MA861 Assignment 2

July 28, 2016

(due August 4, 2016 in class)

Instructions.
1. The due date is strict. Turn in whatever you have by then.
2. Proofs should be reasonably formal, but no longer than one page (i.e. two sides). Try
to write clearly and concisely. There will be marks for how clearly the proof is written.
3. Try to solve the problems on your own. If you discuss the solution with others and/or
used the internet, mention this on the answer sheet.
4. Even if you do discuss with others, you should write the proof down by yourself.
1. (Boole-Bonferroni inequalities) In this exercise, you will prove the Boole-Bonferroni inequalities stated in class. Let A1 , . . . , An be subsets of a finite set X.
(a) Let r be any positive integer. Show that for any odd k < r,
k+1
X
i=0

 
 
k
X
r
i r
(1)
0
(1)
i
i
i

i=0

(b) Define 1(x, S) to be 1 if x S and 0 otherwise. Show that for any x X, we have
X
\
[
X
\
(1)|I|+1 1(x,
Ai ) 1(x, Ai )
(1)|I|+1 1(x,
Ai )
I[n],1|I|k+1

iI

(c) Use the above to show that

X
(1)|I|+1 |iI Ai | |iI Ai |
I[n],1|I|k+1

I[n],1|I|k

iI

(1)|I|+1 |iI Ai |

I[n],1|I|k

2. Prove the following fact proved by example in class: Let H be a tree with k + 1 vertices
and G a graph such that (G) k. Show that H is a subgraph of G.
3. Let n be a positive integer divisible by 3. Find an arrangement of n points in R2 such
that any pair of them are at distance at most 1 but at least n2 /3 pairs are at pairwise
distance strictly larger than 12 .
S
P
4. We know that if a collection of sets A1 , . . . , Am is disjoint then | i Ai | = i |Ai |. In this
problem you will generalize this to almost disjoint sets. Say we have A1 , . . . , Am [n]
such that each Ai has size r and for all distinct i, j [m], |Ai Aj | 1.
1

S
(a) Show that if m r, then | i[m] Ai | rm
2 (I.e. the size of the union is at least
1P
1
i |Ai |). (Hint in footnote)
2
S
2
(b) Show that if m r, then we still have | iI Ai | r2 .
(c) Let G be a regular bipartite graph on n vertices. Assume additionally that G has no
K2,2 . Using the above, show that G can have at most O(n3/2 ) edges. Hint.2

1
2

Use the Boole-Bonferroni inequalities.

Let v1 , . . . , vm be the vertices in one of the partitions of G. What can you say about N (v1 ), . . . , N (vm )?