Extremal constructions for apex partite hypergraphs

We establish new lower bounds for the Tur\'an and Zarankiewicz numbers of certain apex partite hypergraphs. Given a $(d-1)$-partite $(d-1)$-uniform hypergraph $\mathcal{H}$, let $\mathcal{H}(k)$ be the $d$-partite $d$-uniform hypergraph whose $d$th part has $k$ vertices that share $\mathcal{ H}$ as a common link. We show that $ex(n,\mathcal{H}(k))=\Omega_{\mathcal{ H}}(n^{d-\frac{1}{e(\mathcal{H})}})$ if $k$ is at least exponentially large in $e(\mathcal{H})$. Our bound is optimal for all Sidorenko hypergraphs $\mathcal{H}$ and verifies a conjecture of Lee for such hypergraphs. In particular, for the complete $d$-partite $d$-uniform hypergraphs $\mathcal{K}^{(d)}_{s_1,\dots,s_d}$, our result implies that $ex(n,\mathcal{K}^{(d)}_{s_{1},\cdots,s_{d}})=\Theta(n^{d-\frac{1}{s_{1}\cdots s_{d-1}}})$ if $s_{d}$ is at least exponentially large in terms of $s_{1}\cdots s_{d-1}$, improving the factorial condition of Pohoata and Zakharov and answering a question of Mubayi. Our method is a generalization of Bukh's random algebraic method [Duke Math.J. 2024] to hypergraphs, and extends to the sided Zarankiewicz problem.