English

A sharp threshold for a random version of Sperner's Theorem

Combinatorics 2023-09-22 v2

Abstract

The Boolean lattice P(n)\mathcal{P}(n) consists of all subsets of [n]={1,,n}[n] = \{1,\dots, n\} partially ordered under the containment relation. Sperner's Theorem states that the largest antichain of the Boolean lattice is given by a middle layer: the collection of all sets of size n/2\lfloor{n/2}\rfloor, or also, if nn is odd, the collection of all sets of size n/2\lceil{n/2}\rceil. Given pp, choose each subset of [n][n] with probability pp independently. We show that for every constant p>3/4p>3/4, the largest antichain among these subsets is also given by a middle layer, with probability tending to 11 as nn tends to infinity. This 3/43/4 is best possible, and we also characterize the largest antichains for every constant p>1/2p>1/2. Our proof is based on some new variations of Sapozhenko's graph container method.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2205.11630,
  title  = {A sharp threshold for a random version of Sperner's Theorem},
  author = {József Balogh and Robert A. Krueger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.11630},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

24 pages, 3 figures; added more details in new version

R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:26:16.271Z