On zero-sum Ramsey numbers modulo 3

Abstract

We start with a systematic study of the zero-sum Ramsey numbers. For a graph $G$ with $0 \ (\!\!\!\!\mod 3)$ edges, the zero-sum Ramsey number is defined as the smallest positive integer $R(G, \mathbb{Z}_3)$ such that for every $n \geq R(G, \mathbb{Z}_3)$ and every edge-colouring $f$ of $K_n$ using $\mathbb{Z}_3$, there is a zero-sum copy of $G$ in $K_n$ coloured by $f$, that is: $\sum_{e \in E(G)} f(e) \equiv 0 \ (\!\!\!\!\mod 3)$. Only sporadic results are known for these Ramsey numbers, and we discover many new ones. In particular we prove that for every forest $F$ on $n$ vertices and with $0 \ (\!\!\!\!\mod 3)$ edges, $R(F, \mathbb{Z}_3) \leq n+2$, and this bound is tight if all the vertices of $F$ have degrees $1 \ (\!\!\!\!\mod 3)$. We also determine exact values of $R(T, \mathbb{Z}_3)$ for infinite families of trees.