pathCount₃ A B X a b is the number of length-3 paths
a — b₁ — a₁ — b in the bipartite graph with edge set X ⊆ A × B.
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pathCount₂ B X a₁ a₂ counts common neighbours in B of a₁ and a₂, i.e. the
number of b ∈ B with (a₁, b), (a₂, b) ∈ X — equivalently $P_2(a_1, a_2)$.
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The co-neighbours of b ∈ B inside A: elements a ∈ A with (a, b) ∈ X.
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The neighbours of a ∈ A inside B: elements b ∈ B with (a, b) ∈ X.
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ε-bad pairs lemma (preparation for BSG). If X ⊆ A × B has density ≥ K⁻¹|A||B|
and ε > 0, there is a refinement A' ⊆ A of size ≥ ¼ K⁻¹ |A| such that:
- every
a ∈ A'has many neighbours inB(at least(1/10) K⁻¹ |B|), and - for every
a ∈ A', only≤ 10 ε |A'|of the elementsa₂ ∈ A'areε-bad relative toa, i.e. share fewer thanε K⁻² |B|common neighbours witha.
Trivial repackaging: the minimum-degree property guaranteed by eps_bad_pairs_lemma
on A' is preserved (used as a clean hypothesis-passing wrapper).
Lower bound on pathCount₃. If S ⊆ A consists of vertices a₁ each connected
to b and each sharing at least t common neighbours with a in B, then the number of
length-3 paths from a to b is at least |S| · t.
For the complete bipartite graph X = A × B, the number of length-3 paths between
any a ∈ A and b ∈ B is exactly |B| · |A|.
Density bound for (A', B') after BSG refinement. Restricting X to pairs in
A' × B', with B' being the set of b ∈ B having many A'-co-neighbours, retains a
positive fraction of the original density:
$|X \cap (A' \times B')| \ge \tfrac{1}{80} K^{-2} |A| |B|$.
Path-count bound for (A', B') after BSG refinement. For every a ∈ A' and
b ∈ B', the number of length-3 paths from a to b is large:
$\operatorname{pathCount}_3(A, B, X, a, b) \ge \tfrac{10}{16} \varepsilon^2 K^{-3} |A| |B|$.
Lemma (Key Lemma) for Balog–Szemerédi–Gowers. If X ⊆ A × B has density
|X| ≥ K⁻¹ |A| |B|, then there exist refinements A' ⊆ A, B' ⊆ B and an exponent
c ∈ ℕ such that the restriction of X to A' × B' still has density ≥ K^{-c} |A||B|
and every pair (a, b) ∈ A' × B' is joined by at least K^{-c} |A||B| length-3 paths in
the bipartite graph defined by X.