$ non-negative integer matrix of rank $r$ in which the average of the entries is $\varepsilon\leq 1/2$, then $M$ contains an all-zero submatrix of size at least $2^{-O(\sqrt{\varepsilon r})}n$. Unlike the known bounds for the log-rank conjecture, this result is optimal. Moreover, using similar methods, we also prove that any $n\times n$ matrix of rank $r$ with entries from $\{0,\dots,t\}$ contains a constant submatrix of size at least $2^{-O(t\sqrt{r})}n$. Our proofs use probabilistic, entropy and discrepancy methods and explore connections to additive combinatorics and coding theory.

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arXiv2024

New lower bounds for $r_3(N)$

We develop recent ideas of Elsholtz, Proske, and Sauermann to construct denser subsets of $\{1,\dots,N\}$ that lack arithmetic progressions of length $3$. This gives the first quasipolynomial improvement since the original construction of Behrend.

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arXiv2024

Improving Behrend's construction: Sets without arithmetic progressions in integers and over finite fields

We prove new lower bounds on the maximum size of subsets $A\subseteq \{1,\dots,N\}$ or $A\subseteq \mathbb{F}_p^n$ not containing three-term arithmetic progressions. In the setting of $\{1,\dots,N\}$, this is the first improvement upon a classical construction of Behrend from 1946 beyond lower-order factors (in particular, it is the first quasipolynomial improvement). In the setting of $\mathbb{F}_p^n$ for a fixed prime $p$ and large $n$, we prove a lower bound of $(cp)^n$ for some absolute constant $c>1/2$ (for $c = 1/2$, such a bound can be obtained via classical constructions from the 1940s, but improving upon this has been a well-known open problem).

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arXiv2024

Induced Ramsey problems for trees and graphs with bounded treewidth

The induced $q$-color size-Ramsey number $\hat{r}_{\text{ind}}(H;q)$ of a graph $H$ is the minimal number of edges a host graph $G$ can have so that every $q$-edge-coloring of $G$ contains a monochromatic copy of $H$ which is an induced subgraph of $G$. A natural question, which in the non-induced case has a very long history, asks which families of graphs $H$ have induced Ramsey numbers that are linear in $|H|$. We prove that for every $k,w,q$, if $H$ is an $n$-vertex graph with maximum degree $k$ and treewidth at most $w$, then $\hat{r}_{\text{ind}}(H;q) = O_{k,w,q}(n)$. This extends several old and recent results in Ramsey theory. Our proof is quite simple and relies upon a novel reduction argument.

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arXiv2024

Induced subdivisions in $K_{s,s}$-free graphs with polynomial average degree

In this paper we prove that for every $s\geq 2$ and every graph $H$ the following holds. Let $G$ be a graph with average degree $Ω_H(s^{C|H|^2})$, for some absolute constant $C>0$, then $G$ either contains a $K_{s,s}$ or an induced subdivision of $H$. This is essentially tight and confirms a conjecture of Bonamy, Bousquet, Pilipczuk, Rzążewski, Thomassé, and Walczak. A slightly weaker form of this has been independently proved by Bourneuf, Bucić, Cook, and Davies. We actually prove a much more general result which implies the above (with worse dependence on $|H|$). We show that for every $ k\geq 2$ there is $C_k>0$ such that any graph $G$ with average degree $s^{C_k}$ either contains a $K_{s,s}$ or an induced subgraph $G'\subseteq G$ without $C_4$'s and with average degree at least $k$. Finally, using similar methods we can prove the following. For every $k,t\geq 2$ every graph $G$ with average degree at least $C_tk^{Ω(t)}$ must contain either a $K_k$, an induced $K_{t,t}$ or an induced subdivision of $K_k$. This is again essentially tight up to the implied constants and answers in a strong form a question of Davies.

