Many cliques with few edges and bounded maximum degree

Abstract

© 2021 Elsevier Inc.Generalized Turán problems have been a central topic of study in extremal combinatorics throughout the last few decades. One such problem, maximizing the number of cliques of a fixed order in a graph with fixed number of vertices and bounded maximum degree, was recently completely resolved by Chase. Kirsch and Radcliffe raised a natural variant of this problem where the number of edges is fixed instead of the number of vertices. In this paper, we determine the maximum number of cliques of a fixed order in a graph with fixed number of edges and bounded maximum degree, resolving a conjecture by Kirsch and Radcliffe. We also give a complete characterization of the extremal graphs.