A Higher-Order Clique Density Theorem
Combinatorics
2026-07-07 v1
Abstract
Reiher's clique density theorem determines the sharp lower envelope for the density of at fixed edge density. We prove a higher-order version in which the prescribed quantity is itself a clique density. For every , we determine the minimum possible -density among graphons with prescribed -density. For the constraint is genuinely nonlinear and leaves the edge density undetermined; nevertheless, on the positive range the sharp lower boundary is the classical multipartite edge-to-clique profile, reparametrised by -density. We also prove stability on the positive branches of this profile: at every interior point, near extremality forces cut-distance closeness to the corresponding extremal family at the induced edge density.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.06545,
title = {A Higher-Order Clique Density Theorem},
author = {Heng Li and Hong Liu and Yixiao Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.06545},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
15 pages