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Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

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Claim. Let C(G)C(G) be the set of distinct cycle lengths of a graph GG and s(G)=∑ℓ∈C(G)1/ℓs(G)=\sum_{\ell\in C(G)}1/\ell. The theorem of A. Gyárfás, J. Komlós and E. Szemerédi, On the distribution of cycle lengths in graphs, J. Graph Theory 8 (1984), no. 4, 441--462, states, in the publisher's abstract, a conjecture of Erdős and Hajnal on s(G)s(G) in terms of the minimum degree δ(G)\delta(G) with two absolute positive constants aa and bb; the record carries the formula only as an image. Liu and Montgomery (Section 1.1, p. 2 of arXiv:2010.15802v2) report the theorem as s(G)=Ω(log⁡d)s(G)=\Omega(\log d) for every graph GG of average degree dd, and Milojević, Montgomery, Pokrovskiy and Sudakov (arXiv:2609.26401, Section 1) as: there is c>0c>0 such that every graph GG with average degree dd has s(G)≥clog⁡ds(G)\ge c\log d. The paper proves it through two results showing that C(G)C(G) is dense, in the abstract's sense, for graphs of large minimum degree.

In the form of Problem 65: let GG have nn vertices and knkn edges with k≥1k\ge1. Deleting, one at a time, a vertex of degree at most kk removes at most kk edges per step, and deleting all nn vertices would remove at most k(n−1)<knk(n-1)<kn edges, so a nonempty subgraph G′G' of minimum degree greater than kk survives. Its average degree also exceeds kk, and C(G′)⊆C(G)C(G')\subseteq C(G), so under either form of the theorem ∑1/ai=s(G)≥s(G′)≫log⁡k\sum1/a_i=s(G)\ge s(G')\gg\log k with an absolute implied constant. This is the first question's bound as the statement asks it, for every kk beyond an absolute constant.

Covers. The first question, the part harmonic_bound: the sum of the reciprocals of the distinct cycle lengths is ≫log⁡k\gg\log k. Nothing on the second question, the complete bipartite minimizer. Liu and Montgomery's sharp constant 12\tfrac12 is recorded on its own claim page.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki.

Acceptance. The paper is a refereed publication in the Journal of Graph Theory, in the issue of December 1984 (the day is not recorded, and this page's date is the first of that month), which is the refereed evidence. The site's commentary credits the first question to the paper, saying that only the second question remains, but the site labels the problem OPEN, so no reviewed evidence is listed. This corpus has not checked the proof, and the statement above rests on the publisher's abstract and the two later papers' reports of the theorem.