Related papers: Large Independent Sets in Triangle-Free Planar Gra…
Since planar triangle-free graphs are 3-colourable, such a graph with n vertices has an independent set of size at least n/3. We prove that unless the graph contains a certain obstruction, its independence number is at least n/(3-epsilon)…
Steinberg and Tovey proved that every n-vertex planar triangle-free graph has an independent set of size at least (n+1)/3, and described an infinite class of tight examples. We show that all n-vertex planar triangle-free graphs except for…
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.…
The celebrated Hadwiger's conjecture states that if a graph contains no $K_{t+1}$ minor then it is $t$-colourable. If true, it would in particular imply that every $n$-vertex $K_{t+1}$-minor-free graph has an independent set of size at…
Determining the size of a maximum independent set of a graph $G$, denoted by $\alpha(G)$, is an NP-hard problem. Therefore, many attempts are made to find upper and lower bounds, or exact values of $\alpha (G)$ for special classes of…
Let $G$ be a triangle-free graph with $n$ vertices and average degree $t$. We show that $G$ contains at least \[ e^{(1-n^{-1/12})\frac{1}{2}\frac{n}{t}\ln t (\frac{1}{2}\ln t-1)} \] independent sets. This improves a recent result of the…
The size of a largest independent set of vertices in a given graph $G$ is denoted by $\alpha(G)$ and is called its independence number (or stability number). Given a graph $G$ and an integer $K,$ it is NP-complete to decide whether…
By Brook's Theorem, every n-vertex graph of maximum degree at most Delta >= 3 and clique number at most Delta is Delta-colorable, and thus it has an independent set of size at least n/Delta. We give an approximate characterization of graphs…
The 4 Color Theorem (4CT) implies that every $n$-vertex planar graph has an independent set of size at least $\frac{n}4$; this is best possible, as shown by the disjoint union of many copies of $K_4$. In 1968, Erd\H{o}s asked whether this…
Nielsen proved that the maximum number of maximal independent sets (MIS's) of size $k$ in an $n$-vertex graph is asymptotic to $(n/k)^k$, with the extremal construction a disjoint union of $k$ cliques with sizes as close to $n/k$ as…
Recently, settling a question of Erd\H{o}s, Balogh and Pet\v{r}\'{i}\v{c}kov\'{a} showed that there are at most $2^{n^2/8+o(n^2)}$ $n$-vertex maximal triangle-free graphs, matching the previously known lower bound. Here we characterize the…
A set is called r-independent, if every two vertices of it are in distance greater then r. In the r-independent set problem with parameter k, we ask whether in a given graph G there exists an r-independent set of size k. In this work we…
Ajtai, Koml\'os, and Szemer\'edi proved that for sufficiently large $t$ every triangle-free graph with $n$ vertices and average degree $t$ has an independent set of size at least $\frac{n}{100t}\log{t}$. We extend this by proving that the…
We introduce a new framework for reconfiguration problems, and apply it to independent sets as the first example. Suppose that we are given an independent set $I_0$ of a graph $G$, and an integer $l \ge 0$ which represents a lower bound on…
We show that every planar triangulation on $n$ vertices has a maximal independent set of size at most $n/3$. This affirms a conjecture by Botler, Fernandes and Guti\'errez [Electron.\ J.\ Comb., 2024], which in turn would follow if an open…
An $n$-vertex, $d$-regular graph can have at most $2^{n/2+o_d(n)}$ independent sets. In this paper we address what happens with this upper bound when we impose the further condition that the graph has independence number at most $\alpha$.…
Fix a positive integer $r$, and a graph $G$ that is $K_{3,r}$-minor-free. Let $I_s$ and $I_t$ be two independent sets in $G$, each of size $k$. We begin with a ``token'' on each vertex of $I_s$ and seek to move all tokens to $I_t$, by…
There has been interest recently in maximizing the number of independent sets in graphs. For example, the Kahn-Zhao theorem gives an upper bound on the number of independent sets in a $d$-regular graph. Similarly, it is a corollary of the…
We prove a tight upper bound on the independence polynomial (and total number of independent sets) of cubic graphs of girth at least 5. The bound is achieved by unions of the Heawood graph, the point/line incidence graph of the Fano plane.…
A set of vertices is $k$-sparse if it induces a graph with a maximum degree of at most $k$. In this missive, we consider the order of the largest $k$-sparse set in a triangle-free graph of fixed order. We show, for example, that every…