Georgia Institute of Technology College of Sciences

We write $F \rightarrow (H,G)$ for graphs $F$, $G$, and $H$, if for any coloring of the edges of $F$ in red and blue, there is either a red induced copy of $H$ or a blue induced copy of $G$. For graphs $G$ and $H$, let the induced Ramsey number $IR(H,G)$ be the smallest number of vertices in a graph $F$ such that $F \rightarrow (H,G)$. Deuber showed in 1975 that $IR(H,G)$ is well-defined for any graphs $H$ and $G$. Still, the determination of $IR(H,G)$ remains a challenge for most graphs. A striking contrast between induced and non-induced Ramsey numbers was demonstrated by Fox and Sudakov in 2008 by showing that $IR(H,G)$ is superlinear in $n$ when $H$ is a matching on $n$ edges and $G$ is a star on $n$ edges.

In this talk, I will address the case when $G= K_{1,n}$, a star on $n$ edges, for large $n$, and $H$ is a fixed graph. We prove that $$ (\chi(H)-1) n \leq IR(H, K_{1,n}) \leq (\chi(H)-1)^2n + \epsilon n,$$ for any $\epsilon>0$, sufficiently large $n$, and $\chi(H)$ denoting the chromatic number of $H$. The lower bound is asymptotically tight for any fixed bipartite $H$. The upper bound is attained up to a constant factor, for example when $H$ is a clique.

This is a joint work with Izolda Gorgol.