English

On Cross-intersecting Sperner Families

Combinatorics 2022-05-03 v2

Abstract

Two sets A\mathscr{A} and B\mathscr{B} are said to be cross-intersecting if XYX\cap Y\neq\emptyset for all XAX\in\mathscr{A} and YBY\in\mathscr{B}. Given two cross-intersecting Sperner families (or antichains) A\mathscr{A} and B\mathscr{B} of Nn\mathbb{N}_n, we prove that A+B2(nn/2)|\mathscr{A}|+|\mathscr{B}|\le 2{{n}\choose{\lceil{n/2}\rceil}} if nn is odd, and A+B(nn/2)+(n(n/2)+1)|\mathscr{A}|+|\mathscr{B}|\le {{n}\choose{n/2}}+{{n}\choose{(n/2)+1}} if nn is even. Furthermore, all extremal and almost-extremal families for A\mathscr{A} and B\mathscr{B} are determined.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2001.01910,
  title  = {On Cross-intersecting Sperner Families},
  author = {W. H. W. Wong and E. G. Tay},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2001.01910},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

14 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:04:40.680Z