PROBABILISTIC METHODS IN COMBINATORICS 1. Introduction ...
PROBABILISTIC METHODS IN COMBINATORICS 1. Introduction ...
PROBABILISTIC METHODS IN COMBINATORICS 1. Introduction ...
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<strong>PROBABILISTIC</strong> <strong>METHODS</strong> <strong>IN</strong> COMB<strong>IN</strong>ATORICS<br />
YUFEI ZHAO<br />
Abstract. This is a talk I gave for the Cambridge Part III seminar at the end of Lent term 201<strong>1.</strong><br />
The probabilistic method, originally popularized by Paul Erdős, is a powerful technique in<br />
combinatorics. In this talk, we provide an introduction to the probabilistic method using examples<br />
from Ramsey theory and set systems.<br />
<strong>1.</strong> <strong>Introduction</strong><br />
The probabilistic method is a tool for tackling combinatorics problem by introducing randomness.<br />
For instance, to prove that a combinatorial object with certain property exists, we could construct<br />
some object randomly, and then show that it has the desired property with positive probability.<br />
Here is a simple example illustrating this idea.<br />
Theorem <strong>1.</strong><strong>1.</strong> Every graph G = (V, E) contains a bipartite subgraph with at least |E|<br />
2<br />
edges.<br />
Proof. Randomly assign each vertex of G with black or white, independently with uniform probability.<br />
Consider the set of edges E ′ with different colours on its endpoints. Then (V, E ′ ) is a<br />
bipartite subgraph of G. Note that every edge belongs to E ′ with probability 1 2<br />
, so by linearity of<br />
expectation, E[|E ′ |] = 1 2 |E|. Thus there is some colouring for which |E′ | ≥ 1 2<br />
|E|, and this gives<br />
the desired bipartite subgraph.<br />
□<br />
2. Ramsey numbers<br />
The Ramsey number R(k, l) is defined to be the smallest n such that if the edges of the complete<br />
graph K n are coloured red or blue, then it contains either a copy of a red K k or a copy of a blue<br />
K l . It was shown by Ramsey that every R(k, l) is finite. However, very few exact values of R(k, l).<br />
It is an active problem in combinatorics to study the growth behavior of these Ramsey numbers.<br />
In this section, we give several lower bounds to the diagonal Ramsey numbers R(k, k), and with<br />
each bound we introduce a new idea in the probabilistic method.<br />
2.<strong>1.</strong> Lower bound to Ramsey numbers. The following lower bound to Ramsey numbers is<br />
given by Erdő in a 1947 paper that “started” the probabilistic method.<br />
Theorem 2.<strong>1.</strong> If ( n<br />
k)<br />
2<br />
1−( k 2) < 1, then R(k, k) > n.<br />
By optimizing n, this theorem gives us<br />
R(k, k) > 1<br />
e √ (1 + o(1))k2k/2<br />
2<br />
Proof. We need to show that there exists a colouring of the edges of K n with two colours containing<br />
no monochromatic K k . Let us colour the edges of K n randomly. The probability that a particular<br />
subgraph K k is monochromatic is exactly 2<br />
2 (k 2) = (<br />
2) 21−(k . By consider all n<br />
)<br />
k copies of Kk in K n , we<br />
find that the probability that there is some monochromatic K k is at most ( n<br />
k)<br />
2<br />
1−( k 2) < <strong>1.</strong> Therefore,<br />
with positive probability, the colouring has no monochromatic K k , thereby proving the existence<br />
of such a colouring.<br />
□<br />
