English

Ramsey numbers for partially ordered sets

Combinatorics 2024-09-16 v1

Abstract

In this thesis, we present quantitative Ramsey-type results in the setting of finite sets that are equipped with a partial order, so-called posets. A prominent example of a poset is the Boolean lattice QnQ_n, which consists of all subsets of {1,,n}\{1,\dots,n\}, ordered by inclusion. For posets PP and QQ, the poset Ramsey number R(P,Q)R(P,Q) is the smallest NN such that no matter how the elements of QNQ_N are colored in blue and red, there is either an induced subposet isomorphic to PP in which every element is colored blue, or an induced subposet isomorphic to QQ in which every element is colored red. The central focus of this thesis is to investigate R(P,Qn)R(P,Q_n), where PP is fixed and nn grows large. Our results contribute to an active area of discrete mathematics, which studies the existence of large homogeneous substructures in host structures with local constraints, introduced for graphs by Erd\H{o}s and Hajnal. We provide an asymptotically tight bound on R(P,Qn)R(P,Q_n) for PP from several classes of posets, and show a dichotomy in the asymptotic behavior of R(P,Qn)R(P,Q_n), depending on whether PP contains a subposet isomorphic to one of two specific posets. A fundamental question in the study of poset Ramsey numbers is to determine the asymptotic behavior of R(Qn,Qn)R(Q_n,Q_n) for large nn. In this dissertation, we present improvements on the known lower and upper bound on R(Qn,Qn)R(Q_n,Q_n). Moreover, we explore variations of the poset Ramsey setting, including Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal-type questions when the small forbidden poset has a non-monochromatic color pattern, and so-called weak poset Ramsey numbers, which are concerned with non-induced subposets.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.08819,
  title  = {Ramsey numbers for partially ordered sets},
  author = {Christian Winter},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.08819},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

183 pages, PhD thesis, accepted for the degree of PhD in Mathematics at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:43:42.190Z