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On the Lower Tail Variational Problem for Random Graphs

Part of: Graph theory Limit theorems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2016

YUFEI ZHAO
YUFEI ZHAO*
Affiliation:
Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK (e-mail: yufei.zhao@maths.ox.ac.uk)
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Abstract

We study the lower tail large deviation problem for subgraph counts in a random graph. Let XH denote the number of copies of H in an Erdős–Rényi random graph $\mathcal{G}(n,p)$. We are interested in estimating the lower tail probability $\mathbb{P}(X_H \le (1-\delta) \mathbb{E} X_H)$ for fixed 0 < δ < 1.

Thanks to the results of Chatterjee, Dembo and Varadhan, this large deviation problem has been reduced to a natural variational problem over graphons, at least for p ≥ n−αH (and conjecturally for a larger range of p). We study this variational problem and provide a partial characterization of the so-called ‘replica symmetric’ phase. Informally, our main result says that for every H, and 0 < δ < δH for some δH > 0, as p → 0 slowly, the main contribution to the lower tail probability comes from Erdős–Rényi random graphs with a uniformly tilted edge density. On the other hand, this is false for non-bipartite H and δ close to 1.

MSC classification

Primary: 05C80: Random graphs
Secondary: 05C35: Extremal problems 60F10: Large deviations
Type
Paper
Information
Combinatorics, Probability and Computing , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , March 2017 , pp. 301 - 320
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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