Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / iii / Paper 339 / 2 / c / i

For an edge $ij$, put $\rho =⟨v_i,v_j⟩$ and $\theta =\arccos \rho$. Since $\rho \le -1/2$, we have $\theta \ge 2\pi /3$.

The random normal $a$ has the isotropic Gaussian distribution $N(0,I_p)$. Its distribution is invariant under orthogonal transformations; if $v_i,v_j$ are linearly independent, its projection onto their plane has a uniformly distributed direction. The signs of its inner products with $v_i,v_j$ differ in two sectors of total angle $2\theta$, out of $2\pi$. Thus random hyperplane rounding givesIf $v_j=-v_i$, the signs differ with probability one and the same formula holds with $\theta =\pi$. Zero inner products have probability zero, since each $v_i$ is a unit vector.

If the graph has an edge, its corresponding principal $2\times 2$ block of $U$ forces $t\ge 2$, so the division by $t-1$ used to obtain the Gram matrix is valid. An edgeless graph can instead be colored with one color directly.