1. Induced $C_4$-free subgraphs with high average degree
- Author
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Du, Xiying, Girão, António, Hunter, Zach, McCarty, Rose, and Scott, Alex
- Subjects
FOS: Mathematics ,Mathematics - Combinatorics ,Combinatorics (math.CO) - Abstract
We prove that there exists a constant $C$ so that for all $s,k \in \mathbb{N}$, every $K_{s,s}$-free graph with average degree at least $k^{Cs^3}$ contains an induced subgraph which is $C_4$-free and has average degree at least $k$. It was known that some function of $s$ and $k$ suffices, but this is the first explicit bound. Using this theorem, we give short and streamlined proofs of the following three corollaries. First, we show that there exists a constant $C$ so that for all $k \in \mathbb{N}$, every graph with average degree at least $k^{Ck^6}$ contains a bipartite subgraph (not necessarily induced) which is $C_4$-free and has average degree at least $k$. This almost matches the recent bound of $k^{Ck^2}$ due to Montgomery, Pokrovskiy, and Sudakov. Next, we show that there exists a constant $C$ so that for all $s,k \in \mathbb{N}$, every $K_{s,s}$-free graph with average degree at least $k^{Cs^3}$ contains an induced subdivision of $K_k$. This is the first quantitative improvement on a well-known theorem of K\"uhn and Osthus; their proof gives a bound that is triply exponential in both $k$ and $s$. Finally, we show that for any hereditary degree-bounded class $\mathcal{F}$, there exists a constant $C_\mathcal{F}$ so that $(C_\mathcal{F})^{s^3}$ is a degree-bounding function for $\mathcal{F}$. This is the first bound of any type on the rate of growth of such functions. It is open whether there is always a polynomial degree-bounding function., Comment: 18 pages
- Published
- 2023