Publications

A classical result by Rado characterises the so-called partition-regular matrices A, i.e. those matrices A for which any finite colouring of the positive integers yields a monochromatic solution to the equation Ax=0. We study the asymmetric random Rado problem for the (binomial) random set [n]p in which one seeks to determine the threshold for the property that any r-colouring, r≥2, of the random set has a colour i∈[r] admitting a solution for the matrical equation Aix=0, where A1,…,Ar are predetermined partition-regular matrices pre-assigned to the colours involved. We prove a 1-statement for the asymmetric random Rado property. In the symmetric setting our result retrieves the 1-statement of the symmetric random Rado theorem established in a combination of results by Rödl and Ruciânski [34] and by Friedgut, Rödl and Schacht [11]. We conjecture that our 1-statement in fact unveils the threshold for the asymmetric random Rado property, yielding a counterpart to the so-called Kohayakawa-Kreuter conjecture concerning the threshold for the asymmetric random Ramsey problem in graphs. We deduce the aforementioned 1-statement for the asymmetric random Rado property after establishing a broader result generalising the main theorem of Friedgut, Rödl and Schacht from [11]. The latter then serves as a combinatorial framework through which 1-statements for Ramsey-type problems in random sets and (hyper)graphs alike can be established in the asymmetric setting following a relatively short combinatorial examination of certain hypergraphs. To establish this framework we utilise a recent approach put forth by Mousset, Nenadov and Samotij [26] for the Kohayakawa-Kreuter conjecture.

In this work we consider extensions of a conjecture due to Alspach, Mason, and Pullman from 1976. This conjecture concerns edge decompositions of tournaments into as few paths as possible. There is a natural lower bound for the number paths needed in an edge decomposition of a directed graph in terms of its degree sequence; the conjecture in question states that this bound is correct for tournaments of even order. The conjecture was recently resolved for large tournaments, and here we investigate to what extent the conjecture holds for directed graphs in general. In particular, we prove that the conjecture holds with high probability for the random directed graph Dn,pDn,pD_{n,p} for a large range of p.