English

New bounds for some small multicolor Ramsey numbers

Combinatorics 2025-09-05 v1

Abstract

The Ramsey number R(G1,,Gk)R(G_1,\dots,G_k) is the smallest nn such that every kk-coloring of the edges of KnK_n contains a monochromatic copy of GiG_i in color ii. Ramsey numbers are challenging to compute, and few are known exactly. We use Boolean satisfiability (SAT) solvers to search for structured colorings that give lower bounds, and we show R(K4,K4e,K4e)35R(K_4,K_4-e,K_4-e) \ge 35 and R(K3,K4,C4,C4)49R(K_3,K_4,C_4,C_4) \ge 49. Moreover, we tighten some recent upper bounds for multicolor Ramsey numbers for cycles and show R(C3,C6,C6)=R(C5,C6,C6)=15R(C_3,C_6,C_6) = R(C_5,C_6,C_6) = 15. Finally, we enumerate critical graphs for the numbers R(C4,K1,s)R(C_4,K_{1,s}) and R(C6,K1,s)R(C_6,K_{1,s}).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.03784,
  title  = {New bounds for some small multicolor Ramsey numbers},
  author = {William J. Wesley},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.03784},
  year   = {2025}
}

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R2 v1 2026-07-01T05:20:11.073Z