English

Ramsey numbers upon vertex deletion

Combinatorics 2024-01-17 v3

Abstract

Given a graph GG, its Ramsey number r(G)r(G) is the minimum NN so that every two-coloring of E(KN)E(K_N) contains a monochromatic copy of GG. It was conjectured by Conlon, Fox, and Sudakov that if one deletes a single vertex from GG, the Ramsey number can change by at most a constant factor. We disprove this conjecture, exhibiting an infinite family of graphs such that deleting a single vertex from each decreases the Ramsey number by a super-constant factor. One consequence of this result is the following. There exists a family of graphs {Gn}\{G_n\} so that in any Ramsey coloring for GnG_n (that is, a coloring of a clique on r(Gn)1r(G_n)-1 vertices with no monochromatic copy of GnG_n), one of the color classes has density o(1)o(1).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2208.11181,
  title  = {Ramsey numbers upon vertex deletion},
  author = {Yuval Wigderson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2208.11181},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

11 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-25T01:54:53.784Z