The Exact Number of Pentagons in Book-Free Graphs

Abstract

Let $B_k$ denote the book consisting of $k$ triangles sharing a common edge. We prove that there exist absolute constants $ρ>0$ and $N$ such that, for every pair of integers $n,k$ with $n\ge N$ and $2\le k\le ρn$, writing $n=5q+r$ with $0\le r<5$, \[ \operatorname{ex}(n,C_5,B_k)=q^{\,5-r}(q+1)^r, \] with the balanced complete $C_5$-blow-ups as the only extremal graphs. The linear order of this range is best possible since for all sufficiently large $n$, the formula fails whenever $k\ge0.14n$.