On off-diagonal ordered Ramsey numbers of nested matchings

Abstract

For two graphs $G^<$ and $H^<$ with linearly ordered vertex sets, the ordered Ramsey number $r_<(G^<,H^<)$ is the minimum $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the edges of the ordered complete graph on $N$ vertices contains a red copy of $G^<$ or a blue copy of $H^<$. For a positive integer $n$, a nested matching $NM^<_n$ is the ordered graph on $2n$ vertices with edges $\{i,2n-i+1\}$ for every $i=1,\dots,n$. We improve bounds on the ordered Ramsey numbers $r_<(NM^<_n,K^<_3)$ obtained by Rohatgi, we disprove his conjecture by showing $4n+1 \leq r_<(NM^<_n,K^<_3) \leq (3+\sqrt{5})n$ for every $n \geq 6$, and we determine the numbers $r_<(NM^<_n,K^<_3)$ exactly for $n=4,5$. As a corollary, this gives stronger lower bounds on the maximum chromatic number of $k$-queue graphs for every $k \geq 3$. We also prove $r_<(NM^<_m,K^<_n)=\Theta(mn)$ for arbitrary $m$ and $n$. We expand the classical notion of Ramsey goodness to the ordered case and we attempt to characterize all connected ordered graphs that are $n$-good for every $n\in\mathbb{N}$. In particular, we discover a new class of ordered trees that are $n$-good for every $n \in \mathbb{N}$, extending all the previously known examples.