Related papers: Maximal independent sets and separating covers

We consider the possible sizes of large sumfree sets contained in the discrete hypercube $\{1,...,n\}^k$, and we determine upper and lower bounds for the maximal size as $n$ becomes large. We also discuss a continuous analogue in which our…

Every $n$-vertex planar triangle-free graph with maximum degree at most $3$ has an independent set of size at least $\frac{3}{8}n$. This was first conjectured by Albertson, Bollob\'as and Tucker, and was later proved by Heckman and Thomas.…

Maximally recoverable codes are codes designed for distributed storage which combine quick recovery from single node failure and optimal recovery from catastrophic failure. Gopalan et al [SODA 2017] studied the alphabet size needed for such…

Let $G$ be a graph with vertex set $V(G)$ and edge set $E(G)$. A subset $I$ of $V(G)$ is an independent vertex subset if no two vertices in $I$ are adjacent in $G$. We study the number, $\sigma_1(G)$, of all subsets of $v(G)$ that contain…

The number of maximal independent sets of the n-cycle graph C_n is known to be the nth term of the Perrin sequence. The action of the automorphism group of C_n on the family of these maximal independent sets partitions this family into…

The Cayley sum graph $\Gamma_S$ of a set $S \subseteq \mathbb{Z}_n$ is defined on the vertex set $\mathbb{Z}_n$, with an edge between distinct $x, y \in \mathbb{Z}_n$ if $x + y \in S$. Campos, Dahia, and Marciano have recently shown that if…

In this paper, we study the average size of independent (vertex) sets of a graph. This invariant can be regarded as the logarithmic derivative of the independence polynomial evaluated at $1$. We are specifically concerned with extremal…

The independence density of a finite hypergraph is the probability that a subset of vertices, chosen uniformly at random contains no hyperedges. Independence densities can be generalized to countable hypergraphs using limits. We show that,…

We consider three extremal problems about the number of copies of a fixed graph in another larger graph. First, we correct an error in a result of Reiher and Wagner and prove that the number of $k$-edge stars in a graph with density $x \in…

A set $D$ of vertices of a graph $G$ is a dissociation set if each vertex of $D$ has at most one neighbor in $D$. The dissociation number of $G$, $diss(G)$, is the cardinality of a maximum dissociation set in a graph $G$. In this paper we…

For a positive integer $n$, let $[n]$ denote $\{1, \ldots, n\}$. For a 2-dimensional integer lattice point $\mathbf{b}$ and positive integers $k\geq 2$ and $n$, a \textit{$k$-sum $\mathbf{b}$-free set} of $[n]\times [n]$ is a subset $S$ of…

A fundamental problem of extremal graph theory is to ask, 'What is the maximum number of edges in an $F$-free graph on $n$ vertices?' Recently Alon and Shikhelman proposed a more general, subgraph counting, version of this question. They…

We give a combinatorial polynomial-time algorithm to find a maximum weight independent set in perfect graphs of bounded degree that do not contain a prism or a hole of length four as an induced subgraph. An even pair in a graph is a pair of…

Let G be a simple graph with vertex set V(G). A subset S of V(G) is independent if no two vertices from S are adjacent. By Ind(G) we mean the family of all independent sets of G while core(G) and corona(G) denote the intersection and the…

The independence polynomial of a graph $G$ is the generating polynomial corresponding to its independent sets of different sizes. More formally, if $a_k(G)$ denotes the number of independent sets of $G$ of size $k$ then \[I(G,z) \as…

Erd\H{o}s asked for the largest size $f(n)$ of a subset of $\{1,\dots,n\}$ with no element dividing two others. We show that $f(n)=c_2\,n+o(n)$ for an effectively computable constant $c_2$, and moreover that the number $q(n)$ of such…

We prove that $\det A\leq 6^\frac{n}{6}$ whenever $A\in\{0,1\}^{n\times n}$ contains at most $2n$ ones. We also prove an upper bound on the determinant of matrices with the $k$-consecutive ones property, a generalisation of the consecutive…

Answering a question of P. Erdos from 1965, we show that for every eps>0 there is a set A of n integers with the following property: every subset A' of A with at least (1/3 + eps)n elements contains three distinct elements x,y,z with x + y…

A sunflower is a collection of distinct sets such that the intersection of any two of them is the same as the common intersection $C$ of all of them, and $|C|$ is smaller than each of the sets. A longstanding conjecture due to Erd\H{o}s and…

Consider the family of all perfect matchings of the complete graph $K_{2n}$ with $2n$ vertices. Given any collection $\mathcal M$ of perfect matchings of size $s$, there exists a maximum number $f(n,x)$ such that if $s\leq f(n,x)$, then…