Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
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Source. Dániel T. Soukup, Trees, ladders and graphs, J. Combin. Theory Ser. B 115 (2015), 96--116, doi:10.1016/j.jctb.2015.05.004; Problem 6.4 on p. 22 of arXiv:1409.2922v1, the edition read and identified on the source card. Labels and pages are those of arXiv v1.
Statement
A set of vertices is -connected when no finite set separates two of its points within it, equivalently when any two of its points are joined by infinitely many pairwise disjoint paths inside it (Definition 2.2 and the remark after it, p. 3).
Problem 6.4 (p. 22, quoted). "Does every uncountably chromatic (or -chromatic) graph contain an -connected subset?"
The paper introduces it as the most general form of the Erdős--Hajnal problem and says it is still open. It adds that by Theorem 3.5 such an -connected set can only be countable in some cases, and that excluding countable -connected subsets seems to be a very hard problem (p. 22). The paper does not say what size of subset is meant; under Definition 2.2 a single vertex is -connected vacuously, so the question presumably concerns infinite subsets.
Read depth. Claims checked: the problem and the remark after it were read on the printed page. The paper proves nothing about it beyond Theorem 3.5.
Bears on
- Problem 1068: the problem asks whether every graph of chromatic number contains a countable infinitely connected subgraph, read on the problem page as countably infinite. A positive answer to Problem 1068 gives a positive answer to the -chromatic form of Problem 6.4, through the vertex set of that subgraph; Problem 6.4 also admits uncountable sets, so the two questions are not the same. For the graph of Theorem 3.5 the two coincide, since its -connected subsets are all countable. The paper leaves Problem 6.4 open and settles neither question.
- Problem 1067: Problem 6.4 drops the requirement, answered negatively by Theorem 3.5, that the -connected subgraph be uncountably chromatic.