Positional Games and the Second Moment Method

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős We study the fair Maker–Breaker graph Ramsey game MB(n;q). The board is , the players alternately occupy one edge a move, and Maker wants a clique of his own. We show that Maker has a winning strategy in MB(n;q) if , which is exactly the clique number of the random graph on n vertices with edge-probability 1/2. Due to an old theorem of Erdős and Selfridge this is best possible apart from an additive constant. Received March 28, 2000     

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     

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.     

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.     

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     

On Erdős's Eulerian Trail Game

 Paul Erdős proposed the following graph game. Starting with the empty graph on n vertices, two players, Trailmaker and Breaker, draw edges alternatingly. Each edge drawn has to start at the endpoint of the previously drawn edge, so the sequence of edges defines a trail. The game ends when it is impossible to continue the trail, and Trailmaker wins if the trail is eulerian. For all values of n, we determine which player has a winning strategy. Received: November 6, 1996 / Revised: May 2, 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     

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     

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.     

Density Conditions For Triangles In Multipartite Graphs

We consider the problem of finding a large or dense triangle-free subgraph in a given graph G. In response to a question of P. Erdős, we prove that, if the minimum degree of G is at least 9|V (G)|/10, the largest triangle-free subgraphs are precisely the largest bipartite subgraphs in G. We investigate in particular the case where G is a complete multipartite graph. We prove that a finite tripartite graph with all edge densities greater than the golden ratio has a triangle and that this bound is best possible. Also we show that an infinite-partite graph with finite parts has a triangle, provided that the edge density between any two parts is greater than 1/2.     

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.     

Covering of graphs by complete bipartite subgraphs; Complexity of 0–1 matrices

We prove that the edge set of an arbitrary simple graphG onn vertices can be covered by at mostn−[log₂ n]+1 complete bipartite subgraphs ofG. If the weight of a subgraph is the number of its vertices, then there always exists a cover with total weightc(n ²/logn) and this bound is sharp apart from a constant factor. Our result answers a problem of T. G. Tarján. Dedicated to Paul Erdős on his seventieth birthday     

Cycles in graphs of uncountable chromatic number

We answer a question of Erdős [1], [2] by showing that any graph of uncountable chromatic number contains an edge through which there are cycles of all (but finitely many) lengths.     

An Approximate Version of Sidorenko’s Conjecture

A beautiful conjecture of Erdős-Simonovits and Sidorenko states that, if H is a bipartite graph, then the random graph with edge density p has in expectation asymptotically the minimum number of copies of H over all graphs of the same order and edge density. This conjecture also has an equivalent analytic form and has connections to a broad range of topics, such as matrix theory, Markov chains, graph limits, and quasirandomness. Here we prove the conjecture if H has a vertex complete to the other part, and deduce an approximate version of the conjecture for all H. Furthermore, for a large class of bipartite graphs, we prove a stronger stability result which answers a question of Chung, Graham, and Wilson on quasirandomness for these graphs.     

The Erdős–Pósa Property for Odd Cycles in Highly Connected Graphs

Dedicated to the memory of Paul Erdős In [9] Thomassen proved that a -connected graph either contains k vertex disjoint odd cycles or an odd cycle cover containing at most 2k-2 vertices, i.e. he showed that the Erdős–Pósa property holds for odd cycles in highly connected graphs. In this paper, we will show that the above statement is still valid for 576k-connected graphs which is essentially best possible. Received November 17, 1999 RID="*" ID="*" This work was supported by a post-doctoral DONET grant. RID="†" ID="†" This work was supported by an NSF-CNRS collaborative research grant. RID="‡" ID="‡" This work was performed while both authors were visiting the LIRMM, Université de Montpellier II, France.     

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.     

Additive Completion of Lacunary Sequences

To the memory of Pál Erdős Thirty years ago I read the following question of Erdőos [4]: "Does there exist a sequence with so that every sufficiently large number is of the form ? $10" I sent my solution to Erdős in a letter (in Hungarian). He translated my letter into English and sent it to the Canadian Math. Bulletin; this became my first paper to appear. In this paper we will find, among others, the best value of the constant c in the above question, which was also asked by Erdős. Received March 30, 2000 RID="*" ID="*" Supported by Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research, Grants No. T 025617 and T 29759.     

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.     

Independent sets ink-chromatic graphs

A graph is said to have propertyP _k if in eachk-colouring ofG using allk colours there arek independent vertices having all colours. An (unpublished) suggestion of P. Erdős is answered in the affirmative: For eachk≧3 there is a k-critical graph withP _k . With the aid of a construction of T. Gallaik-chromatic graphs (k≧7) withP _k orP _k+1 of arbitrarily high connectivity are obtained. The main result is: Eachk-chromatic graph (k≧3) of girth ≧6 hasP _k or is a circuit of length 7. Dedicated to Paul Erdős on his seventieth birthday     

Some geometric applications of Dilworth’s theorem

A geometric graph is a graph drawn in the plane such that its edges are closed line segments and no three vertices are collinear. We settle an old question of Avital, Hanani, Erdős, Kupitz, and Perles by showing that every geometric graph withn vertices andm>k ⁴ n edges containsk+1 pairwise disjoint edges. We also prove that, given a set of pointsV and a set of axis-parallel rectangles in the plane, then either there arek+1 rectangles such that no point ofV belongs to more than one of them, or we can find an at most 2·10⁵ k ⁸ element subset ofV meeting all rectangles. This improves a result of Ding, Seymour, and Winkler. Both proofs are based on Dilworth’s theorem on partially ordered sets. The research by János Pach was supported by Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research Grant OTKA-4269 and NSF Grant CCR-91-22103.