English

Subgraph discrepancies in the complete graph

Combinatorics 2026-02-05 v1

Abstract

Given a 2-edge-coloring f:E(Kn){±1}f : E(K_n) \rightarrow \{\pm 1\}, the discrepancy of a subgraph FKnF \subseteq K_n is defined as eE(F)f(e)\left| \sum_{e \in E(F)} f(e) \right|. Erd\H{o}s, F\"uredi, Loebl and S\'os showed that if FF is an nn-vertex tree with maximum degree at most (1ε)n(1-\varepsilon)n, then every 2-coloring of KnK_n has a copy of FF with discrepancy Ω(ε)n\Omega(\varepsilon)n. We extend this result by showing that the same conclusion holds for every nn-vertex graph with maximum degree at most (1ε)n(1-\varepsilon)n and no isolated vertices. We also show that for every dd-regular nn-vertex graph FF with d(1ε)nd \leq (1-\varepsilon)n, every 2-coloring of KnK_n has a copy of FF with discrepancy Ω(εd)n\Omega(\sqrt{\varepsilon d}) \cdot n. The dependence on dd and nn is best possible. Finally, we consider specific graphs FF, namely KrK_r-factors and 2-factors. For each such graph FF, we determine the optimal constant λ\lambda such that every 2-coloring of KnK_n has a copy of FF with discrepancy at least (λ+o(1))n(\lambda + o(1))n.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.04069,
  title  = {Subgraph discrepancies in the complete graph},
  author = {Micha Christoph and Lior Gishboliner and Michael Krivelevich},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.04069},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:35:09.334Z