English

A non-uniform extension of Baranyai's Theorem

Combinatorics 2022-07-04 v1

Abstract

A celebrated theorem of Baranyai states that when kk divides nn, the family KnkK_n^k of all kk-subsets of an nn-element set can be partitioned into perfect matchings. In other words, KnkK_n^k is 11-factorable. In this paper, we determine all n,kn, k, such that the family KnkK_n^{\le k} consisting of subsets of [n][n] of size up to kk is 11-factorable, and thus extend Baranyai's Theorem to the non-uniform setting. In particular, our result implies that for fixed kk and sufficiently large nn, KnkK_n^{\le k} is 11-factorable if and only if n0n \equiv 0 or 1(modk)-1 \pmod k.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2207.00277,
  title  = {A non-uniform extension of Baranyai's Theorem},
  author = {Jinye He and Hao Huang and Jie Ma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2207.00277},
  year   = {2022}
}