Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2006/iii/paper-14/5/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2006 iii Paper 14 5 Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-14
The general, or asymmetric Lovász local lemma, is as follows. Let be events, with a dependency graph of events having neighbour sets . Each must be independent of the sigma-algebra generated by all the events indexed by its nonneighbours. If numbers satisfythenFor completeness, the key inductive bound is whenever . Split into neighbours of and nonneighbours . If is empty, the dependency condition gives the bound directly. Otherwise,The denominator bound follows by exposing the exclusions in one at a time and using the induction hypothesis with strictly fewer conditioning events. The same induction ensures that all conditioning events have positive probability. Finally multiply the successive conditional probabilities of avoiding to obtain the stated lower bound.
For the symmetric form, suppose each event has probability at most and the dependency graph has maximum degree . Choose . ThenThe final inequality follows from . Thus suffices for positive probability that no bad event occurs. If , the dependency condition gives joint independence and the same criterion implies , so the conclusion follows directly.
Apply this to a fair independent two-colouring of the hypergraph vertices, with the event that hypergraph edge is monochromatic. Its probability is . Events on disjoint hypergraph edges use disjoint independent variables, giving a dependency graph by joining intersecting hypergraph edges. Each hypergraph edge meets at mostother hypergraph edges; repeated counting only enlarges this upper bound. The slightly looser bound is enough for the printed condition. Indeed,The symmetric Lovász local lemma therefore gives a proper two-colouring. A hypergraph with no hypergraph edges is trivially colourable and needs no dependency calculation.
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