Related papers: Large independent sets from local considerations

A central problem in extremal graph theory is to estimate, for a given graph $H$, the number of $H$-free graphs on a given set of $n$ vertices. In the case when $H$ is not bipartite, fairly precise estimates on this number are known. In…

An independent dominating set of a graph, also known as a maximal independent set, is a set $S$ of pairwise non-adjacent vertices such that every vertex not in $S$ is adjacent to some vertex in $S$. We prove that for $\Delta=4$ or…

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…

Extremal problems involving the enumeration of graph substructures have a long history in graph theory. For example, the number of independent sets in a $d$-regular graph on $n$ vertices is at most $(2^{d+1}-1)^{n/2d}$ by the Kahn-Zhao…

An independent set in a graph is a set of pairwise non-adjacent vertices. The independence number $\alpha{(G)}$ is the size of a maximum independent set in the graph $G$. The independence polynomial of a graph is the generating function for…

For a graph $G$, a vertex subset $S$ is called a maximum generalized $k$-independent set if the induced subgraph $G[S]$ does not contain a $k$-tree as its subgraph, and the subset has maximum cardinality. The generalized $k$-independence…

Let $G$ be a graph on $n$ vertices, independence number $\alpha(G)$, Lov\'asz theta function $\vartheta(G)$, and Shannon capacity $\Theta(G)$. We define $n_{\ge0}(G)$ to be the minimum number of non-negative eigenvalues taken over all…

Let $G$ be a graph and $\mathcal{F}$ a family of graphs. Define $\alpha_{\mathcal{F}}(G)$ as the maximum order of any induced subgraph of $G$ that belongs to the family $\mathcal{F}$. For the family $\mathcal{F}$ of graphs with…

Let $G(n,c/n)$ and $G_r(n)$ be an $n$-node sparse random graph and a sparse random $r$-regular graph, respectively, and let ${\cal I}(n,r)$ and ${\cal I}(n,c)$ be the sizes of the largest independent set in $G(n,c/n)$ and $G_r(n)$. The…

Let $i_t(G)$ denote the number of independent sets of size $t$ in a graph $G$. Levit and Mandrescu have conjectured that for all bipartite $G$ the sequence $(i_t(G))_{t \geq 0}$ (the {\em independent set sequence} of $G$) is unimodal. We…

Many well-studied problems in extremal combinatorics deal with the maximum possible size of a family of objects in which every pair of objects satisfies a given restriction. One problem of this type was recently raised by Alon, Gujgiczer,…

Erd\H{o}s and Hajnal conjectured that for every graph $H$, there exists $c>0$ such that every $H$-free graph $G$ has a clique or a stable set of size at least $|G|^c$ (a graph is $H$-free if it has no induced subgraph isomorphic to $H$).…

The Erd\H{o}s--Hajnal Theorem asserts that non-universal graphs, that is, graphs that do not contain an induced copy of some fixed graph $H$, have homogeneous sets of size significantly larger than one can generally expect to find in a…

A maximal independent set in a graph $G$ is an independent set that cannot be extended to a larger independent set by adding any vertex from $G$. This paper investigates the problem of determining the maximum number of maximal independent…

Finding the maximum number of maximal independent sets in an $n$-vertex graph $G$, $i(G)$, from a restricted class is an extensively studied problem. Let $kK_2$ denote the matching of size $k$, that is a graph with $2k$ vertices and $k$…

Let $G$ be a graph $G$ whose largest independent set has size $m$. A permutation $\pi$ of $\{1, \ldots, m\}$ is an {\em independent set permutation} of $G$ if $$ a_{\pi(1)}(G) \leq a_{\pi(2)}(G) \leq \cdots \leq a_{\pi(m)}(G) $$ where…

We investigate the independence number of two graphs constructed from a polarity of $\mathrm{PG}(2,q)$. For the first graph under consideration, the Erd\H{o}s-R\'enyi graph $ER_q$, we provide an improvement on the known lower bounds on its…

Extremal problems involving independent sets are much studied. Two of the most important extremal problems in this context are concerned with the sharp upper bounds for the number of independent sets of fixed size and the independence…

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…

An $r$-graph $G$ is a pair $(V,E)$ such that $V$ is a set and $E$ is a family of $r$-element subsets of $V$. The \emph{independence number} $\alpha(G)$ of $G$ is the size of a largest subset $I$ of $V$ such that no member of $E$ is a subset…