The Density Turán Problem

Abstract

LetHbe a graph onnvertices and let the blow-up graphG[H] be defined as follows. We replace each vertexviofHby a clusterAiand connect some pairs of vertices ofAiandAjif (vi,vj) is an edge of the graphH. As usual, we define the edge density betweenAiandAjasWe study the following problem. Given densities γijfor each edge (i,j) ∈E(H), one has to decide whether there exists a blow-up graphG[H], with edge densities at least γij, such that one cannot choose a vertex from each cluster, so that the obtained graph is isomorphic toH,i.e., noHappears as a transversal inG[H]. We calldcrit(H) the maximal value for which there exists a blow-up graphG[H] with edge densitiesd(Ai,Aj)=dcrit(H) ((vi,vj) ∈E(H)) not containingHin the above sense. Our main goal is to determine the critical edge density and to characterize the extremal graphs.First, in the case of treeTwe give an efficient algorithm to decide whether a given set of edge densities ensures the existence of a transversalTin the blow-up graph. Then we give general bounds ondcrit(H) in terms of the maximal degree. In connection with the extremal structure, the so-called star decomposition is proved to give the best construction forH-transversal-free blow-up graphs for several graph classes. Our approach applies algebraic graph-theoretical, combinatorial and probabilistic tools.