Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2017
Let hom(G) denote the size of the largest clique or independent set of a graph G. In 2007, Bukh and Sudakov proved that every n-vertex graph G with hom(G) = O(logn) contains an induced subgraph with Ω(n1/2) distinct degrees, and raised the question of deciding whether an analogous result holds for every n-vertex graph G with hom(G) = O(nϵ), where ϵ > 0 is a fixed constant. Here, we answer their question in the affirmative and show that every graph G on n vertices contains an induced subgraph with Ω((n/hom(G))1/2) distinct degrees. We also prove a stronger result for graphs with large cliques or independent sets and show, for any fixed k ∈ ℕ, that if an n-vertex graph G contains no induced subgraph with k distinct degrees, then hom(G)⩾n/(k − 1) − o(n); this bound is essentially best possible.