$C_4$-free subgraphs of high degree with geometric applications

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Main Authors: Hunter, Zach, Milojević, Aleksa, Tomon, Istvan, Sudakov, Benny
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Hunter, Zach
Milojević, Aleksa
Tomon, Istvan
Sudakov, Benny
author_facet Hunter, Zach
Milojević, Aleksa
Tomon, Istvan
Sudakov, Benny
contents The Zarankiewicz problem, a cornerstone problem in extremal graph theory, asks for the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex graph that does not contain the complete bipartite graph $K_{s,s}$. While the problem remains widely open in the case of general graphs, the past two decades have seen significant progress on this problem for various restricted graph classes -- particularly those arising from geometric settings -- leading to a deeper understanding of their structure. In this paper, we develop a new structural tool for addressing Zarankiewicz-type problems. More specifically, we show that for any positive integer $k$, every graph with average degree $d$ either contains an induced $C_4$-free subgraph with average degree at least $k$, or it contains a $d$-vertex subgraph with $Ω_k(d^2)$ edges. As an application of this dichotomy, we propose a unified approach to a large number of Zarankiewicz-type problems in geometry, obtaining optimal bounds in each case.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_23942
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle $C_4$-free subgraphs of high degree with geometric applications
Hunter, Zach
Milojević, Aleksa
Tomon, Istvan
Sudakov, Benny
Combinatorics
Computational Geometry
The Zarankiewicz problem, a cornerstone problem in extremal graph theory, asks for the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex graph that does not contain the complete bipartite graph $K_{s,s}$. While the problem remains widely open in the case of general graphs, the past two decades have seen significant progress on this problem for various restricted graph classes -- particularly those arising from geometric settings -- leading to a deeper understanding of their structure. In this paper, we develop a new structural tool for addressing Zarankiewicz-type problems. More specifically, we show that for any positive integer $k$, every graph with average degree $d$ either contains an induced $C_4$-free subgraph with average degree at least $k$, or it contains a $d$-vertex subgraph with $Ω_k(d^2)$ edges. As an application of this dichotomy, we propose a unified approach to a large number of Zarankiewicz-type problems in geometry, obtaining optimal bounds in each case.
title $C_4$-free subgraphs of high degree with geometric applications
topic Combinatorics
Computational Geometry
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.23942