English

2-reachable subsets in two-colored graphs

Combinatorics 2025-06-16 v1

Abstract

A subset XX of vertices in a graph GG is a {\em diameter 2 subset} if the distance of any two vertices of XX is at most two {\em in G[X]G[X]}. Relaxing this notion, a subset XX of vertices in a graph GG is a {\em 2-reachable subset} if the distance of any two vertices of XX is at most two {\em in GG}. Related to recent attempts to strengthen a well-known conjecture of Ryser, English et al. conjectured that the vertices of a 22-edge-colored cocktail party graph (the graph obtained from a complete graph with an even number of vertices by deleting a perfect matching) can be covered by the vertices of two monochromatic diameter 22 subsets. In this note we prove the relaxed form of this conjecture, replacing diameter 22 by 22-reachable. An immediate corollary is that 22-colored cocktail party graphs on nn vertices must contain a monochromatic 22-reachable subset with at least n2n\over 2 vertices (and this is best possible).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2506.11696,
  title  = {2-reachable subsets in two-colored graphs},
  author = {Andras Gyarfas and Gabor N. Sarkozy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2506.11696},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T03:15:40.261Z