English

Chromatic thresholds for pairs of graphs

Combinatorics 2026-05-12 v1

Abstract

The chromatic threshold of a graph HH is the minimum-degree density above which every HH-free graph has bounded chromatic number. We study a two-color Ramsey analogue: for graphs H1H_1 and H2H_2, we ask for the minimum-degree density above which every graph that admits a red-blue edge-coloring with no red copy of H1H_1 and no blue copy of H2H_2 has bounded chromatic number. We give a complete answer when both H1H_1 and H2H_2 are 3-chromatic. The threshold takes exactly one of the five values 23,57,34,79,45, \frac23,\quad \frac57,\quad \frac34,\quad \frac79,\quad \frac45, and we characterize precisely which pairs (H1,H2)(H_1,H_2) give each value. The classification is determined by the ordinary chromatic thresholds of H1H_1 and H2H_2 and by their embeddability into a hierarchy of C5C_5-type Ramsey configurations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.10897,
  title  = {Chromatic thresholds for pairs of graphs},
  author = {Jun Gao and Hong Liu and Zhuo Wu and Yisai Xue},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.10897},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

25 pages, 14 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T07:05:10.534Z