English

An isoperimetric inequality for antipodal subsets of the discrete cube

Combinatorics 2017-11-15 v3

Abstract

A family of subsets of {1,2,,n}\{1,2,\ldots,n\} is said to be {\em antipodal} if it is closed under taking complements. We prove a best-possible isoperimetric inequality for antipodal families of subsets of {1,2,,n}\{1,2,\ldots,n\}. Our inequality implies that for any kNk \in \mathbb{N}, among all such families of size 2k2^k, a family consisting of the union of a (k1)(k-1)-dimensional subcube and its antipode has the smallest possible edge boundary.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.04270,
  title  = {An isoperimetric inequality for antipodal subsets of the discrete cube},
  author = {David Ellis and Imre Leader},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.04270},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

A new proof of Lemma 6 (kindly suggested by an anonymous referee) has been given; this shortens our original argument. An acknowledgement and a conclusion have been added, and minor changes have been made to improve readability