Convex Sets in the Plane with Three of Every Four Meeting

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős Suppose we have a finite collection of closed convex sets in the plane, (which without loss of generality we can take to be polygons). Suppose further that among any four of them, some three have non-empty intersection. We show that 13 points are sufficient to meet every one of the convex sets. Received October 27, 1999/Revised April 11, 2000 RID="*" ID="*" Supported by grant OTKA-T-029074. RID="†" ID="†" Supported by NSF grant DMS-99-70071, OTKA-T-020914 and OTKA-F-22234.     

Perfect Graphs, Partitionable Graphs and Cutsets

We prove a theorem about cutsets in partitionable graphs that generalizes earlier results on amalgams, 2-amalgams and homogeneous pairs. Received December 13, 1999 RID="*" ID="*" This work was supported in part by the Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, Toronto, Canada, and by NSF grants DMI-0098427 and DMI-9802773 and ONR grant N00014-97-1-0196.     

Small Universal Graphs for Bounded-Degree Planar Graphs

For all positive integers N and k, let denote the family of planar graphs on N or fewer vertices, and with maximum degree k. For all positive integers N and k, we construct a -universal graph of size . This construction answers with an explicit construction the previously open question of the existence of such a graph. Received July 8, 1998 RID="*" ID="*" Supported by NSF grant CCR98210-58 and ARO grant DAAH04-96-1-0013.     

Large Cliques in -Free Graphs

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős A graph is called -free if it contains no cycle of length four as an induced subgraph. We prove that if a -free graph has n vertices and at least edges then it has a complete subgraph of vertices, where depends only on . We also give estimates on and show that a similar result does not hold for H-free graphs––unless H is an induced subgraph of . The best value of is determined for chordal graphs. Received October 25, 1999 RID="*" ID="*" Supported by OTKA grant T029074. RID="**" ID="**" Supported by TKI grant stochastics@TUB and by OTKA grant T026203.     

Ryser's Conjecture for Tripartite 3-Graphs

We prove that in a tripartite 3-graph . Received March 17, 1999     

On a Max-min Problem Concerning Weights of Edges

The weight w(e) of an edge e = uv of a graph is defined to be the sum of degrees of the vertices u and v. In 1990 P. Erdős asked the question: What is the minimum weight of an edge of a graph G having n vertices and m edges? This paper brings a precise answer to the above question of Erdős. Received July 12, 1999     

Transversals in Uniform Hypergraphs with Property (p,2)

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős Let f(r,p,t) (p > t >= 1, r >= 2) be the maximum of the cardinality of a minimum transversal over all r-uniform hypergraphs possessing the property that every subhypergraph of with p edges has a transversal of size t. The values of f(r,p,2) for p = 3, 4, 5, 6 were found in [1] and bounds on f(r,7,2) are given in [3]. Here we prove that for large p and huge r. Received September 23, 1999 RID="*" ID="*" This work was partially supported by the grant 99-01-00581 of the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research and the Dutch–Russian Grant NWO-047-008-006.     

Totally Odd -subdivisions in 4-chromatic Graphs

We prove the conjecture made by Bjarne Toft in 1975 that every 4-chromatic graph contains a subdivision of in which each edge of corresponds to a path of odd length. As an auxiliary result we characterize completely the subspace of the cycle space generated by all cycles through two fixed edges. Toft's conjecture was proved independently in 1995 by Wenan Zang. Received May 26, 1998     

A Tree Version of Kőnig's Theorem

Kőnig's theorem states that the covering number and the matching number of a bipartite graph are equal. We prove a generalization, in which the point in one fixed side of the graph of each edge is replaced by a subtree of a given tree. The proof uses a recent extension of Hall's theorem to families of hypergraphs, by the first author and P. Haxell [2]. As an application we prove a special case (that of chordal graphs) of a conjecture of B. Reed. Received January 27, 2000/Revised November 2, 2000 RID=" " ID=" " The research of the first author was supported by grants from the Israel Science Foundation, the M. & M.L Bank Mathematics Research Fund and the fund for the promotion of research at the Technion.     

Size Ramsey Numbers of Stars Versus 3-chromatic Graphs

  Let be the star with n edges, be the triangle, and be the family of odd cycles. We establish the following bounds on the corresponding size Ramsey numbers.

Homomorphisms of Products of Graphs into Graphs Without Four Cycles

Given two graphs A and G, we write if there is a homomorphism of A to G and if there is no such homomorphism. The graph G is -free if, whenever both a and c are adjacent to b and d, then a = c or b = d. We will prove that if A and B are connected graphs, each containing a triangle and if G is a -free graph with and , then (here " denotes the categorical product). Received August 31, 1998/Revised April 19, 2000 RID="†" ID="†" Supported by NSERC of Canada Grant #691325.     

Groups Covered by an Infinite Number of Abelian Subgroups

If a group G is covered by Abelian subgroups ( an infinite cardinal) then and this estimate is sharp. This answers a question of Faber, Laver and McKenzie. Received February 1, 2000     

Tauberian Theorem of Erdős Revisited

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős In connection with the elementary proof of the prime number theorem, Erdős obtained a striking quadratic Tauberian theorem for sequences. Somewhat later, Siegel indicated in a letter how a powerful "fundamental relation" could be used to simplify the difficult combinatorial proof. Here the author presents his version of the (unpublished) Erdős–Siegel proof. Related Tauberian results by the author are described. Received December 20, 1999     

The Size of 3-Cross-Free Families

We give a short and simple proof for the theorem that the size of a 3-cross-free family is linear in the size of the groundset. A family is 3-cross-free if it has no 3 pairwise crossing members. Received July 1, 1998 RID="*" ID="*" Research supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and the OTKA T 029772 project.     

On the Relation Between Two Minor-Monotone Graph Parameters

, where μ and λ are minor-monotone graph invariants introduced by Colin de Verdière [3] and van der Holst, Laurent, and Schrijver [5]. It is also shown that a graph G exists with . The graphs G with maximal planar complement and , characterised by Kotlov, Lovász, and Vempala, are shown to be forbidden minors for . Received: June 13, 1997     

NOTE Spectral Characterization of Tree-Width-Two Graphs

) of a graph G, similar in spirit to his now-classical invariant . He showed that is minor-monotone and is related to the tree-width la(G) of G: and, moreover, , i.e. G is a forest. We show that and give the corresponding forbidden-minor and ear-decomposition characterizations. Received October 9, 1997/Revised July 27, 1999     

The Distance-regular Graphs with Intersection Number and with an Eigenvalue

and with an eigenvalue . Received: October 2, 1995/Revised: Revised November 26, 1997