On Ramsey-minimal infinite graphs

Abstract

For fixed finite graphs $G$, $H$, a common problem in Ramsey theory is to study graphs $F$ such that $F \to (G,H)$, i.e. every red-blue coloring of the edges of $F$ produces either a red $G$ or a blue $H$. We generalize this study to infinite graphs $G$, $H$; in particular, we want to determine if there is a minimal such $F$. This problem has strong connections to the study of self-embeddable graphs: infinite graphs which properly contain a copy of themselves. We prove some compactness results relating this problem to the finite case, then give some general conditions for a pair $(G,H)$ to have a Ramsey-minimal graph. We use these to prove, for example, that if $G=S_\infty$ is an infinite star and $H=nK_2$, $n \ge 1$ is a matching, then the pair $(S_\infty,nK_2)$ admits no Ramsey-minimal graphs.