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Turán number of three disjoint cliques of arbitrary sizes

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Abstract

The Turán number ex(n,H)\rm ex(n,H) of a given graph HH is the maximum number of edges in an nn-vertex HH-free graph. In this paper, for all p≥q≥r≥2p\ge q\ge r\ge 2 and n≥p+q+rn\geq p+q+r, we determine the exact value of ex(n,Kp∪Kq∪Kr)\rm ex(n,K_p\cup K_q\cup K_r) and describe all extremal graphs.

Introduction

For given graphs GG and HH, GG is HH-free if GG contains no subgraph isomorphic to HH. The Turán number of a graph HH, denoted by ex⁡(n,H)\operatorname{ex}(n,H), is the maximum number of edges in an nn-vertex HH-free graph. An nn-vertex HH-free graph with ex⁡(n,H)\operatorname{ex}(n,H) edges is called an extremal graph for HH. Let EX⁡(n,H)\operatorname{EX}(n,H) denote the family of all nn-vertex extremal graphs for HH.

For integers nn and pp, let Tn,pT_{n,p} denote the Turán graph, that is, the complete pp-partite graph on nn vertices whose partite sets differ in size by at most one. Let tn,pt_{n,p} denote the number of edges of Tn,pT_{n,p}. Turán [14] proved

Theorem 1 ([14]). For all n≥p≥2n \ge p \ge2, ex⁡(n,Kp)=tn,p−1\operatorname{ex}(n,K_p)=t_{n,p-1} and EX⁡(n,Kp)={Tn,p−1}\operatorname{EX}(n,K_p)=\{T_{n,p-1}\}.

This Turán’s theorem generalizes Mantel’s theorem [11] stating that ex⁡(n,K3)=⌊n24⌋\operatorname{ex}(n,K_3)=\left\lfloor\frac{n^2}{4}\right\rfloor.

We follow the notation and terminology of [1] unless stated otherwise. For a graph GG, let V(G)V(G) and E(G)E(G) denote its vertex set and edge set, respectively. The cardinality of a set SS is denoted by ∣S∣|S|, and e(G)=∣E(G)∣e(G)=|E(G)|.

The disjoint union of graphs GG and HH is denoted by G∪HG \cup H. The graph G∨HG \vee H denotes the join of GG and HH, obtained by adding all possible edges between V(G)V(G) and V(H)V(H).

Let KpK_p denote the complete graph on pp vertices, Kp‾\overline{K_p} denote the edgeless graph on pp vertices and SℓS_\ell denote a star on ℓ+1\ell+1 vertices. Furthermore, let kKpkK_p denote the disjoint union of kk copies of KpK_p.

Observe that a copy of KpK_p in GG corresponds to an independent set of size pp in G‾\overline{G}. Therefore, rather than directly determining ex⁡(n,H)\operatorname{ex}(n,H), we first study the minimum number of edges in a graph that contains no collection of pairwise disjoint independent sets of prescribed sizes. The extremal graphs for the original problem can then be obtained by taking complements. For convenience, define

ex⁡‾(n,H)=(n2)−ex⁡(n,H),t‾n,p=(n2)−tn,pandEX⁡‾(n,H)={G‾:G∈EX⁡(n,H)}.\overline{\operatorname{ex}}(n,H)=\binom{n}{2}-\operatorname{ex}(n,H),\qquad\overline{t}_{n,p}=\binom{n}{2}-t_{n,p}\quad\text{and}\quad\overline{\operatorname{EX}}(n,H)=\{\overline{G}:G\in\operatorname{EX}(n,H)\}.

Key words and phrases. Turán number, discharging, disjoint cliques.

Research of the first author is supported in part by NSF RTG Grant DMS-1937241.

Research of the second author is supported in part by NSF RTG Grant DMS-1937241.

Research of the fourth author is supported by the Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Disciplines Break-through Plan of the Ministry of Education of China (JYB2025XDXM207).

The problem of determining the Turán number of vertex-disjoint copies of cliques was initiated by Erdős [4]. Subsequently, Moon [12] and Simonovits [13] determined ex⁡(n,kKp)\operatorname{ex}(n,kK_p) and characterized the extremal graphs for sufficiently large nn. In our notation, this is equivalent to determining ex⁡‾(n,kKp)\overline{\operatorname{ex}}(n,kK_p) and EX⁡‾(n,kKp)\overline{\operatorname{EX}}(n,kK_p).

