Monochromatic Subgraphs in Randomly Colored Graphons

Abstract: Let $T(H, G_n)$ be the number of monochromatic copies of a fixed connected graph $H$ in a uniformly random coloring of the vertices of the graph $G_n$. In this paper we give a complete characterization of the limiting distribution of $T(H, G_n)$, when ${G_n}_{n \geq 1}$ is a converging sequence of dense graphs. When the number of colors grows to infinity, depending on whether the expected value remains bounded, $T(H, G_n)$ either converges to a finite linear combination of independent Poisson variables or a normal distribution. On the other hand, when the number of colors is fixed, $T(H, G_n)$ converges to a (possibly infinite) linear combination of independent centered chi-squared random variables. This generalizes the classical birthday problem, which involves understanding the asymptotics of $T(K_s, K_n)$, the number of monochromatic $s$-cliques in a complete graph $K_n$ ($s$-matching birthdays among a group of $n$ friends), to general monochromatic subgraphs in a network.