In this paper, we prove a theorem on tight paths in convex geometric hypergraphs, which is asymptotically sharp in infinitely many cases. Our geometric theorem is a common generalization of early results of Hopf and Pannwitz, Sutherland, Kupitz and Perles for convex geometric graphs, as well as the classical Erd\H{o}s-Gallai Theorem for graphs. As a consequence, we obtain the first substantial improvement on the Tur\'{a}n problem for tight paths in uniform hypergraphs.
A sunflower is a collection of distinct sets such that the intersection of any two of them is the same as the common intersection C of all of them, and | C | is smaller than each of the sets. A longstanding conjecture due to Erdős and Szemerédi (solved recently in [7, 9]; see also [22]) was that the maximum size of a family of subsets of [ n ] that contains no sunflower of fixed size k > 2 is exponentially smaller than 2 n as n → ∞. We consider the problems of determining the maximum sum and product of k families of subsets of [ n ] that contain no sunflower of size k with one set from each family. For the sum, we prove that the maximum is $$(k-1)2^n+1+\sum_{s=0}^{k-2}\binom{n}{s}$$ for all n ⩾ k ⩾ 3, and for the k = 3 case of the product, we prove that the maximum is $$\biggl(\ffrac{1}{8}+o(1)\biggr)2^{3n}.$$ We conjecture that for all fixed k ⩾ 3, the maximum product is (1/8+ o (1))2 kn .
The well-known Ramsey number $r(t,u)$ is the smallest integer $n$ such that every $K_t$-free graph of order $n$ contains an independent set of size $u$. In other words, it contains a subset of $u$ vertices with no $K_2$. Erd{\H o}s and Rogers introduced a more general problem replacing $K_2$ by $K_s$ for $2\le s
Let n \geq l \geq 2 and q \geq 2. We consider the minimum N such that whenever we have N points in the plane in general position and the l-subsets of these points are colored with q colors, there is a subset S of n points all of whose l-subsets have the same color and furthermore S is in convex position. This combines two classical areas of intense study over the last 75 years: the Ramsey problem for hypergraphs and the Erd\H os-Szekeres theorem on convex configurations in the plane. For the special case l = 2, we establish a single exponential bound on the minimum N, such that every complete $N$-vertex geometric graph whose edges are colored with q colors, yields a monochromatic convex geometric graph on n vertices. For fixed l \geq 2 and q \geq 4, our results determine the correct exponential tower growth rate for N as a function of n, similar to the usual hypergraph Ramsey problem, even though we require our monochromatic set to be in convex position. Our results also apply to the case of l=3 and q=2 by using a geometric variation of the stepping up lemma of Erd\H os and Hajnal. This is in contrast to the fact that the upper and lower bounds for the usual 3-uniform hypergraph Ramsey problem for two colors differ by one exponential in the tower.
We consider the following problem posed by Erdős in 1962. Suppose that $G$ is an $n$-vertex graph where the number of $s$-cliques in $G$ is $t$. How small can the independence number of $G$ be? Our main result suggests that for fixed $s$, the smallest possible independence number undergoes a transition at $t=n^{s/2+o(1)}$.
In the case of triangles ($s=3$) our method yields the following result which is sharp apart from constant factors and generalizes basic results in Ramsey theory: there exists $c>0$ such that every $n$-vertex graph with $t$ triangles has independence number at least $$c \cdot \min\left\{ \sqrt {n \log n}\, , \, \frac{n}{t^{1/3}} \left(\log \frac{n}{ t^{1/3}}\right)^{2/3} \right\}.$$
The Ramsey number $r_k(s,n)$ is the minimum $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the $k$-subsets of $\{1, \ldots, N\}$ contains a red set of size $s$ or a blue set of size $n$, where a set is red (blue) if all of its $k$-subsets are red (blue). A $k$-uniform \emph{tight path} of size $s$, denoted by $P_{s}$, is a set of $s$ vertices $v_1 < \cdots < v_{s}$ in $\mathbb{Z}$, and all $s-k+1$ edges of the form $\{v_j,v_{j+1},\ldots, v_{j + k -1}\}$. Let $r_k(P_s, n)$ be the minimum $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the $k$-subsets of $\{1, \ldots, N\}$ results in a red $P_{s}$ or a blue set of size $n$. The problem of estimating both $r_k(s,n)$ and $r_k(P_s, n)$ for $k=2$ goes back to the seminal work of Erdos and Szekeres from 1935, while the case $k\ge 3$ was first investigated by Erdos and Rado in 1952. In this paper, we deduce a quantitative relationship between multicolor variants of $r_k(P_s, n)$ and $r_k(n, n)$. This yields several consequences including the following: (1) We determine the correct tower growth rate for both $r_k(s,n)$ and $r_k(P_s, n)$ for $s \ge k+3$. The question of determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(s,n)$ for all $s \ge k+1$ was posed by Erdos and Hajnal in 1972. (2) We show that determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(P_{k+1}, n)$ is equivalent to determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(n,n)$, which is a notorious conjecture of Erdos, Hajnal and Rado from 1965 that remains open. Some related off-diagonal hypergraph Ramsey problems are also explored.
Let M be a subset of {0, .., n} and F be a family of subsets of an n element set such that the size of A intersection B is in M for every A, B in F. Suppose that l is the maximum number of consecutive integers contained in M and n is sufficiently large. Then we prove that |F| < min {1.622^n 100^l, 2^{n/2+l log^2 n}}. The first bound complements the previous bound of roughly (1.99)^n due to Frankl and the second author which applies even when M={0, 1,.., n} - {n/4}. For small l, the second bound above becomes better than the first bound. In this case, it yields 2^{n/2+o(n)} and this can be viewed as a generalization (in an asymptotic sense) of the famous Eventown theorem of Berlekamp. Our second result complements the result of Frankl-Rodl in a different direction. Fix eps>0 and eps n < t < n/5 and let M={0, 1, .., n)-(t, t+n^{0.525}). Then, in the notation above, we prove that for n sufficiently large, |F| < n{n \choose (n+t)/2}. This is essentially sharp aside from the multiplicative factor of n. The short proof uses the Frankl-Wilson theorem and results about the distribution of prime numbers.
A sunflower is a collection of distinct sets such that the intersection of any two of them is the same as the common intersection $C$ of all of them, and $|C|$ is smaller than each of the sets. A longstanding conjecture due to Erd\H{o}s and Szemer\'edi states that the maximum size of a family of subsets of $[n]$ that contains no sunflower of fixed size $k>2$ is exponentially smaller than $2^n$ as $n\rightarrow\infty$. We consider this problem for multiple families. In particular, we obtain sharp or almost sharp bounds on the sum and product of $k$ families of subsets of $[n]$ that together contain no sunflower of size $k$ with one set from each family. For the sum, we prove that the maximum is $$(k-1)2^n+1+\sum_{s=n-k+2}^{n}\binom{n}{s}$$ for all $n \ge k \ge 3$, and for the $k=3$ case of the product, we prove that it is between $$\left(\frac{1}{8}+o(1)\right)2^{3n}\qquad \hbox{and} \qquad (0.13075+o(1))2^{3n}.$$