Informally, the multicolour version of the Erdos-Hajnal conjecture (shortly EH-conjecture) asserts that if a sufficiently large host clique on n vertices is edge-coloured avoiding a copy of some fixed edge-coloured clique, then there is a large homogeneous set of size n beta for some positive beta, where a set of vertices is homogeneous if it does not induce all the colours. This conjecture, if true, claims that imposing local conditions on edge-partitions of cliques results in a global structural consequence such as a large homogeneous set, a set avoiding all edges of some part. While this conjecture attracted a lot of attention, it is still open even for two colours. In this note, we reduce the multicolour version of the EH-conjecture to the case when the number of colours used in a host clique is either the same as in the forbidden pattern or one more. We exhibit a non-monotonicity behaviour of homogeneous sets in coloured cliques with forbidden patterns by showing that allowing an extra colour in the host graph could actually decrease the size of a largest homogeneous set. (c) 2025 Published by Elsevier B.V.

An edge-colouring of a graph G can fail to be rainbow for two reasons: either it contains a monochromatic cherry (a pair of incident edges), or a monochromatic matching of size two. A colouring is a proper colouring if it forbids the first structure, and a star-colouring if it forbids the second structure. In this paper, we study rainbow subgraphs in star-coloured graphs and determine the maximum number of colours in a star-colouring of a large complete graph which does not contain a rainbow copy of a given graph H. This problem is a special case of one studied by Axenovich and Iverson on generalised Ramsey numbers and we extend their results in this case.

We call a pair $(m,f)$ of integers, $m\geq 1$, $0\leq f \leq \binom{m}{2}$, \emph{absolutely avoidable} if there is $n_0$ such that for any pair of integers $(n,e)$ with $n>n_0$ and $0\leq e\leq \binom{n}{2}$ there is a graph on $n$ vertices and $e$ edges that contains no induced subgraph on $m$ vertices and $f$ edges. Some pairs are clearly not absolutely avoidable, for example $(m,0)$ is not absolutely avoidable since any sufficiently sparse graph on at least $m$ vertices contains independent sets on $m$ vertices. Here we show that there are infinitely many absolutely avoidable pairs. We give a specific infinite set $M$ such that for any $m\in M$, the pair $(m, \binom{m}{2}/2)$ is absolutely avoidable. In addition, among other results, we show that for any monotone integer function $q(m)$, $|q(m)|=O(m)$, there are infinitely many values of $m$ such that the pair $(m, \binom{m}{2}/2 +q(m))$ is absolutely avoidable.

The well-known Erdős-Hajnal conjecture states that for any graph $F$ , there exists $\epsilon \gt 0$ such that every $n$ -vertex graph $G$ that contains no induced copy of $F$ has a homogeneous set of size at least $n^{\epsilon }$ . We consider a variant of the Erdős-Hajnal problem for hypergraphs where we forbid a family of hypergraphs described by their orders and sizes. For graphs, we observe that if we forbid induced subgraphs on $m$ vertices and $f$ edges for any positive $m$ and $0\leq f \leq \binom{m}{2}$ , then we obtain large homogeneous sets. For triple systems, in the first nontrivial case $m=4$ , for every $S \subseteq \{0,1,2,3,4\}$ , we give bounds on the minimum size of a homogeneous set in a triple system where the number of edges spanned by every four vertices is not in $S$ . In most cases the bounds are essentially tight. We also determine, for all $S$ , whether the growth rate is polynomial or polylogarithmic. Some open problems remain.

For fixed integer r >= 2, we call a pair (m, f) of integers, m >= 1, 0 <= f <= ((m)(r)), absolutely avoidable if there is n(0), such that for any pair of integers (n, e) with n > n(0) and 0 <= e <= ((n)(r)) there is an r-uniform hypergraph on n vertices and e edges that contains no induced sub-hypergraph on m vertices and f edges. Some pairs are clearly not absolutely avoidable, for example (m, 0) is not absolutely avoidable since any sufficiently sparse hypergraph on at least m vertices contains independent sets on m vertices. Here we show that for any r >= 3 and m >= m(0), either the pair (m,(sic)((m)(r))/2(sic)) or the pair (m,(sic)((m)(r))/2(sic) -m - 1) is absolutely avoidable. Next, following the definition of Erdos, Furedi, Rothschild and Sos, we define the density of a pair (m, f) as sigma(r)(m, f) = lim sup(n ->infinity)|{e: (n, e) -> (m, f)}|/((m)(r)), where (n, e) -> (m, f) if any n-vertex r-graph with e egdes contains an induced m-vertex subgraph with f edges. We show that for r >= 3 most pairs (m, f) satisfy sigma(r) (m, f) = 0, and that for m > r, there exists no pair (m, f) of density 1.

