English

Intersections and Distinct Intersections in Cross-intersecting Families

Combinatorics 2022-05-03 v1

Abstract

Let F,G\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G} be two cross-intersecting families of kk-subsets of {1,2,,n}\{1,2,\ldots,n\}. Let FG\mathcal{F}\wedge \mathcal{G}, I(F,G)\mathcal{I}(\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G}) denote the families of all intersections FGF\cap G with FF,GGF\in \mathcal{F},G\in \mathcal{G}, and all distinct intersections FGF\cap G with FG,FF,GGF\neq G, F\in \mathcal{F},G\in \mathcal{G}, respectively. For a fixed T{1,2,,n}T\subset \{1,2,\ldots,n\}, let ST\mathcal{S}_T be the family of all kk-subsets of {1,2,,n}\{1,2,\ldots,n\} containing TT. In the present paper, we show that FG|\mathcal{F}\wedge \mathcal{G}| is maximized when F=G=S{1}\mathcal{F}=\mathcal{G}=\mathcal{S}_{\{1\}} for n2k2+8kn\geq 2k^2+8k, while surprisingly I(F,G)|\mathcal{I}(\mathcal{F}, \mathcal{G})| is maximized when F=S{1,2}S{3,4}S{1,4,5}S{2,3,6}\mathcal{F}=\mathcal{S}_{\{1,2\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{3,4\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{1,4,5\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{2,3,6\}} and G=S{1,3}S{2,4}S{1,4,6}S{2,3,5}\mathcal{G}=\mathcal{S}_{\{1,3\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{2,4\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{1,4,6\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{2,3,5\}} for n100k2n\geq 100k^2. The maximum number of distinct intersections in a tt-intersecting family is determined for n3(t+2)3k2n\geq 3(t+2)^3k^2 as well.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2205.00109,
  title  = {Intersections and Distinct Intersections in Cross-intersecting Families},
  author = {Peter Frankl and Jian Wang},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2205.00109},
  year   = {2022}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T11:03:10.978Z