English

Bipartite induced density in triangle-free graphs

Combinatorics 2020-04-14 v3 Discrete Mathematics

Abstract

We prove that any triangle-free graph on nn vertices with minimum degree at least dd contains a bipartite induced subgraph of minimum degree at least d2/(2n)d^2/(2n). This is sharp up to a logarithmic factor in nn. Relatedly, we show that the fractional chromatic number of any such triangle-free graph is at most the minimum of n/dn/d and (2+o(1))n/logn(2+o(1))\sqrt{n/\log n} as nn\to\infty. This is sharp up to constant factors. Similarly, we show that the list chromatic number of any such triangle-free graph is at most O(min{n,(nlogn)/d})O(\min\{\sqrt{n},(n\log n)/d\}) as nn\to\infty. Relatedly, we also make two conjectures. First, any triangle-free graph on nn vertices has fractional chromatic number at most (2+o(1))n/logn(\sqrt{2}+o(1))\sqrt{n/\log n} as nn\to\infty. Second, any triangle-free graph on nn vertices has list chromatic number at most O(n/logn)O(\sqrt{n/\log n}) as nn\to\infty.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1808.02512,
  title  = {Bipartite induced density in triangle-free graphs},
  author = {Wouter Cames van Batenburg and Rémi de Joannis de Verclos and Ross J. Kang and François Pirot},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.02512},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

20 pages; in v2 added note of concurrent work and one reference; in v3 added more notes of ensuing work and a result towards one of the conjectures (for list colouring)

R2 v1 2026-06-23T03:27:13.750Z