Crossing numbers of complete tripartite and balanced complete multipartite graphs

Abstract

The crossing number cr(G) of a graph G is the minimum number of crossings in a nondegenerate planar drawing of G. The rectilinear crossing number cr'(G) of G is the minimum number of crossings in a rectilinear nondegenerate planar drawing (with edges as straight line segments) of G. Zarankiewicz proved in 1952 that cr'(K_{n_1,n_2})\le Z(n_1,n_2):= n_1/2*(n_1-1)/2*n_2/2*(n_2-1)/2. We define an analogous bound A(n_1,n_2,n_3) for the complete tripartite graph K_{n_1,n_2,n_3}, and prove that cr'(K_{n_1,n_2,n_3})\le A({n_1,n_2,n_3}). We also show that for n large enough, 0.973 A(n,n,n) \le cr'(K_{n,n,n}) and 0.666 A(n,n,n)\le cr(K_{n,n,n}), with the tighter rectilinear lower bound established through the use of flag algebras. A complete multipartite graph is balanced if the partite sets all have the same cardinality. We study asymptotic behavior of the crossing number of the balanced complete r-partite graph. Richter and Thomassen proved in 1997 that the limit as n\to\infty of cr(K_{n,n}) over the maximum number of crossings in a drawing of K_{n,n} exists and is at most 1/4. We define z(r)=3(r^2-r)/8(r^2+r-3) and show that for a fixed r and the balanced complete r-partite graph, z(r) is an upper bound to the limit superior of the crossing number divided by the maximum number of crossings in a drawing.