Conjugacy Class Averages and Sidorenko's Conjecture

Abstract: Sidorenko's conjecture asserts that for every bipartite graph $H$ and every graph $G$, [ t(H,G)\geq t(K_2,G)^{e(H)}. ] A result of Szegedy shows that, in order to prove the conjecture, it suffices to verify the corresponding inequality on a special family of highly symmetric bipartite Cayley type hosts arising from symmetric groups. Motivated by this reduction, we study Cayley type bipartite kernels associated with functions on finite groups and their conjugacy class averages. Our first result gives a reduction through conjugacy averaging: for a fixed bipartite graph $H$, if the $H$-density of each Cayley type host is at least the $H$-density of its conjugacy class average, then $H$ is strong Sidorenko, and hence Sidorenko. Our second result proves a Sidorenko-type inequality for 1-subdivision graphs on conjugacy-averaged Cayley kernels associated with arbitrary real-valued functions on finite groups.