Example 1 In graph there are edges and vertices with degrees , and integer is less than . Prove: Graph contains an induced subgraph (i.e., if two vertices in are connected by an edge in graph , then they are also connected by an edge in ), such that does not contain (i.e., a complete graph with vertices where every pair of vertices is connected by an edge), and has at least vertices.
(Adapted from a 2010 USA MOP program problem)
Solution
【Analysis】Similar to Example 9 in [1], the proof method for Turán's theorem uses a random permutation of vertices. To ensure no complete graph appears, it is sufficient to require that the degree of each vertex in graph does not exceed . For a random permutation of vertices , using a greedy algorithm, select if and only if, in the permutation of and its adjacent vertices, is among the first positions. This ensures that the degrees of the selected vertices do not exceed , and thus, the final graph contains no . Next, we prove that the expected number of selected vertices is at least .
Let be the random variable indicating whether the -th vertex is selected in a random permutation, taking the value 1 if selected and 0 otherwise.
Notice that, in the permutation of and its adjacent vertices, will be selected if it is among the first positions. Thus,
Let the random variable represent the number of vertices that can be selected according to the required algorithm in a random permutation, then
By the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, we have
Therefore, there must exist a permutation such that the number of selected vertices is at least .
This completes the proof.