Cycles in dense digraphs

Abstract

Let G be a digraph (without parallel edges) such that every directed cycle has length at least four; let $β(G)$ denote the size of the smallest subset X in E(G) such that $G\X$ has no directed cycles, and let $γ(G)$ be the number of unordered pairs {u,v} of vertices such that u,v are nonadjacent in G. It is easy to see that if $γ(G) = 0$ then $β(G) = 0$; what can we say about $β(G)$ if $γ(G)$ is bounded? We prove that in general $β(G)$ is at most $γ(G)$. We conjecture that in fact $β(G)$ is at most $γ(G)/2$ (this would be best possible if true), and prove this conjecture in two special cases: 1. when V(G) is the union of two cliques, 2. when the vertices of G can be arranged in a circle such that if distinct u,v,w are in clockwise order and uw is a (directed) edge, then so are both uv and vw.