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Let $K_n$ be a complete graph, I am interested in knowing the minimum number of triangles required to get a edge cover of $K_n$. In case there is no closed-form solution to this problem, then I would like to know the best known upper bound (the naive bound is $n\choose 3$ i.e all possible triangles).

An example:

Let $K_4 = \{1,2,3,4\}$, then any three of the following triangles make a full edge cover on $K_4$:

{1,2,3}

{1,2,4}

{1,3,4}

{2,3,4}


Furthermore, I would also like to add a generalisation i.e you assign a weight $w$ to each triangle such that $w \in [0,1] $, now I want to have a cover that minimises the sum of $w$, given that each edge's weight contribution sums to more than one.

What is the lower bound on this sum ?

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    $\begingroup$ Note that this number is asymptotically $\Theta(n^2)$ because there is a trivial ${n \choose 2}$ bound of just covering at least a single new edge in each triangle, and any cover must contain at least $|E|/3 = {n \choose 2}/3$ edges. $\endgroup$ Feb 18, 2021 at 16:10
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    $\begingroup$ Each triangle covers only 3 edges. $\endgroup$ Feb 18, 2021 at 16:27
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    $\begingroup$ A better upper bound is $\lceil\frac12\binom n2\rceil$. If $n$ is odd, then $K_n$ is eulerian; fix an eulerian path, split it in $\frac12\binom n2$ pairs of neighbouring edges, and complete each pair to a triangle. For $n$ even, take a covering of $K_{n-1}$ as above, and use $n/2$ further triangles to cover edges incident to the $n$th vertex. $\endgroup$ Feb 18, 2021 at 16:35
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    $\begingroup$ Well, these are simple observations, and perhaps someone can figure out the right multiplicative constant yet. Concerning fractional edge covers, this case is much simpler: the $\frac13\binom n2$ lower bound still applies, and now it is in fact the exact optimal value: just take every triangle with weight $1/(n-2)$. $\endgroup$ Feb 18, 2021 at 17:17
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    $\begingroup$ The sequence is tabulated at oeis.org/A011975, which includes several relevant references and other information. $\endgroup$ Feb 18, 2021 at 18:32

2 Answers 2

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Let $N(n)$ be the number of triangles needed to cover $K_n$. Because every triangle covers only three of the $n\choose 2$ edges, we have $\frac{1}{3}{n\choose 2}\leq N(n)$ as a lower bound.

Note that the case $n=2$ is degenerate, as $K_2$ has only one edge and no triangles. In the following analysis, I will allow myself to use triangles that cover only one edge (for $n>2$, this is without loss of generality because you can use an arbitrary third vertex to create a triangle).

To obtain an upper bound, we apply divide and conquer as follows. For some $k+m=n$, think of $K_n$ as the union of $K_m$, $K_k$, and $K_{k,m}$. In particular, let's pick $m:=\lfloor n/2\rfloor$ and $k:=\lceil n/2\rceil$. Label the vertices of $K_k$ by $u_0,\dots,u_{k-1}$ and the vertices of $K_m$ by $v_0,\dots,v_{m-1}$. For each edge $\{u_i,u_j\}$ of $K_k$, place the triangle $\{u_i,u_j,v_{i+j\pmod m}\}$. This covers each edge of $K_k$ using $k\choose 2$ triangles, and also covers the edges $\{u_i,v_l\}$ of $K_{k,m}$ as long as $l\neq 2i\pmod m$. We can cover the remaining edges $\{u_i,v_{2i\pmod m}\}$ of $K_{k,m}$ using $k$ triangles.

Now, it remains to cover the edges of $K_m$, which we do recursively. This yields the upper bound $N(n)\leq N(m)+{k\choose 2}+k\leq N(\lfloor n/2\rfloor)+{\lceil n/2\rceil\choose 2}+\lceil n/2\rceil$. For $n\leq 1$, we have $N(n)=0$, so we can write out the recurrence: $$\begin{align}N(n)&\leq \sum_{i=1}^{\log_2 n} \left[{\lceil n/2^i\rceil\choose 2} + \lceil n/2^i\rceil\right]\\ &\leq \sum_{i=1}^{\log_2 n} \left[{\frac{n}{2^i}+1\choose 2} + \frac{n}{2^i} + 1\right]\\ &= \sum_{i=1}^{\log_2 n} \left[\frac{1}{2}(\frac{n}{2^i})^2+\frac{3}{2}\frac{n}{2^i} + 1\right]\\ &= \frac{n^2-1}{6} + \frac{3(n-1)}{2} + \log_2 n\\ &= \frac{1}{3}{n\choose 2} + O(n). \end{align}$$

Therefore, the lower bound is tight up to a linear function of $n$.

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If $n$ is congruent to $1$ or $3$ modulo $6$, there is a covering of the complete graph $K_n$ with triangles so that each edge is used exactly in exactly one triangle, so this uses exactly $\frac{1}{3}\binom{n}{2}$ triangles. This is called a Steiner triple system and the answers to this Math Overflow question give some ways to construct Steiner triple systems algorithmically

If $n$ is not congruent to $1$ or $3$ modulo $6$, then you can round it up so that it is, and get a good covering that way, although I believe combinatorists have found even better ones.

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