Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2023 ii Paper 3 17H a Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
We prove the Quadratic Turan edge bound by induction. The case is immediate. For , if contains no , the induction hypothesis for gives the stronger bound. Otherwise choose a copy of . Every vertex outside has at most neighbours in , since one adjacent to all of would complete a . Thus the number of edges having at least one endpoint in is at mostThe graph is still -free, so induction on the number of vertices givesThis proves the stated form of Turan theorem.
Turán graph Created 2026-09-29 Updated 2026-10-14
The Turán graph is a complete multipartite graph with independent sets of sizes differing by at most one, with every cross edge present. Empty parts are allowed when .[ref]
Graph Theory by Reinhard Diestel. third electronic edition (2005), §7.1, printed p. 165, definition of Turán graphs and convention for empty partition sets
In this example, the independent sets are , and . Count the edges between each pair of parts:Any four vertices put at least two in the same independent set, by the pigeonhole principle, so they cannot form . Conversely, every choice of one vertex from each part is a triangle in a graph, giving triangles in a graph. Clique exclusion here does not mean triangle-free.
For the exact count, Euclidean division writes , where uses the floor function and is the remainder, with . There are parts of size and of size . For any part sizes summing to , count cross edges by expanding the square:ThereforeFor , we have , giving . The Quadratic Turan edge bound gives instead: the exact correction subtracts .
Balancing is an integer optimization with a simple reason. If two part sizes satisfy , moving one vertex from the larger part to the smaller decreases their contribution to the sum of squares byso it increases the edge count by . For eight vertices, parts give edges; moving one vertex produces and edges. The most symmetric permitted sizes pack the most cross edges, which explains the sharp construction in Turán's theorem.
