An Explicit Construction for a Ramsey Problem

An explicit coloring of the edges of K_n is constructed such that every copy of K₄ has at least four colors on its edges. As n , the number of colors used is n^1/2+o(1). This improves upon the previous bound of O(n^2/3) due to Erds and Gyárfás obtained by probabilistic methods. The exponent 1/2 is optimal, since it is known that at least (n^1/2) colors are required in such a coloring.The coloring is related to constructions giving lower bounds for the multicolor Ramsey number r_k(C₄). It is more complicated however, because of restrictions imposed on interactions between color classes.* Research supported in part by NSF Grant No. DMS–9970325.