Erd\H{o}s, F\"uredi, Rothschild and S\'os initiated a study of classes of graphs that forbid every induced subgraph on a given number $m$ of vertices and number $f$ of edges. Extending their notation to $r$-graphs, we write $(n,e) \to_r (m,f)$ if every $r$-graph $G$ on $n$ vertices with $e$ edges has an induced subgraph on $m$ vertices and $f$ edges. The \emph{forcing density} of a pair $(m,f)$ is $$ \sigma_r(m,f) =\left. \limsup\limits_{n \to \infty} \frac{|\{e : (n,e) \to_r (m,f)\}|}{\binom{n}{r}} \right. .$$ In the graph setting it is known that there are infinitely many pairs $(m, f)$ with positive forcing density. Weber asked if there is a pair of positive forcing density for $r\geq 3$ apart from the trivial ones $(m, 0)$ and $(m, \binom{m}{r})$. Answering her question, we show that $(6,10)$ is such a pair for $r=3$ and conjecture that it is the unique such pair. Further, we find necessary conditions for a pair to have positive forcing density, supporting this conjecture.

The well-known Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture states that for any graph $F$, there exists $\epsilon>0$ such that every $n$-vertex graph $G$ that contains no induced copy of $F$ has a homogeneous set of size at least $n^{\epsilon}$. We consider a variant of the Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal problem for hypergraphs where we forbid a family of hypergraphs described by their orders and sizes. For graphs, we observe that if we forbid induced subgraphs on $m$ vertices and $f$ edges for any positive $m$ and $0\leq f \leq \binom{m}{2}$, then we obtain large homogeneous sets. For triple systems, in the first nontrivial case $m=4$, for every $S \subseteq \{0,1,2,3,4\}$, we give bounds on the minimum size of a homogeneous set in a triple system where the number of edges spanned by every four vertices is not in $S$. For all $S$ we determine if the growth rate is polylogarithmic. Several open problems remain.

Informally, the Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture (shortly EH-conjecture) asserts that if a sufficiently large host clique on $n$ vertices is edge-coloured avoiding a copy of some fixed edge-coloured clique, then there is a large homogeneous set of size $n^\beta$ for some positive $\beta$, where a set of vertices is homogeneous if it does not induce all the colours. This conjecture, if true, claims that imposing local conditions on edge-partitions of cliques results in a global structural consequence such as a large homogeneous set, a set avoiding all edges of some part. While this conjecture attracted a lot of attention, it is still open even for two colours. In this note, we reduce the multicolour EH-conjecture to the case when the number of colours used in a host clique is either the same as in the forbidden pattern or one more. We exhibit a non-monotonicity behaviour of homogeneous sets in coloured cliques with forbidden patterns by showing that allowing an extra colour in the host graph could actually decrease the size of a largest homogeneous set.

Erdős and Szekeres's quantitative version of Ramsey's theorem asserts that any complete graph on n vertices that is edge-colored with two colors has a monochromatic clique on at least 1/2log(n) vertices. The famous Erdős-Hajnal conjecture asserts that forbidding fixed color patterns ensures larger monochromatic cliques. Specifically, it claims that for any fixed integer k and any clique K on k vertices edge-colored with two colors, there is a positive constant a such that in any complete n-vertex graph edge-colored with two colors that does not contain a copy of K, there is a monochromatic clique on at least n^a vertices. We consider edge-colorings with three colors. For a family H of triangles, each colored with colors from {r, b, y}, Forb(n,H) denotes a family of edge-colorings of the complete n-vertex graph using colors from {r, b, y} and containing none of the colorings from H. Let h_2(n, H) be the maximum q such that any coloring from Forb(n, H) has a clique on at least q vertices using at most two colors. We provide bounds on h_2(n, H) for all families H consisting of at most three triangles. For most of them, our bounds are asymptotically tight. This extends a result of Fox, Grinshpun, and Pach, who determined h_2(n, H) for H consisting of a rainbow triangle, and confirms the multicolor Erdős-Hajnal conjecture for these sets of patterns.

