The $chi$-Ramsey problem for triangle-free graphs

In 1967, ErdH{o}s asked for the greatest chromatic number, $f(n)$, amongst all $n$-vertex, triangle-free graphs. An observation of ErdH{o}s and Hajnal together with Shearers classical upper bound for the off-diagonal Ramsey number $R(3, t)$ shows that $f(n)$ is at most $(2 sqrt{2} + o(1)) sqrt{n/log n}$. We improve this bound by a factor $sqrt{2}$, as well as obtaining an analogous bound on the list chromatic number which is tight up to a constant factor. A bound in terms of the number of edges that is similarly tight follows, and these results confirm a conjecture of Cames van Batenburg, de Joannis de Verclos, Kang, and Pirot.