English

Packing without some pieces

Combinatorics 2019-01-29 v1

Abstract

Erd\H{o}s and Hanani proved that for every fixed integer k2k \ge 2, the complete graph KnK_n can be almost completely packed with copies of KkK_k; that is, KnK_n contains pairwise edge-disjoint copies of KkK_k that cover all but an on(1)o_n(1) fraction of its edges. Equivalently, elements of the set \C(k)\C(k) of all red-blue edge colorings of KkK_k can be used to almost completely pack every red-blue edge coloring of KnK_n. The following strengthening of the aforementioned Erd\H{o}s-Hanani result is considered. Suppose \C\C(k)\C' \subset \C(k). Is it true that we can use elements only from \C\C' and almost completely pack every red-blue edge coloring of KnK_n? An element C\C(k)C \in \C(k) is {\em avoidable} if \C=\C(k)C\C'=\C(k) \setminus C has this property and a subset F\C(k){\cal F} \subset \C(k) is avoidable if \C=\C(k)F\C'=\C(k) \setminus {\cal F} has this property. It seems difficult to determine all avoidable graphs as well as all avoidable families. We prove some nontrivial sufficient conditions for avoidability. Our proofs imply, in particular, that (i) almost all elements of \C(k)\C(k) are avoidable (ii) all Eulerian elements of \C(k)\C(k) are avoidable and, in fact, the set of all Eulerian elements of \C(k)\C(k) is avoidable.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1901.09185,
  title  = {Packing without some pieces},
  author = {Raphael Yuster},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.09185},
  year   = {2019}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T07:22:54.236Z