Date: 17 April 201<strong>1.</strong><br />
1
2 YUFEI ZHAO<br />
2.2. Alterations. Next we give a slightly better lower bound to R(k, k) using the idea of alterations.<br />
Our approach in the previous proof is that to randomly pick an edge-colouring of K n and<br />
then hope that it contains no monochromatic K k . Alternatively, we can first pick a random edgecolouring<br />
of K k , and then modify the graph to get rid of the bad parts, namely the monochromatic<br />
K k .<br />
( n<br />
Theorem 2.2. For any k, n, we have R(k, k) > n − 2<br />
k)<br />
1−(k 2) .<br />
By optimizing the choice of n, this theorem gives us<br />
R(k, k) > 1 e (1 + o(1))k2k/2 ,<br />
which improves the previous bound by a constant factor of √ 2.<br />
Proof. Randomly colour the edges of K n with two colours. Whenever we see a monochromatic<br />
K k , delete one of its vertices. As in the previous proof, the probability that a particular subgraph<br />
K k is monochromatic is exactly 2 1−(k 2) , so the expected number of monochromatic Kk ’s is exactly<br />
( n<br />
)<br />
k 2<br />
1−( k 2) . Since we delete at most one vertex per every monochromatic Kk , we remove at most<br />
( n<br />
)<br />
k 2<br />
1−( k 2) vertices on expectation. Hence with some positive probability, the remaining graph has<br />
at least n − ( n<br />
k)<br />
2<br />
1−( k 2) vertices, and it has no monochromatic Kk . This proves the desired lower<br />
bound to R(k, k).<br />
□<br />
2.3. Lovász local lemma. We give one more improvement to the lower bound, using the Lovász<br />
local lemma, which we state without proof.<br />
Theorem 2.3 (Lovász local lemma). Let E 1 , . . . , E n be events, with Pr[E i ] ≤ p for all i. Suppose<br />
that each E i is mutually independent of all other E j except for at most d of them. If<br />
ep(d + 1) < 1,<br />
then with some positive probability, none of the events E i occur.<br />
Here is some intuition about the local lemma. We can view the events E i as “bad events” that we<br />
want to avoid. If they are all independent, then we know easily there is some positive probability<br />
that none of the bad events occur as long as each bad event has probability less than <strong>1.</strong> On the<br />
other hand, if the probability of each E i is very small, say smaller than 1 n<br />
, then we can apply the<br />
union bound to see that there is some probability that none of them occur. The situation reflected<br />
inn the local lemma is between these two extremes. We know that p is small, but not as small as<br />
1<br />
n<br />
. We know that most of the events mutually independent, but not all are. The local lemma tells<br />
us that even in this situation, we can conclude that there is some positive probability that none of<br />
the bad events occur.<br />
( (k )(<br />
Theorem 2.4. If e n<br />
) )<br />
2 + 1 2 1−(n k) < 1, then R(k, k) > n.<br />
k−2<br />
By optimizing the choice of n, this theorem gives us<br />
√<br />
2<br />
R(k, k) ><br />
e (1 + o(1))k2k/2 ,<br />
once again improving the previous bound by a constant factor of √ 2. This bound was given by<br />
Spencer in 1975. It is the best known lower bound to R(k, k) to date.<br />
Proof. Consider a random colouring of the edges of K n . For each subset R of the vertices of K n with<br />
k vertices, let E R denote teh event that R induces a monochromatic K k . Then Pr[E R ] = 2 1−(k 2) .
