A Zarankiewicz problem in tripartite graphs
Abstract
In 1975, Bollobás, Erdős, and Szemerédi asked the following Zarankiewicz-type problem. What is the smallest $\tau$ such that an $n \times n \times n$ tripartite graph with minimum degree $n + \tau$ must contain $K_{t, t, t}$? They further conjectured that $\tau = O(n^{1/2})$ when $t = 2$.
I will discuss our proof that $\tau = O(n^{1 - 1/t})$ (confirming their conjecture) and an infinite family of extremal examples. The bound $O(n^{1 - 1/t})$ is best possible whenever the Kővári-Sós-Turán bound $\operatorname{ex}(n, K_{t, t}) = O(n^{2 - 1/t})$ is (which is widely-conjectured to be the case).
This is joint work with Francesco Di Braccio (LSE).
Tight general bounds for the extremal number of 0-1 matrices
Abstract
A zero-one matrix $M$ is said to contain another zero-one matrix $A$ if we can delete some rows and columns of $M$ and replace some 1-entries with 0-entries such that the resulting matrix is $A$. The extremal number of $A$, denoted $\operatorname{ex}(n,A)$, is the maximum number of 1-entries that an $n\times n$ zero-one matrix can have without containing $A$. The systematic study of this function for various patterns $A$ goes back to the work of Furedi and Hajnal from 1992, and the field has many connections to other areas of mathematics and theoretical computer science. The problem has been particularly extensively studied for so-called acyclic matrices, but very little is known about the general case (that is, the case where $A$ is not necessarily acyclic). We prove the first asymptotically tight general result by showing that if $A$ has at most $t$ 1-entries in every row, then $\operatorname{ex}(n,A)\leq n^{2-1/t+o(1)}$. This verifies a conjecture of Methuku and Tomon.
Our result also provides the first tight general bound for the extremal number of vertex-ordered graphs with interval chromatic number two, generalizing a celebrated result of Furedi, and Alon, Krivelevich and Sudakov about the (unordered) extremal number of bipartite graphs with maximum degree $t$ in one of the vertex classes.
Joint work with Barnabas Janzer, Van Magnan and Abhishek Methuku.
Rainbow Hamilton cycles
Abstract
In a graph $H$ whose edges are coloured (not necessarily properly) a rainbow copy of a graph $G$ is a (not necessarily induced) subgraph of $H$ that is isomorphic to $G$ and whose edges are all coloured differently. In this talk I will explain why the problem of finding such rainbow copies is interesting, survey what we know, concentrating mainly on the case where $G$ is a Hamilton cycle, and then tell you a bit about a new result about finding rainbow Hamilton cycles resiliently in random graphs (which is joint work with Peter Allen and Liana Yepremyan).
Lower tails for triangle counts in the critical window
Abstract
The classical lower-tail problem for triangles in random graphs asks the following: given $\eta\in[0,1)$, what is the probability that $G(n,p)$ contains at most $\eta$ times the expected number of triangles? When $p=o(n^{-1/2})$ or $p = \omega(n^{-1/2})$ the asymptotics of the logarithm of this probability are known via Janson's inequality in the former case and regularity or container methods in the latter case.
We prove for the first time asymptotic formulas for the logarithm of the lower tail probability when $p=c n^{-1/2}$ for $c$ constant. Our results apply for all $c$ when $\eta \ge 1/2$ and for $c$ small enough when $\eta < 1/2$. For the special case $\eta=0$ of triangle-freeness, our results prove that a phase transition occurs as $c$ varies (in the sense of a non-analyticity of the rate function), while for $\eta \ge 1/2$ we prove that no phase transition occurs.
Our method involves ingredients from algorithms and statistical physics including rapid mixing of Markov chains and the cluster expansion. We complement our asymptotic formulas with efficient algorithms to approximately sample from $G(n,p)$ conditioned on the lower tail event.
Joint work with Will Perkins, Aditya Potukuchi and Michael Simkin.
Exponential Improvement for Multicolour Ramsey
Abstract
We give an exponential improvement on the upper bound for the $r$-colour diagonal Ramsey number for all $r$. The proof relies on geometric insights and offers a simplified proof in the case of $r=2$.
Joint Work with: Paul Ballister, Béla Bollobás, Marcelo Campos, Simon Griffiths, Rob Morris, Julian Sahasrabudhe and Marius Tiba.
Spanning spheres in Dirac hypergraphs
Abstract
We show that an $n$-vertex $k$-uniform hypergraph, where all $(k-1)$-subsets that are supported by an edge are in fact supported by at least $n/2+o(n)$ edges, contains a spanning $(k-1)$-dimensional sphere. This generalises Dirac's theorem, and confirms a conjecture of Georgakopoulos, Haslegrave, Montgomery, and Narayanan. Unlike typical results in the area, our proof does not rely on the absorption method or the regularity lemma. Instead, we use a recently introduced framework that is based on covering the vertex set of the host hypergraph with a family of complete blow-ups.
This is joint work with Freddie Illingworth, Richard Lang, Olaf Parczyk, and Amedeo Sgueglia.
Why not sign up and get your bearings round the streets of Oxford, its departments and its colleges, eight of which have never featured before. The various courses will begin in the University Parks.
Sunday 27 October. Find out more
Our own Harry Stuart (pictured) is President this year and Ben Green is on the Committee.