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Statement

Notation as on the Theorem 1 page.

Definition (p. 295, quoted). "A graph G′G' is a vertex-critical Ramsey graph for GG iff G→2G′G\xrightarrow[2]{}G', and G̸→2G′′G\not\xrightarrow[2]{}G'' for every vertex deleted subgraph G′′G'' of GG [sic]." The final "of GG" is as printed; the sense requires "of G′G'". Every critical Ramsey graph for GG is vertex-critical (p. 295).

Conjecture 1 (p. 295, quoted). "For a graph GG, the following three statemens [sic] are equivalent:

  1. GG has an infinite number of nonisomorphic vertex-critical Ramsey graphs
  2. G̸→2GG\not\xrightarrow[2]{}G
  3. GG contains at least two edges."

The conjecture is attributed to the authors' earlier paper, Partitions of vertices, Comment. Math. Univ. Carolinae 17 (1976), 85--95 (the paper's [6]). The paper calls 1)$\Rightarrow2),1)2), 1)\Rightarrow$3) and 2)$\Leftrightarrow3)obvious,sotheopenpartis3)3) obvious, so the open part is 3)\Rightarrow$1). It proves that implication for the graphs covered by Theorem 1, Theorem 2 and the forest theorem, in the stronger form for critical Ramsey graphs, and says it did not reach the full solution (p. 296). For critical rather than vertex-critical Ramsey graphs the analogue fails: a graph with G̸→2GG\not\xrightarrow[2]{}G can have only finitely many critical Ramsey graphs, for example kk disjoint edges or a star with an odd number of edges, citing Burr, Erdős and Lovász (p. 295). For partitions of vertices instead of edges, the paper states that the analogue of Conjecture 1 is true, by the methods of [6] (p. 299).

Source. J. Nešetřil and V. Rödl, The structure of critical Ramsey graphs, Acta Math. Acad. Sci. Hungar. 32 (1978), no. 3--4, 295--300, doi:10.1007/BF01902367; the definition and Conjecture 1 on p. 295, remark 3) on p. 299. Edition as on the source card.

Read depth. Claims checked: read clause by clause on the page images. Nothing here is independently reviewed.

Bears on

No problem page consumes this conjecture.