Definition:Ramsey Number

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Definition

Ramsey's Theorem states that in any coloring of the edges of a sufficiently large complete graph, one will find monochromatic complete subgraphs.

More precisely, for any given number of colors $c$, and any given integers $n_1, \ldots, n_c$, there is a number $\map R {n_1, \ldots, n_c}$ such that:

if the edges of a complete graph of order $\map R {n_1, \ldots, n_c}$ are colored with $c$ different colours, then for some $i$ between $1$ and $c$, it must contain a complete subgraph of order $n_i$ whose edges are all color $i$.

This number $\map R {n_1, \ldots, n_c}$ is called the Ramsey number for $n_1, \ldots, n_c$.

Source of Name

This entry was named for Frank Plumpton Ramsey.