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     

Mangoes and Blueberries

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős We prove the following conjecture of Erdős and Hajnal: For every integer k there is an f(k) such that if for a graph G, every subgraph H of G has a stable set containing vertices, then G contains a set X of at most f(k) vertices such that G−X is bipartite. This conjecture was related to me by Paul Erdős at a conference held in Annecy during July of 1996. I regret not being able to share the answer with him. Received: August 20, 1997     

On Bipartite Graphs with Linear Ramsey Numbers

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős We provide an elementary proof of the fact that the ramsey number of every bipartite graph H with maximum degree at most is less than . This improves an old upper bound on the ramsey number of the n-cube due to Beck, and brings us closer toward the bound conjectured by Burr and Erdős. Applying the probabilistic method we also show that for all and there exists a bipartite graph with n vertices and maximum degree at most whose ramsey number is greater than for some absolute constant c>1. Received December 1, 1999 RID="*" ID="*" Supported by NSF grant DMS-9704114 RID="**" ID="**" Supported by KBN grant 2 P03A 032 16     

Independence,clique size and maximum degree

It was shown before that ifG is a graph of maximum degreep containing no cliques of the sizeq then the independence ratio is greater than or equal to 2 / (p +q). We shall discuss here some extreme cases of this inequality. Dedicated to Paul Erdős on his seventieth birthday     

Biased positional games and the phase transition

Let 𝔏(n, q) be the game in which two players, Maker and Breaker, alternately claim 1 and q edges of the complete graph K_n, respectively. Maker's goal is to maximize the number of vertices in the largest component of his graph; Breaker tries to make it as small as possible. Let L(n,q) denote the size of the largest component in Maker's graph when both players follow their optimal strategies. We study the behavior of L(n, q) for large n and q=q(n). In particular, we show that the value of L(n, q) abruptly changes for q∼n and discuss the differences between this phenomenon and a similar one, which occurs in the evolution of random graphs. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 18: 141–152, 2001     

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.

Another Look at the Erdős–Hajnal–Pósa Results on Partitioning Edges of the Rado Graph

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős Erdős, Hajnal and Pósa exhibited in [1] a partition (U,D) of the edges of the Rado graph which is a counterexample to . They also obtained that if every vertex of a graph has either in or in the complement of finite degree then . We will characterize all graphs so that . Received October 29, 1999 RID="†" ID="†" Supported by NSERC of Canada Grant #691325.     

Ramsey-type Theorems with Forbidden Subgraphs

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős   A graph is called H-free if it contains no induced copy of H. We discuss the following question raised by Erdős and Hajnal. Is it true that for every graph H, there exists an such that any H-free graph with n vertices contains either a complete or an empty subgraph of size at least ? We answer this question in the affirmative for a special class of graphs, and give an equivalent reformulation for tournaments. In order to prove the equivalence, we establish several Ramsey type results for tournaments. Received August 22, 1999 RID="*" ID="*" Supported by a USA Israeli BSF grant, by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation and by the Hermann Minkowski Minerva Center for Geometry at Tel Aviv University. RID="†" ID="†" Supported by NSF grant CR-9732101, PSC-CUNY Research Award 663472, and OTKA-T-020914. RID="‡" ID="‡" Supported by TKI grant Stochastics@TUB, and OTKA-T-026203.     

Note making a <Emphasis Type="Italic">K</Emphasis><Subscript>4</Subscript>-free graph bipartite

We show that every K ₄-free graph G with n vertices can be made bipartite by deleting at most n ²/9 edges. Moreover, the only extremal graph which requires deletion of that many edges is a complete 3-partite graph with parts of size n/3. This proves an old conjecture of P. Erdős. Research supported in part by NSF CAREER award DMS-0546523, NSF grant DMS-0355497, USA-Israeli BSF grant, and by an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship.     

An erdős—Gallai conjecture

The following conjecture of P. Erdős and T. Gallai is confirmed: every graph onn vertices can be covered byn−1 circuits and edges.     