Kostochka and Thomason independently showed that any graph with average degree $\Omega(r\sqrt{\log r})$ contains a $K_r$ minor. In particular, any graph with chromatic number $\Omega(r\sqrt{\log r})$ contains a $K_r$ minor, a partial result towards Hadwiger’s famous conjecture. In this paper, we investigate analogues of these results in the directed setting. There are several ways to define a minor in a digraph. One natural way is as follows. A strong $\overrightarrow{K}_{\!\!r}$ minor is a digraph whose vertex set is partitioned into r parts such that each part induces a strongly connected subdigraph, and there is at least one edge in each direction between any two distinct parts. We investigate bounds on the dichromatic number and minimum out-degree of a digraph that force the existence of strong $\overrightarrow{K}_{\!\!r}$ minors as subdigraphs. In particular, we show that any tournament with dichromatic number at least 2 r contains a strong $\overrightarrow{K}_{\!\!r}$ minor, and any tournament with minimum out-degree $\Omega(r\sqrt{\log r})$ also contains a strong $\overrightarrow{K}_{\!\!r}$ minor. The latter result is tight up to the implied constant and may be viewed as a strong-minor analogue to the classical result of Kostochka and Thomason. Lastly, we show that there is no function $f\;:\;\mathbb{N} \rightarrow \mathbb{N}$ such that any digraph with minimum out-degree at least f ( r ) contains a strong $\overrightarrow{K}_{\!\!r}$ minor, but such a function exists when considering dichromatic number.

For a bipartite graph G, let h(G) be the largest t such that either G or the bipartite complement of G contain K_{t,t}. For a class F of graphs, let h(F)= min {h(G): G\in F}. We say that a bipartite graph H is strongly acyclic if neither H nor its bipartite complement contain a cycle. By Forb(n, H) we denote a set of bipartite graphs with parts of sizes n each, that do not contain H as an induced bipartite subgraph respecting the sides. One can easily show that h(Forb(n,H))= O(n^{1-s}) for a positive s if H is not strongly acyclic. Here, we prove that h(Forb(n, H)) is linear in n for all strongly acyclic graphs except for four graphs.

We consider a natural, yet seemingly not much studied, extremal problem in bipartite graphs. A bi-hole of size $t$ in a bipartite graph $G$ is a copy of $K_{t, t}$ in the bipartite complement of $G$. Let $f(n, \Delta)$ be the largest $k$ for which every $n \times n$ bipartite graph with maximum degree $\Delta$ in one of the parts has a bi-hole of size $k$. Determining $f(n, \Delta)$ is thus the bipartite analogue of finding the largest independent set in graphs with a given number of vertices and bounded maximum degree. Our main result determines the asymptotic behavior of $f(n, \Delta)$. More precisely, we show that for large but fixed $\Delta$ and $n$ sufficiently large, $f(n, \Delta) = \Theta(\frac{\log \Delta}{\Delta} n)$. We further address more specific regimes of $\Delta$, especially when $\Delta$ is a small fixed constant. In particular, we determine $f(n, 2)$ exactly and obtain bounds for $f(n, 3)$, though determining the precise value of $f(n, 3)$ is still open.

Erd\H{o}s and Szekeres's quantitative version of Ramsey's theorem asserts that any complete graph on n vertices that is edge-colored with two colors has a monochromatic clique on at least 1/2log(n) vertices. The famous Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture asserts that forbidding fixed color patterns ensures larger monochromatic cliques. Specifically, it claims that for any fixed integer k and any clique K on k vertices edge-colored with two colors, there is a positive constant a such that in any complete n-vertex graph edge-colored with two colors that does not contain a copy of K, there is a monochromatic clique on at least n^a vertices. We consider edge-colorings with three colors. For a family H of triangles, each colored with colors from {r, b, y}, Forb(n,H) denotes a family of edge-colorings of the complete n-vertex graph using colors from {r, b, y} and containing none of the colorings from H. Let h_2(n, H) be the maximum q such that any coloring from Forb(n, H) has a clique on at least q vertices using at most two colors. We provide bounds on h_2(n, H) for all families H consisting of at most three triangles. For most of them, our bounds are asymptotically tight. This extends a result of Fox, Grinshpun, and Pach, who determined h_2(n, H) for H consisting of a rainbow triangle, and confirms the multicolor Erd\H{o}s-Hajnal conjecture for these sets of patterns.