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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. Every nn-vertex graph HH in which every seven vertices contain an independent set of size 33 (in the paper's notation, α7(H)≥3\alpha_7(H)\ge3) has independence number α(H)≥n5/12−o(1)\alpha(H)\ge n^{5/12-o(1)}. This is Theorem 1.3 of M. Bucić and B. Sudakov, Large independent sets from local considerations, Combinatorica 43 (2023), no. 3, 505--546, first posted as arXiv:2007.03667 on 2020-07-07; the corpus states it on its result page. Passing to the complement, a graph GG in which every seven vertices span a triangle has α7(G‾)≥3\alpha_7(\overline G)\ge3, and its cliques are the independent sets of G‾\overline G, so the h(n)h(n) of Problem 813, the least clique number of such a graph, satisfies

h(n)≥n5/12−o(1).h(n)\ge n^{5/12-o(1)}.

For every c1<1/12c_1<1/12 and all large nn this exceeds n1/3+c1n^{1/3+c_1}, so the first displayed inequality, n1/3+c1≪h(n)n^{1/3+c_1}\ll h(n) for some constant c1>0c_1>0, holds. The paper's sentence before the theorem attributes the (7,3)(7,3) case to Erdős and Hajnal, with their bounds Ω(n1/3)\Omega(n^{1/3}) and O(n1/2)O(n^{1/2}) and their conjecture that neither is tight, and says the theorem confirms the first of those conjectures. The proof is Section 2.2 (pp. 10--17 of arXiv v3): a graph with α7≥3\alpha_7\ge3 is, up to few vertices, K4K_4-free and free of the blow-up H7H_7 of C5C_5 with parts 1,2,1,1,21,2,1,1,2, and a Ramsey-type bound for H7H_7 against an independent set gives the exponent; the general Theorem 1.2 of the paper already gives Ω(n2/5)\Omega(n^{2/5}) at (7,3)(7,3). The authors ask (Question 4.2, p. 25) whether n1/2−o(1)n^{1/2-o(1)} is the truth and name n3/7n^{3/7} as the natural limit of their method.

Covers. The first inequality of the problem, n1/3+c1≪h(n)n^{1/3+c_1}\ll h(n), for every constant c1<1/12c_1<1/12. Not covered: the second inequality, h(n)≪n1/2−c2h(n)\ll n^{1/2-c_2} for some c2>0c_2>0, for which the only upper bound in the sources is Erdős and Hajnal's h(n)≪n1/2h(n)\ll n^{1/2} and which the paper leaves open, asking the opposite as its Question 4.2 (whether α(H)≥n1/2−o(1)\alpha(H)\ge n^{1/2-o(1)} always holds); and whether c1=1/12c_1=1/12 or any larger exponent works.

Depends on. No page of this wiki. The passage from the paper's complement form to h(n)h(n) is the one-line remark the problem page records.

Acceptance. Refereed: Combinatorica, volume 43, issue 3 (2023), pages 505--546, published online 4 May 2023 (Crossref record read). The site's curator, T. F. Bloom, records the bound h(n)≫n5/12−o(1)h(n)\gg n^{5/12-o(1)} and credits it to this paper in the problem's commentary, but the site labels the problem OPEN, so that commentary is not acceptance and no reviewed evidence is listed. The source card cites the arXiv version v3 (14 January 2023); Theorem 1.3, Theorem 1.2 and the Erdős--Hajnal sentence are checked statements (p. 2), the proof is not checked, and the locators are those of v3.