Theorem 2 [12, 13]. Let k≥1k \ge1 and p≥2p \ge2 be integers. For sufficiently large nn, ex⁡‾(n,kKp)=t‾n−k+1,p−1\overline{\operatorname{ex}}(n,kK_p)=\overline{t}_{n-k+1,p-1} and EX⁡‾(n,kKp)={K‾k−1∪T‾n−k+1,p−1}\overline{\operatorname{EX}}(n,kK_p)=\{\overline{K}_{k-1}\cup\overline{T}_{n-k+1,p-1}\}.

A natural problem is to determine the Turán numbers of disjoint unions of cliques for all nn. However, exact values are known only for a limited number of cases. In 1959, Erdős and Gallai [5] determined ex⁡‾(n,kK2)\overline{\operatorname{ex}}(n,kK_2) and EX⁡‾(n,kK2)\overline{\operatorname{EX}}(n,kK_2) for all positive integers nn and kk. More recently, Chen, Lu and Yuan [3] determined the Turán number of 2Kp2K_p for all nn. Subsequently, Zhang and Yin [18] determined the value of ex⁡(n,Kp∪Kq)\operatorname{ex}(n,K_p\cup K_q) for all nn, qq and p∈{2,3}p\in\{2,3\}. This result was later extended by Hu [7], who determined ex⁡(n,Kp∪Kq)\operatorname{ex}(n,K_p\cup K_q) for all pp and qq, and Luo [10] characterized all extremal graphs for Kp∪KqK_p\cup K_q.

For positive integers a≤ba\le b and nonnegative integers x,y,nx,y,n satisfying ax+by≤nax+by\le n, let

Ka,b(n,x,y)=xKa∪yKb∪Kn−ax−by(1)K_{a,b}(n,x,y)=xK_a\cup yK_b\cup K_{n-ax-by} \tag*{(1)}

Also, for each integer zz with 0≤z≤p−10\le z\le p-1, let

K3,4(n,z)={K3,4(n,x,y):x+2y=n−p−q+1 and x+y≤z},\mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n,z)=\{K_{3,4}(n,x,y):x+2y=n-p-q+1\text{ and }x+y\le z\},

and let K3,4(n)=K3,4(n,p−1)\mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n)=\mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n,p-1).

Theorem 3 [7, 10]. Let nn, pp, qq be positive integers with p>q≥2p>q\ge2 and n≥p+qn\ge p+q. Then

ex⁡‾(n,Kp∪Kq)={3(n−p−q+1),if n≤p+q+max⁡{2q−p,⌊q2⌋−1},t‾n,p−1,if n>p+q+max⁡{2q−p,⌊q2⌋−1}.\overline{\operatorname{ex}}(n,K_p\cup K_q)= \begin{cases} 3(n-p-q+1), & \text{if }n\le p+q+\max\left\{2q-p,\left\lfloor\frac{q}{2}\right\rfloor-1\right\},\\ \overline{t}_{n,p-1}, & \text{if }n>p+q+\max\left\{2q-p,\left\lfloor\frac{q}{2}\right\rfloor-1\right\}. \end{cases}

Furthermore, if p−1=qp-1=q, then

EX⁡‾(n,Kp∪Kq)={K3,4(n),if n<4q,{T‾n,p−1},if n≥4q.\overline{\operatorname{EX}}(n,K_p\cup K_q)= \begin{cases} \mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n), & \text{if }n<4q,\\ \{\overline{T}_{n,p-1}\}, & \text{if }n\ge4q. \end{cases}

If q+1≤p−1<3q2q+1\le p-1<\frac{3q}{2}, then

EX⁡‾(n,Kp∪Kq)={K3,4(n),if n<3q,K3,4(n)∪{T‾n,p−1},if n=3q,{T‾n,p−1},if n>3q.\overline{\operatorname{EX}}(n,K_p\cup K_q)= \begin{cases} \mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n), & \text{if }n<3q,\\ \mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n)\cup\{\overline{T}_{n,p-1}\}, & \text{if }n=3q,\\ \{\overline{T}_{n,p-1}\}, & \text{if }n>3q. \end{cases}

If p−1≥3q2p-1\ge\frac{3q}{2}, then

EX⁡‾(n,Kp∪Kq)={K3,4(n),if n<p−1+3q,K3,4(n)∪{T‾n,p−1},if n=p−1+3q,{T‾n,p−1},if n>p−1+3q.\overline{\operatorname{EX}}(n,K_p\cup K_q)= \begin{cases} \mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n), & \text{if }n<p-1+3q,\\ \mathcal{K}_{3,4}(n)\cup\{\overline{T}_{n,p-1}\}, & \text{if }n=p-1+3q,\\ \{\overline{T}_{n,p-1}\}, & \text{if }n>p-1+3q. \end{cases}

References

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