English

Geometric constructions for Ramsey-Tur\'an theory

Combinatorics 2025-08-19 v2

Abstract

Combining two classical notions in extremal combinatorics, the study of Ramsey-Tur\'an theory seeks to determine, for integers mnm\le n and pqp \leq q, the number RTp(n,Kq,m)\mathsf{RT}_p(n,K_q,m), which is the maximum size of an nn-vertex KqK_q-free graph in which every set of at least mm vertices contains a KpK_p. Two major open problems in this area from the 80s ask: (1) whether the asymptotic extremal structure for the general case exhibits certain periodic behaviour, resembling that of the special case when p=2p=2; (2) constructing analogues of Bollob\'as-Erd\H{o}s graphs with densities other than 1/21/2. We refute the first conjecture by witnessing asymptotic extremal structures that are drastically different from the p=2p=2 case, and address the second problem by constructing Bollob\'as-Erd\H{o}s-type graphs using high dimensional complex spheres with all rational densities. Some matching upper bounds are also provided.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2103.10423,
  title  = {Geometric constructions for Ramsey-Tur\'an theory},
  author = {Hong Liu and Christian Reiher and Maryam Sharifzadeh and Katherine Staden},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.10423},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

27 pages, 2 figures, to appear in JEMS

R2 v1 2026-06-24T00:19:43.892Z