Choongbum Lee (이중범), Self-similarity of graphs

An old problem raised independently by Jacobson and Schönheim asks to determine the maximum s for which every graph with m edges contains a pair of edge-disjoint isomorphic subgraphs with s edges. We determine this maximum up to a constant factor and show that every m-edge graph contains a pair of edge-disjoint isomorphic subgraphs with at least c (m log m)2/3 edges for some absolute constant c, and find graphs where this estimate is off only by a multiplicative constant. Our results improve bounds of Erdős, Pach, and Pyber from 1987.
Joint work with Po-Shen Loh and Benny Sudakov.