Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications

Benjamin Sudakov

Alexander Scott

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 5:05 PM - 6:15 PM

Online

Zoom 787 662 9899 (BIMSA)

A typical graph contains cliques and independent sets of no more than logarithmic size. The Erdos-Hajnal Conjecture asserts that if we forbid some induced subgraph H then we can do much better: the conjecture claims that there is some c=c(H)>0 such that every H-free graph G contains a clique or independent set of size at least |G|^c. The conjecture looks far out of reach, and is only known for a small family of graphs. We will discuss some recent progress. Joint work with Tung Nguyen and Paul Seymour.

Alex Scott is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He received his PhD from Cambridge University, and then had positions in Cambridge and at UCL before moving to Oxford. He was an invited speaker at the 2022 International Congress of Mathematicians. His research lies in extremal and probabilistic combinatorics, structural graph theory, and related areas of probability and computer science. More information can be found on his webpage: https://people.maths.ox.ac.uk/scott/