<strong>PROBABILISTIC</strong> <strong>METHODS</strong> <strong>IN</strong> COMB<strong>IN</strong>ATORICS 3<br />
The events E R and E S are independent when the subgraphs induced by R and S do not share<br />
edges. Thus is E R and E S are dependent, then we necessarily have |R ∩ S| ≥ 2. For a fixed R,<br />
there are at most ( )(<br />
k n<br />
2 k−2)<br />
choices of S with |S| = k and |R ∩ S| ≥ 2.<br />
Applying the Lovász local lemma to the events {E R : R ⊂ V (K n ), |R| = k} and p = 2 1−(k 2) and<br />
d = ( )(<br />
k n<br />
2 k−2)<br />
, we see that with positive probability none of the events ER occur, thereby giving a<br />
colouring with no monochromatic K k ’s.<br />
□<br />
3. Set systems<br />
In this section we apply the probabilistic method to two extremal problems regarding families of<br />
subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n}.<br />
3.<strong>1.</strong> Antichains. Let F be a collection of subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n} such that no set in F is contained<br />
in another set in F. Such a collection is called an antichain. We would like to know what is the<br />
maximum number of sets in an antichain.<br />
If F is the collection of all size k subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n}, then F is an antichain, since no k-<br />
element set can contain another k-element set. This gives |F| = ( n<br />
k)<br />
, which is maximized when<br />
k = ⌊ n<br />
2<br />
⌋<br />
or<br />
⌈ n<br />
2<br />
⌉<br />
. The next result shows that we cannot do better.<br />
Theorem 3.1 (Sperner). If F is an antichain of subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n}, then |F| ≤<br />
( ) n<br />
.<br />
⌊n/2⌋<br />
Proof. Consider a random permutation σ of {1, 2, . . . , n}, and its associated chain of subsets<br />
∅, {σ(1)} , {σ(1), σ(2)} , {σ(1), σ(2), σ(3)} , . . . , {σ(1), . . . , σ(n)}<br />
where the last set is always equal to {1, 2, . . . , n}. For each A ⊂ {1, 2, . . . , n}, let E A denote the<br />
event that A is found in this chain. Then<br />
|A|!(n − |A|)!<br />
Pr(E A ) = = 1 1<br />
(<br />
n!<br />
n<br />
) ≥ ( n<br />
).<br />
|A| ⌊n/2⌋<br />
Indeed, if A were to be found in the chain, it must occur in the (|A| + 1)-th position, and are |A|!<br />
ways to form a chain in front of it, and (n − |A|)! ways to continue the chain after it.<br />
Since F is an antichain, if A, B ∈ F are distinct, then E A and E B cannot both occur. Thus<br />
1<br />
{E A : A ∈ F} is a set of disjoint events, each with probability at least<br />
( ⌊n/2⌋) . Thus |F| ≤ ( n<br />
⌊n/2⌋)<br />
.<br />
n<br />
3.2. Intersecting family. We say that family F of sets is intersecting if A ∩ B ≠ ∅ for every<br />
A, B ∈ F. Let F be an intersecting family of k-element subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n}. How large can |F|<br />
be?<br />
If we take F to be the collection of all k-element subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n} containing the element<br />
1, then F is intersecting, and |F| ≤ ( n−1<br />
k−1)<br />
. Now we show that this is the best we can do.<br />
Theorem 3.2 ( (Erdős-Ko-Rado). )<br />
If F is a intersecting family of k-element subsets of {1, 2, . . . , n},<br />
n − 1<br />
then |F| ≤ .<br />
k − 1<br />
Proof. Arrange 1, 2, . . . , n randomly around a circle. For each k-element subset of A of {1, 2, . . . , n},<br />
we say that A is contiguous if all the elements of A lie in a contiguous block on the circle. The<br />
probability that A forms a contiguous set on the circle is exactly<br />
( n , since there are n possible<br />
n<br />
k)<br />
positions for a continuous block of length k on the circle, and for each such choice, the probability<br />
1<br />
that A falls exactly into those position is . It follows that the expected number of continguous<br />
( n k)<br />
sets in F is exactly n|F|<br />
( n k) .<br />
□
4 YUFEI ZHAO<br />
Since F is intersecting, there are at most k continguous sets in F. Indeed, suppose that A ∈ F<br />
is contiguous. Then there are 2(k − 1) other contingous sets (not necessarily in F) that intersect A,<br />
but they can be paired off into disjoint pairs. Since F is intersecting, it follows that it contains at<br />
most k continguous sets. Combining with result from the previous paragraph, we see that n|F|<br />
( n k) ≤ k,<br />
and hence |F| ≤ n( k n<br />
) (<br />
k = n−1<br />
k−1)<br />
. □