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Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

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Claim. ex(n;K2,2)≫n3/2\mathrm{ex}(n;K_{2,2})\gg n^{3/2}, the statement of Problem 714 for r=2r=2. T. Kővári, V. T. Sós and P. Turán, On a problem of K. Zarankiewicz, Colloq. Math. 3 (1954), 50--57 (the volume carries the year only, so this page's name uses its first day); library source card. With kj(n)k_j(n) the least number of 11's in an n×nn\times n 00--11 matrix that forces a j×jj\times j minor of 11's, the paper's (1.3) states lim⁡k2(n)/n3/2=1\lim k_2(n)/n^{3/2}=1; the lower bound is the construction of Section 5 (pp. 54--55), which for n=p2n=p^2, pp prime, takes the p2p^2 sets Jab={kp+⟨a+bk⟩+1:k=0,…,p−1}J_{ab}=\{kp+\langle a+bk\rangle+1:k=0,\ldots,p-1\} of {1,…,p2}\{1,\ldots,p^2\}, any two sharing at most one element, as the rows of a matrix with p3=n3/2p^3=n^{3/2} ones and no 2×22\times2 minor of 11's, and the passage to all nn is the paper's. Such a matrix is the biadjacency matrix of a bipartite graph with nn vertices on each side, n3/2n^{3/2} edges and no C4=K2,2C_4=K_{2,2}, so ex(2n;K2,2)≥(1−o(1))n3/2\mathrm{ex}(2n;K_{2,2})\ge(1-o(1))n^{3/2}, that is, ex(N;K2,2)≥(2−3/2−o(1))N3/2\mathrm{ex}(N;K_{2,2})\ge(2^{-3/2}-o(1))N^{3/2} for even NN and, by monotonicity, ex(N;K2,2)≫N3/2\mathrm{ex}(N;K_{2,2})\gg N^{3/2} for all NN; this translation from the matrix to the graph is the paper's (3.1) read in the other direction and is made here. The same paper's (1.5) is the upper bound kj(n)<1+jn+[(j−1)1/jn2−1/j]k_j(n)<1+jn+[(j-1)^{1/j}n^{2-1/j}] for every jj, and its Section 6 states the conjecture (6.1) that the exponent is right for every jj, the matrix form of the problem's question (inequality (6.1)).

Covers. The instance r=2r=2 of the statement for every r≥2r\ge2, with the constant 2−3/22^{-3/2} rather than the sharp 12\tfrac12 that Erdős, Rényi and Sós and Brown reach for non-bipartite graphs; nothing for any r≥3r\ge3.

Depends on. Nothing in this wiki: the construction and the asymptotic are the paper's, and the matrix-to-graph step is elementary.

Acceptance. Refereed: Colloquium Mathematicum, a refereed journal. No reviewed evidence is listed: the site labels the problem OPEN, and its commentary names the paper for the upper bound only. This corpus supplies no independent proof review: the statements (1.3), (1.5), (3.1) and (6.1) are checked against the print, and the Section 5 construction's proof is not.