Local resilience of an almost spanning $k$-cycle in random graphs

TL;DR

This paper extends classical Hamilton cycle results to sparse random graphs, showing that high minimum degree subgraphs contain large powers of cycles, nearly matching the best possible conditions.

Contribution

It proves that for certain edge probabilities, subgraphs with high minimum degree in random graphs contain almost spanning cycle powers, generalizing and improving prior results.

Findings

Almost spanning $k$-th power cycles exist under specified conditions

Results are nearly optimal in three different probabilistic regimes

Improves upon recent bounds for $k=2$ and $k extgreater 2$ cases

Abstract

The famous P\'{o}sa-Seymour conjecture, confirmed in 1998 by Koml\'{o}s, S\'{a}rk\"{o}zy, and Szemer\'{e}di, states that for any $k \geq 2$, every graph on $n$ vertices with minimum degree $kn/(k + 1)$ contains the $k$-th power of a Hamilton cycle. We extend this result to a sparse random setting. We show that for every $k \geq 2$ there exists $C > 0$ such that if $p \geq C(\log n/n)^{1/k}$ then w.h.p. every subgraph of a random graph $G_{n, p}$ with minimum degree at least $(k/(k + 1) + o(1))np$, contains the $k$-th power of a cycle on at least $(1 - o(1))n$ vertices, improving upon the recent results of Noever and Steger for $k = 2$, as well as Allen et al. for $k \geq 3$. Our result is almost best possible in three ways: for $p \ll n^{-1/k}$ the random graph $G_{n, p}$ w.h.p. does not contain the $k$-th power of any long cycle; there exist subgraphs of $G_{n, p}$ with minimum degree $(k/(k + 1) + o(1))np$ and $\Omega(p^{-2})$ vertices not belonging to triangles; there exist subgraphs of $G_{n, p}$ with minimum degree $(k/(k + 1) - o(1))np$ which do not contain the $k$-th power of a cycle on $(1 - o(1))n$ vertices.