We almost completely solve a number of problems related to a concept called majority colouring recently studied by Kreutzer, Oum, Seymour, van der Zypen and Wood. They raised the problem of determining, for a natural number k, the smallest number m = m(k) such that every digraph can be coloured with m colours where each vertex has the same colour as at most a 1/k proportion of its out-neighbours. We show that m(k) ∈ {2k − 1,2k}. We also prove a result supporting the conjecture that m(2) = 3. Moreover, we prove similar results for a more general concept called majority choosability.

A graph G is H-saturated if it contains no copy of H as a subgraph but the addition of any new edge to G creates a copy of H. In this paper we are interested in the function satt(n,p), defined to be the minimum number of edges that a Kp-saturated graph on n vertices can have if it has minimum degree at least t. We prove that satt(n,p) = tn − O(1), where the limit is taken as n tends to infinity. This confirms a conjecture of Bollobás when p = 3. We also present constructions for graphs that give new upper bounds for satt(n,p).

A class of graphs is called bridge-addable if, for each graph in the class and each pair u and v of vertices in different components, the graph obtained by adding an edge joining u and v must also be in the class. The concept was introduced in 2005 by McDiarmid, Steger and Welsh, who showed that, for a random graph sampled uniformly from such a class, the probability that it is connected is at least 1/e.

We generalize this and related results to bridge-addable classes with edge-weights which have an edge-expansion property. Here, a graph is sampled with probability proportional to the product of its edge-weights. We obtain for example lower bounds for the probability of connectedness of a graph sampled uniformly from a relatively bridge-addable class of graphs, where some but not necessarily all of the possible bridges are allowed to be introduced. Furthermore, we investigate whether these bounds are tight, and in particular give detailed results about random forests in complete balanced multipartite graphs.

We investigate the asymptotic version of the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem for the random k-uniform hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$k(n, p). For 2⩽k(n) ⩽ n/2, let $N=\binom{n}k$ and $D=\binom{n-k}k$. We show that with probability tending to 1 as n → ∞, the largest intersecting subhypergraph of $\mathcal{H}$ has size

$$(1+o(1))p\ffrac kn N$$

$$p\gg \ffrac nk\ln^2\biggl(\ffrac nk\biggr)D^{-1}.$$

A different behaviour occurs when k = o(n). In this case, the lower bound on p is almost optimal. Further, for the small interval D−1 ≪ p ⩽ (n/k)1−ϵD−1, the largest intersecting subhypergraph of $\mathcal{H}$k(n, p) has size Θ(ln(pD)ND−1), provided that $k \gg \sqrt{n \ln n}$.

Together with previous work of Balogh, Bohman and Mubayi, these results settle the asymptotic size of the largest intersecting family in $\mathcal{H}$k, for essentially all values of p and k.

Let Dk denote the tournament on 3k vertices consisting of three disjoint vertex classes V1, V2 and V3 of size k, each oriented as a transitive subtournament, and with edges directed from V1 to V2, from V2 to V3 and from V3 to V1. Fox and Sudakov proved that given a natural number k and ε > 0, there is n0(k, ε) such that every tournament of order n ⩾ n0(k,ε) which is ε-far from being transitive contains Dk as a subtournament. Their proof showed that $n_0(k,\epsilon ) \leq \epsilon ^{-O(k/\epsilon ^2)}$ and they conjectured that this could be reduced to n0(k, ε) ⩽ ε−O(k). Here we prove this conjecture.

For a given graph G of minimum degree at least k, let Gp denote the random spanning subgraph of G obtained by retaining each edge independently with probability p = p(k). We prove that if p ⩾ (logk + loglogk + ωk(1))/k, where ωk(1) is any function tending to infinity with k, then Gp asymptotically almost surely contains a cycle of length at least k + 1. When we take G to be the complete graph on k + 1 vertices, our theorem coincides with the classic result on the threshold probability for the existence of a Hamilton cycle in the binomial random graph.

Given a graph F, let st(F) be the number of subdivisions of F, each with a different vertex set, which one can guarantee in a graph G in which every edge lies in at least t copies of F. In 1990, Tuza asked for which graphs F and large t, one has that st(F) is exponential in a power of t. We show that, somewhat surprisingly, the only such F are complete graphs, and for every F which is not complete, st(F) is polynomial in t. Further, for a natural strengthening of the local condition above, we also characterize those F for which st(F) is exponential in a power of t.

Let C63 be the 3-uniform hypergraph on {1, . . ., 6} with edges 123,345,561, which can be seen as the analogue of the triangle in 3-uniform hypergraphs. For sufficiently large n divisible by 6, we show that every n-vertex 3-uniform hypergraph H with minimum codegree at least n/3 contains a C63-factor, that is, a spanning subhypergraph consisting of vertex-disjoint copies of C63. The minimum codegree condition is best possible. This improves the asymptotic result obtained by Mycroft and answers a question of Rödl and Ruciński exactly.

Erdős asked the following question: given n points in the plane in almost general position (no four collinear), how large a set can we guarantee to find that is in general position (no three collinear)? Füredi constructed a set of n points in almost general position with no more than o(n) points in general position. Cardinal, Tóth and Wood extended this result to ℝ3, finding sets of n points with no five in a plane whose subsets with no four points in a plane have size o(n), and asked the question for higher dimensions: for given n, is it still true that the largest subset in general position we can guarantee to find has size o(n)? We answer their question for all d and derive improved bounds for certain dimensions.

