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OPEN
Let $k\geq 4$ and $g_k(n)$ denote the largest $m$ such that there is a graph on $n$ vertices with chromatic number $k$ and girth $>m$ (i.e. contains no cycle of length $\leq m$). Does \[\lim_{n\to \infty}\frac{g_k(n)}{\log n}\] exist?

Conversely, if $h^{(m)}(n)$ is the maximal chromatic number of a graph on $n$ vertices with girth $>m$ then does \[\lim_{n\to \infty}\frac{\log h^{(m)}(n)}{\log n}\] exist, and what is its value?

It is known that \[\frac{1}{4\log k}\log n\leq g_k(n) \leq \frac{2}{\log(k-2)}\log n+1,\] the lower bound due to Kostochka [Ko88] and the upper bound to Erdős [Er59b].

Erdős [Er59b] proved that \[\lim_{n\to \infty}\frac{\log h^{(m)}(n)}{\log n}\gg \frac{1}{m}\] and, for odd $m$, \[\lim_{n\to \infty}\frac{\log h^{(m)}(n)}{\log n}\leq \frac{2}{m+1},\] and conjectured this is sharp. He had no good guess for the value of the limit for even $m$, other that it should lie in $[\frac{2}{m+2},\frac{2}{m}]$, but could not prove this even for $m=4$.

See also the entry in the graphs problem collection.

Additional thanks to: David Penman