Off-diagonal hypergraph Ramsey numbers

Abstract: The Ramsey number $r_k(s,n)$ is the minimum $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the $k$-subsets of ${1, \ldots, N}$ contains a red set of size $s$ or a blue set of size $n$, where a set is red (blue) if all of its $k$-subsets are red (blue). A $k$-uniform \emph{tight path} of size $s$, denoted by $P_{s}$, is a set of $s$ vertices $v_1 < \cdots < v_{s}$ in $\mathbb{Z}$, and all $s-k+1$ edges of the form ${v_j,v_{j+1},\ldots, v_{j + k -1}}$. Let $r_k(P_s, n)$ be the minimum $N$ such that every red-blue coloring of the $k$-subsets of ${1, \ldots, N}$ results in a red $P_{s}$ or a blue set of size $n$. The problem of estimating both $r_k(s,n)$ and $r_k(P_s, n)$ for $k=2$ goes back to the seminal work of Erdos and Szekeres from 1935, while the case $k\ge 3$ was first investigated by Erdos and Rado in 1952. In this paper, we deduce a quantitative relationship between multicolor variants of $r_k(P_s, n)$ and $r_k(n, n)$. This yields several consequences including the following: (1) We determine the correct tower growth rate for both $r_k(s,n)$ and $r_k(P_s, n)$ for $s \ge k+3$. The question of determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(s,n)$ for all $s \ge k+1$ was posed by Erdos and Hajnal in 1972. (2) We show that determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(P_{k+1}, n)$ is equivalent to determining the tower growth rate of $r_k(n,n)$, which is a notorious conjecture of Erdos, Hajnal and Rado from 1965 that remains open. Some related off-diagonal hypergraph Ramsey problems are also explored.