A subquadratic bound for generalized Turán numbers of odd cycles

Abstract

For a graph $H$ and a family of graphs $\mathcal F$, let $\text{ex}(n,H,\mathcal F)$ denote the maximum number of copies of $H$ in an $\mathcal F$-free graph on $n$ vertices. For every integer $i\ge 3$, let $C_i$ denote the cycle of length $i$. For $r\ge 3$, set $\mathscr {C}_r=\{C_3,C_4,\ldots,C_r\},$ and set $\mathscr {C}_2=\varnothing$. In this paper, we prove that, for all integers $l>k\ge 2$, $$ \text{ex}(n,C_{2k+1},\mathscr {C}_{2k}\cup\{C_{2l+1}\}) =O_{k,l} \left(n^{2-\frac{1}{k(k+1)(l-k)}}\ \ \right). $$ Together with the known upper bounds for the number of triangles in $C_{2l+1}$-free graphs, this confirms a conjecture of Gerbner, Győri, Methuku, and Vizer.