The Erdős–Pósa Property for Odd Cycles in Graphs of Large Connectivity

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős A graph G is k-linked if G has at least 2k vertices, and, for any vertices , , ..., , , , ..., , G contains k pairwise disjoint paths such that joins for i = 1, 2, ..., k. We say that G is k-parity-linked if G is k-linked and, in addition, the paths can be chosen such that the parities of their lengths are prescribed. We prove the existence of a function g(k) such that every g(k)-connected graph is k-parity-linked if the deletion of any set of less than 4k-3 vertices leaves a nonbipartite graph. As a consequence, we obtain a result of Erdős–Pósa type for odd cycles in graphs of large connectivity. Also, every -connected graph contains a totally odd -subdivision, that is, a subdivision of in which each edge of corresponds to an odd path, if and only if the deletion of any vertex leaves a nonbipartite graph. Received May 13, 1999/Revised June 19, 2000     

New Results on EX Graphs

By the extremal number ex(n; t) = ex(n; {C ₃, C ₄, . . . , C _t }) we denote the maximum size (that is, number of edges) in a graph of order n > t and girth at least g ≥ t + 1. The set of all the graphs of order n, containing no cycles of length ≥ t, and of size ex(n; t), is denoted by EX(n; t) = EX(n; {C ₃, C ₄, . . . , C _t }), these graphs are called EX graphs. In 1975, Erdős proposed the problem of determining the extremal numbers ex(n; 4) of a graph of order n and girth at least 5. In this paper, we consider a generalized version of this problem, for t ≥ 5. In particular, we prove that ex(29; 6) = 45, also we improve some lower bounds and upper bounds of ex _u (n; t), for some particular values of n and t.     

The number of K m,m -free graphs

A graph is called H-free if it contains no copy of H. Denote by f _n (H) the number of (labeled) H-free graphs on n vertices. Erdős conjectured that f _n (H) ≤ 2^{(1+o(1))ex(n,H)}. This was first shown to be true for cliques; then, Erdős, Frankl, and R?dl proved it for all graphs H with χ(H)≥3. For most bipartite H, the question is still wide open, and even the correct order of magnitude of log₂ f _n (H) is not known. We prove that f _n (K _m,m ) ≤ 2 ^O (n ^2−1/m ) for every m, extending the result of Kleitman and Winston and answering a question of Erdős. This bound is asymptotically sharp for m∈{2,3}, and possibly for all other values of m, for which the order of ex(n,K _m,m ) is conjectured to be Θ(n ^2−1/m ). Our method also yields a bound on the number of K _m,m -free graphs with fixed order and size, extending the result of Füredi. Using this bound, we prove a relaxed version of a conjecture due to Haxell, Kohayakawa, and Łuczak and show that almost all K _3,3-free graphs of order n have more than 1/20·ex(n,K _3,3) edges.     

Regular subgraphs of dense graphs

Every graph onn vertices, with at leastc _k n logn edges contains ak-regular subgraph. This answers a question of Erdős and Sauer.     

Zero-sum problems for abelian <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-groups and covers of the integers by residue classes

Zero-sum problems for abelian groups and covers of the integers by residue classes, are two different active topics initiated by P. Erdős more than 40 years ago and investigated by many researchers separately since then. In an earlier announcement [S03b], the author claimed some surprising connections among these seemingly unrelated fascinating areas. In this paper we establish further connections between zero-sum problems for abelian p-groups and covers of the integers. For example, we extend the famous Erdős-Ginzburg-Ziv theorem in the following way: If { a _s (mod n_s)}_s=1^k covers each integer either exactly 2q − 1 times or exactly 2q times where q is a prime power, then for any c ₁,...,c _k ∈ ℤ/qℤ there exists an I ⊆ {1,...,k} such that ∑ _s∈I 1/n _s = q and ∑ _s∈I c _s = 0. The main theorem of this paper unifies many results in the two realms and also implies an extension of the Alon-Friedland-Kalai result on regular subgraphs. The author is supported by the National Science Foundation (grant 10871087) of China.     

On the threshold for k-regular subgraphs of random graphs

The k-core of a graph is the largest subgraph of minimum degree at least k. We show that for k sufficiently large, the threshold for the appearance of a k-regular subgraph in the Erdős-Rényi random graph model G(n,p) is at most the threshold for the appearance of a nonempty (k+2)-core. In particular, this pins down the point of appearance of a k-regular subgraph to a window for p of width roughly 2/n for large n and moderately large k. The result is proved by using Tutte’s necessary and sufficient condition for a graph to have a k-factor.     

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.     

Explicit construction of regular graphs without small cycles

For every integerd>2 we give an explicit construction of infinitely many Cayley graphsX of degreed withn(X) vertices and girth >0.4801...(logn(X))/log (d−1)−2. This improves a result of Margulis. Dedicated to Paul Erdős on his seventieth birthday     

Chromatic Numbers of Cayley Graphs on Z and Recurrence

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős In 1987 Paul Erdős asked me if the Cayley graph defined on Z by a lacunary sequence has necessarily a finite chromatic number. Below is my answer, delivered to him on the spot but never published, and some additional remarks. The key is the interpretation of the question in terms of return times of dynamical systems. Received February 7, 2000