The K_4-free process

Abstract

We consider the K_4-free process. In this process, the edges of the complete n-vertex graph are traversed in a uniformly random order, and each traversed edge is added to an initially empty evolving graph, unless the addition of the edge creates a copy of K_4. Let M(n) denote the graph that is produced by that process. We prove that a.a.s., the number of edges in M(n) is O( n^{8/5} (\ln n)^{1/5} ). This matches, up to a constant factor, a lower bound of Bohman. As a by-product, we prove the following Ramsey-type result: for every n there exists a K_4-free n-vertex graph, in which the largest set of vertices that doesn't span a triangle has size O( n^{3/5} (\ln n)^{1/5} ). This improves, by a factor of (\ln n)^{3/10}, an upper bound of Krivelevich.