The Connected Bipartite Tur\'an Problem for Long Cycles and Paths

Abstract

Caro, Patk\'os, and Tuza initiated a systematic study of the bipartite Tur\'an number for trees, and in particular asked for the extremal number of edges in connected bipartite graphs with prescribed color-class sizes that contain no paths of given lengths. In this paper, we determine these numbers exactly and describe all corresponding extremal configurations. Our approach first establishes a more general result for long cycles: we determine the exact structure of all 2-connected bipartite graphs with no cycle of length at least a given constant. The proof combines Kopylov's method for long cycles with a strengthened version of Jackson's classical lemma, in which every extremal configuration is characterized. To highlight the applicability of our results, we conclude with applications yielding concise proofs of classical theorems on bipartite Tur\'an numbers, notably rederiving the results of Gy\'arf\'as, Rousseau, and Schelp for paths and Jackson for long cycles.