Related papers: Independent Sets and Continued Fractions

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…

Let $d \geq 3$ be a fixed integer. We give an asympotic formula for the expected number of spanning trees in a uniformly random $d$-regular graph with $n$ vertices. (The asymptotics are as $n\to\infty$, restricted to even $n$ if $d$ is…

The tree-independence number of a graph is the minimum, over all tree-decompositions of the graph, of the maximum size of an independent set contained in a bag. Graph classes of bounded tree-independence number have strong structural and…

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 $\alpha$.…

Let $G$ be a graph, $S \subseteq V(G)$ be a vertex set in $G$ and $r$ be a positive integer. The distance $r$-independence number of $S$ is the size of the largest subset $I \subseteq S$ such that no pair $u$, $v$ of vertices in $I$ have a…

We determine the asymptotics of the independence number of the random $d$-regular graph for all $d \ge d_0$. It is highly concentrated, with constant-order fluctuations around $n\alpha_* - c_*\log n$ for explicit constants $\alpha_*(d)$ and…

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…

We consider the number of independent sets in hypergraphs, which allows us to define the independence density of countable hypergraphs. Hypergraph independence densities include a broad family of densities over graphs and relational…

Let $\mathrm{d}(A)$ be the asymptotic density (if it exists) of a sequence of integers $A$. For any real numbers $0\leq\alpha\leq\beta\leq 1$, we solve the question of the existence of a sequence $A$ of positive integers such that…

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…

We describe an infinite family of graphs $G_n$, where $G_n$ has $n$ vertices, independence number at least $n/4$, and no set of less than $\sqrt{n}/2$ vertices intersects all its maximum independent sets. This is motivated by a question of…

We review the progress made on bounding the number of independent sets in $d$-regular and irregular graphs over the last 31 years. We particularly focus on contributions from Kahn, Zhao, and Sah et al. in incrementally proving stronger and…

We show that the largest density of factor of i.i.d. independent sets on the d-regular tree is asymptotically at most (log d)/d as d tends to infinity. This matches the lower bound given by previous constructions. It follows that the…

The cycles are the only $2$-connected graphs in which any two nonadjacent vertices form a vertex cut. We generalize this fact by proving that for every integer $k\ge 3$ there exists a unique graph $G$ satisfying the following conditions:…

Settling Kahn's conjecture (2001), we prove the following upper bound on the number $i(G)$ of independent sets in a graph $G$ without isolated vertices: \[ i(G) \le \prod_{uv \in E(G)} i(K_{d_u,d_v})^{1/(d_u d_v)}, \] where $d_u$ is the…

Let $G=(V,E)$ be a graph and $n$ a positive integer. Let $I_n(G)$ be the abstract simplicial complex whose simplices are the subsets of $V$ that do not contain an independent set of size $n$ in $G$. We study the collapsibility numbers of…

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…

The problem of looking for subsets of the natural numbers which contain no 3-term arithmetic progressions has a rich history. Roth's theorem famously shows that any such subset cannot have positive upper density. In contrast, Rankin in 1960…

The following natural problem was raised independently by Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal and Linial-Rabinovich in the late 80's. How large must the independence number $\alpha(G)$ of a graph $G$ be whose every $m$ vertices contain an independent set of…

A classical result by Otter shows that the complete graph has an exponential number of non-isomorphic spanning trees. This was recently extended by Lee to every almost regular graph of sufficiently large degree. In this paper, we consider…