Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2025 ii Paper 4 17F b ii Solution Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-09-25
Suppose first that is odd. On vertices, take a red -regular graph; for example, label the vertices cyclically and join each vertex to the nearest vertices in each direction. Its blue complement is also -regular. Neither colour contains a vertex of degree , so there is no monochromatic . Therefore
Now let be even. If a colouring of had no monochromatic , every vertex would have red and blue degree at most . Since the two degrees sum to , each would equal . The red graph would then be -regular on vertices, impossible because both numbers are odd and the sum of degrees must be even. Hence .
For the matching lower bound, colour a copy of red on vertices and colour all remaining edges blue. Red degree is and the blue graph is two disjoint copies of , of degree . Again neither colour contains . Thus the Ramsey number of a star is