Three hundred million points suffice (Q1122573)

From MaRDI portal
scientific article
Language Label Description Also known as
English
Three hundred million points suffice
scientific article

    Statements

    Three hundred million points suffice (English)
    0 references
    0 references
    1988
    0 references
    In the 1960's, Paul Erdős asked if a graph existed with no complete subgraphs on four or more vertices and which had the property that, if the edges are two colored, there must always be a monochromatic triangle. In 1970, \textit{J. Folkman} [Graphs with monochromatic complete subgraphs in every edge coloring, SIAM J. Appl. Math. 18, 19-29 (1970; Zbl 0193.531)] proved that such a graph existed as did \textit{J. Nesetřil} and \textit{V. Rödl} [Recent Adv. Graph Theory, Proc. Symp. Prague 1974, 405- 412 (1975; Zbl 0325.05120)]. However, the graphs were quite large and Erdős offered a reward for the discovery of such a graph on less than \(10^{10}\) vertices. In this paper, the author claims that reward with a graph on 3,000,000,000 vertices. (The 300 million claimed in the title became 3 billion after a simple computational error was corrected in [ibid. 50, No. 2, 323 (1989; Zbl 0676.05002)].)
    0 references
    no complete subgraphs on four or more vertices
    0 references
    monochromatic triangle
    0 references

    Identifiers