Sabotaging Mantel's Theorem

One of the earliest results in extremal graph theory, Mantel's theorem, states that the maximum number of edges in a triangle-free graph $G$ on $n$ vertices is $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor$. We investigate how this extremal bound is affected when $G$ is additionally required to contain a prescribed graph $H$ as a subgraph. We establish general upper and lower bounds for this problem, which are tight in the exponent for random triangle-free graphs and graphs generated by the triangle-free process, when the size of $H$ lies within certain ranges.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics
Published
2026-02-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.37236/14324
Primary Topic
Limits and Structures in Graph Theory
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Sabotaging Mantel's Theorem

Natalie Behague, Debsoumya Chakraborti, Xizhi Liu
The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics
Limits and Structures in Graph Theory
article

Sabotaging Mantel's Theorem

Natalie Behague, Debsoumya Chakraborti, Xizhi Liu
article en

Abstract

One of the earliest results in extremal graph theory, Mantel's theorem, states that the maximum number of edges in a triangle-free graph $G$ on $n$ vertices is $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor$. We investigate how this extremal bound is affected when $G$ is additionally required to contain a prescribed graph $H$ as a subgraph. We establish general upper and lower bounds for this problem, which are tight in the exponent for random triangle-free graphs and graphs generated by the triangle-free process, when the size of $H$ lies within certain ranges.

The Electronic Journal of CombinatoricsVol. 33(1)
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), University of Warwick (GB), University College London (GB)
European Commission, National Natural Science Foundation of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 40%
Limits and Structures in Graph Theory
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