Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.
Updated
Claim. For every graph with chromatic number , the number of labeled -free graphs on vertices is , so the bound asked for in Problem 59 holds for every non-bipartite . The claimed result is Theorem 1.6 of P. Erdős, P. Frankl and V. Rödl, The asymptotic number of graphs not containing a fixed subgraph and a problem for hypergraphs having no exponent, Graphs Combin. 2 (1986), no. 1, 113--121: with the number of labeled -free graphs on vertices and the Turán number, "Suppose $\chi(H)=r\geq 3$. Then " (Theorem 1.6, Section 1). Their Theorem 1.4 records , the Erdős--Stone--Simonovits theorem, which turns the exponent into . The engine is Theorem 1.5, a removal statement proved from Szemerédi's regularity lemma: for , fewer than edges can be deleted from any -free graph on vertices to leave a -free graph. The authors write (p. 114) that the bound seems likely to hold for bipartite as well, a class that includes forests, and note that the bipartite case is open even for , where the best upper bound was Kleitman and Winston's . The library card erdos_1986_asymptotic_number_graphs_not_containing_fixed digests the paper.
Covers. The question for every non-bipartite : the answer is yes. Nothing for bipartite , where the problem's answer is no by Morris and Saxton's construction (their claim page); the case the site's commentary raises separately is not covered.
Depends on. Nothing in this wiki.
Acceptance. Refereed publication in Graphs and Combinatorics (the
publisher's record: volume 2, issue 1, pp. 113--121, issued December 1986; the
day is the issue's nominal first day, used for this page's date; the paper
prints "Received: September 30, 1985" and "Revised: March 10, 1986"). The site's
curator, Thomas Bloom, credits this theorem in the problem's commentary with the
answer yes for non-bipartite , but the site's label settles the problem by
Morris and Saxton's disproof, so that commentary is not listed as reviewed
evidence. The text cited is the scan in the Rényi Institute's Erdős archive,
https://users.renyi.hu/~p_erdos/1986-17.pdf. Proof coverage: the statements of
Theorems 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6 and the authors' remark on the bipartite case; no
proof is compiled in this corpus. This claim is partial, so the problem's
standing derives from Morris and Saxton's full claim.