English

Online size Ramsey numbers: Odd cycles vs connected graphs

Combinatorics 2022-11-02 v2

Abstract

Given two graph families H1\mathcal H_1 and H2\mathcal H_2, a size Ramsey game is played on the edge set of KNK_\mathbb{N}. In every round, Builder selects an edge and Painter colours it red or blue. Builder is trying to force Painter to create as soon as possible a red copy of a graph from H1\mathcal H_1 or a blue copy of a graph from H2\mathcal H_2. The online (size) Ramsey number r~(H1,H2)\tilde{r}(\mathcal H_1,\mathcal H_2) is the smallest number of rounds in the game provided Builder and Painter play optimally. We prove that if H1\mathcal H_1 is the family of all odd cycles and H2\mathcal H_2 is the family of all connected graphs on nn vertices and mm edges, then r~(H1,H2)φn+m2φ+1\tilde{r}(\mathcal H_1,\mathcal H_2)\ge \varphi n + m-2\varphi+1, where φ\varphi is the golden ratio, and for n3n\ge 3, m(n1)2/4m\le (n-1)^2/4 we have r~(H1,H2)n+2m+O(mn+1)\tilde{r}(\mathcal H_1,\mathcal H_2)\le n+2m+O(\sqrt{m-n+1}). We also show that r~(C3,Pn)3n4\tilde{r}(C_3,P_n)\le 3n-4 for n3n\ge 3. As a consequence we get 2.6n3r~(C3,Pn)3n42.6n-3\le \tilde{r}(C_3,P_n)\le 3n-4 for every n3n\ge 3.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2111.14147,
  title  = {Online size Ramsey numbers: Odd cycles vs connected graphs},
  author = {Grzegorz Adamski and Małgorzata Bednarska-Bzdęga},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2111.14147},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

14 pages, 0 figures; added appendix containing intuition behind the potential function used for lower bound; corrected typos and added a few clarifications

R2 v1 2026-06-24T07:54:42.921Z