• 1 Department of Computer Science and Automation [Bangalore]

Fix positive integers k and l. Consider a random k-partite graph on n vertices obtained by partitioning the vertex set into V_i, (i=1, \ldots,k) each having size Ω (n) and choosing each possible edge with probability p. Consider any vertex x in any V_i and any vertex y. We show that the expected number of simple paths of even length l between x and y differ significantly depending on whether y belongs to the same V_i (as x does) or not. A similar phenomenon occurs when l is odd. This result holds even when k,l vary slowly with n. This fact has implications to coloring random graphs. The proof is based on establishing bijections between sets of paths.