Turán number for even cycles

For a graph \( G\), define the Turán number \( t(n, G)\) to be the largest integer \( m\) such that there exists a graph on \( n\) vertices with \( m\) edges that does not contain \( G\) as a subgraph. In other words, if \( H\) has \( n\) vertices and more than \( t(n, G)\) edges, then \( H\) must contain \( G\) as a subgraph.

It is easy to see that for odd cycles, the Turán number \( t(n,C_{2k+1})= \lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor\) for \( n > 2k+1\), since no bipartite graph contains an odd cycle. However, the problem of determining the Turán numbers for even cycles is still open.

For the \( 4\)-cycle \( C_4\), it was known [1] for some time that the Turán number \( t(n, C_4)\) is of order \( n^{3/2}\). In 1983, Füredi [2] determined the exact values of \( t(n, C_4)\) for infinitely many \( n\) (in particular, for \( n=2^k\) for some \( k\)). In 1996, Füredi generalized this result [3]. He proved that for \( q \geq 15\) and \( n=q^2+q+1\),

\(\displaystyle t(n,C_4) \leq \frac{1}{2} q(q+1)^2. \)

In particular, for a prime power \( p \geq 13\) and \( n=p^2+p+1\),

\(\displaystyle t(n,C_4) = \frac{1}{2} p(p+1)^2. \)

Exact values of \( t(n, C_4)\) are known for all \( n\leq 21\) (see, for example, [4]).

For the general case, Erdös [5] and Bondy and Simonovits [6] showed that

\(\displaystyle t(n,C_{2k}) \leq c k n^{1+1/k}. \)

Erdös also posed the following conjecture:

Conjecture (Proposed by Erdös[5])

Prove that \[ t(n,C_{2k}) \geq cn^{1+1/k} \] for \(k =4\) and \(k \geq 6\).

We note that this conjecture, together with the above result of Erdös, Bondy and Simonovits, would imply that \( t(n, C_{2k})=o_n(n^{1+1/k})\). In fact, it has been conjectured by Erdös and Simonovits[7] that \( t(n, C_{2k})=(\frac{1}{2}+o(1))n^{1+1/k})\). For the case that \( k=5\), Lazebnik, Ustimenko, and Woldar [8] disprove this second conjecture, showing that \( t(n, C_{2k})>(c+o(1))n^{1+1/k})\), where \( c\approx 0.58\) (see also [9] for a further discussion on this counterexample). This was also disproven in the case that \( k=3\) by Füredi, Naor, and Verstraëte [10].

A lower bound of order \( n^{1+1/(2k-1)}\) for the above conjecture can be proved by probabilistic deletion methods [11]. The bipartite Ramanujan graph[12], [13] shows that \( t(n,C_{2k}) \geq n^{1+2/3k}\). In 1995, Lazebnik, Ustimenko and Woldar [14] constructed graphs which yield \( t(n,C_{2k}) \geq n^{1+ 2 /(3k-3)}\). The same authors [8] prove (by construction) that \( t(n, C_{2k})\geq (\frac{k-1}{k^{1+1/k}}+o(1))n^{1+1/k}\) (it is this construction that yields the counterexample to Erdös and Simonovits' conjecture, as noted above).


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