Set-Coloring Ramsey Numbers via Codes

For positive integers 𝑛, 𝑟, 𝑠 with 𝑟 > 𝑠, the set-coloring Ramsey number 𝑅(𝑛; 𝑟, 𝑠) is the minimum 𝑁 such that if every edge of the complete graph 𝐾 𝑁 receives a set of 𝑠 colors from a palette of 𝑟 colors, then there is guaranteed to be a monochromatic clique on 𝑛 vertices, that is, a subset of 𝑛 vertices where all of the edges between them receive a common color. In particular, the case 𝑠 = 1 corresponds to the classical multicolor Ramsey number. We prove general upper and lower bounds on 𝑅(𝑛; 𝑟, 𝑠) which imply that 𝑅(𝑛; 𝑟, 𝑠) = 2 Θ(𝑛𝑟) if 𝑠/𝑟 is bounded away from 0 and 1. The upper bound extends an old result of Erdős and Szemerédi, who treated the case 𝑠 = 𝑟 − 1, while the lower bound exploits a connection to error-correcting codes. We also study the analogous problem for hypergraphs.