Given hypergraphs F and H, an F-factor in H is a set of vertex-disjoint copies of F which cover all the vertices in H. Let K−4 denote the 3-uniform hypergraph with four vertices and three edges. We show that for sufficiently large n ∈ 4ℕ, every 3-uniform hypergraph H on n vertices with minimum codegree at least n/2−1 contains a K−4-factor. Our bound on the minimum codegree here is best possible. It resolves a conjecture of Lo and Markström [15] for large hypergraphs, who earlier proved an asymptotically exact version of this result. Our proof makes use of the absorbing method as well as a result of Keevash and Mycroft [11] concerning almost perfect matchings in hypergraphs.

We investigate the number of 4-edge paths in graphs with a given number of vertices and edges, proving an asymptotically sharp upper bound on this number. The extremal construction is the quasi-star or the quasi-clique graph, depending on the edge density. An easy lower bound is also proved. This answer resembles the classic theorem of Ahlswede and Katona about the maximal number of 2-edge paths, and a recent theorem of Kenyon, Radin, Ren and Sadun about k-edge stars.

The (a,b)-eye is the graph Ia,b = Ka+b \ Kb obtained by deleting the edges of a clique of size b from a clique of size a+b. We show that for any a,b ≥ 2 and p ∈ (0,1), if we condition the random graph G ~ G(n,p) on having no induced copy of Ia,b, then with high probability G is close to an a-partite graph or the complement of a (b−1)-partite graph. Our proof uses the recently developed theory of hypergraph containers, and a stability result for an extremal problem with two weighted colours. We also apply the stability method to obtain an exact Turán-type result for this extremal problem.

Let G be an abelian group of cardinality n, where hcf(n, 6) = 1, and let A be a random subset of G. Form a graph ΓA on vertex set G by joining x to y if and only if x + y ∈ A. Then, with high probability as n → ∞, the chromatic number χ(ΓA) is at most $(1 + o(1))\tfrac{n}{2\log_2 n}$. This is asymptotically sharp when G = ℤ/nℤ, n prime.

We introduce and study the model of simply generated non-crossing partitions, which are, roughly speaking, chosen at random according to a sequence of weights. This framework encompasses the particular case of uniform non-crossing partitions with constraints on their block sizes. Our main tool is a bijection between non-crossing partitions and plane trees, which maps such simply generated non-crossing partitions into simply generated trees so that blocks of size k are in correspondence with vertices of out-degree k. This allows us to obtain limit theorems concerning the block structure of simply generated non-crossing partitions. We apply our results in free probability by giving a simple formula relating the maximum of the support of a compactly supported probability measure on the real line in terms of its free cumulants.

We establish a generalization of the Expander Mixing Lemma for arbitrary (finite) simplicial complexes. The original lemma states that concentration of the Laplace spectrum of a graph implies combinatorial expansion (which is also referred to as mixing, or pseudo-randomness). Recently, an analogue of this lemma was proved for simplicial complexes of arbitrary dimension, provided that the skeleton of the complex is complete. More precisely, it was shown that a concentrated spectrum of the simplicial Hodge Laplacian implies a similar type of pseudo-randomness as in graphs. In this paper we remove the assumption of a complete skeleton, showing that simultaneous concentration of the Laplace spectra in all dimensions implies pseudo-randomness in any complex. We discuss various applications and present some open questions.

Let Qd denote the hypercube of dimension d. Given d ⩾ m, a spanning subgraph G of Qd is said to be (Qd, Qm)-saturated if it does not contain Qm as a subgraph but adding any edge of E(Qd)\E(G) creates a copy of Qm in G. Answering a question of Johnson and Pinto [27], we show that for every fixed m ⩾ 2 the minimum number of edges in a (Qd, Qm)-saturated graph is Θ(2d).

We also study weak saturation, which is a form of bootstrap percolation. A spanning subgraph of Qd is said to be weakly (Qd, Qm)-saturated if the edges of E(Qd)\E(G) can be added to G one at a time so that each added edge creates a new copy of Qm. Answering another question of Johnson and Pinto [27], we determine the minimum number of edges in a weakly (Qd, Qm)-saturated graph for all d ⩾ m ⩾ 1. More generally, we determine the minimum number of edges in a subgraph of the d-dimensional grid Pkd which is weakly saturated with respect to ‘axis aligned’ copies of a smaller grid Prm. We also study weak saturation of cycles in the grid.

We prove that for every poset P, there is a constant CP such that the size of any family of subsets of {1, 2, . . ., n} that does not contain P as an induced subposet is at most

$$C_P{\binom{n}{\lfloor\gfrac{n}{2}\rfloor}},$$

Let S be a set of n points in ${\mathbb R}^{2}$ contained in an algebraic curve C of degree d. We prove that the number of distinct distances determined by S is at least cdn4/3, unless C contains a line or a circle.

We also prove the lower bound cd′ min{m2/3n2/3, m2, n2} for the number of distinct distances between m points on one irreducible plane algebraic curve and n points on another, unless the two curves are parallel lines, orthogonal lines, or concentric circles. This generalizes a result on distances between lines of Sharir, Sheffer and Solymosi in [19].

We give a minimum degree condition sufficient to ensure the existence of a fractional Kr-decomposition in a balanced r-partite graph (subject to some further simple necessary conditions). This generalizes the non-partite problem studied recently by Barber, Lo, Kühn, Osthus and the author, and the 3-partite fractional K3-decomposition problem studied recently by Bowditch and Dukes. Combining our result with recent work by Barber, Kühn, Lo, Osthus and Taylor, this gives a minimum degree condition sufficient to ensure the existence of a (non-fractional) Kr-decomposition in a balanced r-partite graph (subject to the same simple necessary conditions).

Let ℱ be a family of graphs and let d be large enough. For every d-regular graph G, we study the existence of a spanning ℱ-free subgraph of G with large minimum degree. This problem is well understood if ℱ does not contain bipartite graphs. Here we provide asymptotically tight results for many families of bipartite graphs such as cycles or complete bipartite graphs. To prove these results, we study a locally injective analogue of the question.