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Induced Subgraphs With Many Distinct Degrees

Part of: Extremal combinatorics Graph theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2017

BHARGAV NARAYANAN  and
ISTVÁN TOMON
BHARGAV NARAYANAN
Affiliation:
Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WB, UK (e-mail: b.p.narayanan@dpmms.cam.ac.uk, i.tomon@dpmms.cam.ac.uk)
ISTVÁN TOMON
Affiliation:
Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics, University of Cambridge, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge CB3 0WB, UK (e-mail: b.p.narayanan@dpmms.cam.ac.uk, i.tomon@dpmms.cam.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Let hom(G) denote the size of the largest clique or independent set of a graph G. In 2007, Bukh and Sudakov proved that every n-vertex graph G with hom(G) = O(logn) contains an induced subgraph with Ω(n1/2) distinct degrees, and raised the question of deciding whether an analogous result holds for every n-vertex graph G with hom(G) = O(nϵ), where ϵ > 0 is a fixed constant. Here, we answer their question in the affirmative and show that every graph G on n vertices contains an induced subgraph with Ω((n/hom(G))1/2) distinct degrees. We also prove a stronger result for graphs with large cliques or independent sets and show, for any fixed k ∈ ℕ, that if an n-vertex graph G contains no induced subgraph with k distinct degrees, then hom(G)⩾n/(k − 1) − o(n); this bound is essentially best possible.

MSC classification

Primary: 05D10: Ramsey theory
Secondary: 05C07: Vertex degrees
Type
Paper
Information
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 2018 , pp. 110 - 123
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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