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arXiv2023

Induced $C_4$-free subgraphs with large average degree

We prove that there exists a constant $C$ so that, for all $s,k \in \mathbb{N}$, if $G$ has average degree at least $k^{Cs^3}$ and does not contain $K_{s,s}$ as a subgraph then it contains an induced subgraph which is $C_4$-free and has average degree at least $k$. It was known that some function of $s$ and $k$ suffices, but this is the first explicit bound. We give several applications of this result, including short and streamlined proofs of the following two corollaries. We show that there exists a constant $C$ so that, for all $s,k \in \mathbb{N}$, if $G$ has average degree at least $k^{Cs^3}$ and does not contain $K_{s,s}$ as a subgraph then it contains an induced subdivision of $K_k$. This is the first quantitative improvement on a well-known theorem of Kühn and Osthus; their proof gives a bound that is triply exponential in both $k$ and $s$. We also show that for any hereditary degree-bounded class $\mathcal{F}$, there exists a constant $C=C_\mathcal{F}$ so that $C^{s^3}$ is a degree-bounding function for $\mathcal{F}$. This is the first bound of any type on the rate of growth of such functions. It is open whether there is always a polynomial degree-bounding function.

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arXiv2023

On the Diameter of Finite Sidon Sets

We prove that the diameter of a Sidon set (also known as a Babcock sequence, Golomb ruler, or $B_2$ set) with $k$ elements is at least $k^2-b k^{3/2}-O(k)$ where $b\le 1.96365$, a comparatively large improvement on past results. Equivalently, a Sidon set with diameter $n$ has at most $n^{1/2}+0.98183n^{1/4}+O(1)$ elements. The proof is conceptually simple but very computationally intensive, and the proof uses substantial computer assistance. We also provide a proof of $b\le 1.99058$ that can be verified by hand, which still improves on past results. Finally, we prove that $g$-thin Sidon sets (aka $g$-Golomb rulers) with $k$ elements have diameter at least $g^{-1} k^2 - (2-\varepsilon)g^{-1}k^{3/2} - O(k)$, with $\varepsilon\ge 0.02g^{-2}$.

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arXiv2023

On a method of Alweiss

Recently, Alweiss settled Hindman's conjecture over the rationals. In this paper, we provide our own exposition of Alweiss' result, and show how to modify his method to also show that sums of distinct products are partition regular over the rationals.

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arXiv2023

A notion of twins

Given a combinatorial structure, a ``twin'' is a pair of disjoint substructures which are isomorphic (or look the same in some sense). In recent years, there have been many problems about finding large twins in various combinatorial structures. For example, given a graph $G$, one can ask what is the largest $s$ such that there exist disjoint subsets $I,J\subset V(G)$ on $s$ vertices, such that the induced subgraphs $G[I],G[J]$ are isomorphic. We are motivated by two different problems of finding twins in two kinds of ordered objects (strings and permutations). We introduce a new variant of ``twin problem'' which generalizes both of these. By considering this generalization, we are able to improve some bounds obtained by Dudek, Grytczuk, and Ruciński, and give a negative answer to a conjecture of theirs.

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arXiv2022

A new upper bound to (a variant of) the pancake problem

The "pancake problem" asks how many prefix reversals are sufficient to sort any permutation $π\in \mathcal{S}_k$ to the identity. We write $f(k)$ to denote this quantity. The best known bounds are that $\frac{15}{14}k -O(1) \le f(k)\le \frac{18}{11}k+O(1)$. The proof of the upper bound is computer-assisted, and considers thousands of cases. We consider $h(k)$, how many prefix and suffix reversals are sufficient to sort any $π\in \mathcal{S}_k$. We observe that $\frac{15}{14}k -O(1)\le h(k)$ still holds, and give a human proof that $h(k) \le \frac{3}{2}k +O(1)$. The constant "$\frac{3}{2}$" is a natural barrier for the pancake problem and this variant, hence new techniques will be required to do better.

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arXiv2022

A short proof that $w(3,k) \ge (1-o(1))k^2$

Here we present a short proof that the two-color van der Waerden number $w(3,k)$ is bounded from below by $(1-o(1))k^2$. Previous work has already shown that a superpolynomial lower bound holds for $w(3,k)$. However, we believe our result is still is of interest due to our techniques.

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