A bipartite graph $F$ on $A \sqcup B$ has a "universal vertex" if some vertex in $A$ is adjacent to every vertex of $B$, or some vertex in $B$ is adjacent to every vertex of $A$. This is the hypothesis of the Conlon-Fox-Sudakov theorem on Sidorenko's conjecture.
Instances For
Entropy-style hom-count lower bound underlying the Conlon-Fox-Sudakov theorem: for a bipartite graph $F$ with a universal vertex, $$ \mathrm{hom}(F, G) \ge \left( \frac{\mathrm{hom}(K_2, G)}{|V(G)|^2} \right)^{|E(F)|} \cdot |V(G)|^{|V(F)|}. $$
A bipartite graph with a universal vertex has at least one edge, so its edge set is non-empty. Used to avoid degenerate corner cases.
Theorem 10.3.7 (Conlon-Fox-Sudakov 2010). Sidorenko's conjecture holds for any bipartite graph $F$ that has a universal vertex on one side: $\mathrm{hom\text{-}density}(F, G) \ge \mathrm{hom\text{-}density}(K_2, G)^{|E(F)|}$.