English

On Mubayi's Conjecture and conditionally intersecting sets

Combinatorics 2018-11-01 v2

Abstract

Mubayi's Conjecture states that if F\mathcal{F} is a family of kk-sized subsets of [n]={1,,n}[n] = \{1,\ldots,n\} which, for kd2k \geq d \geq 2, satisfies A1AdA_1 \cap\cdots\cap A_d \neq \emptyset whenever A1Ad2k|A_1 \cup\cdots\cup A_d| \leq 2k for all distinct sets A1,,AdFA_1,\ldots,A_d \in\mathcal{F}, then F(n1k1)|\mathcal{F}|\leq \binom{n-1}{k-1}, with equality occurring only if F\mathcal{F} is the family of all kk-sized subsets containing some fixed element. This paper proves that Mubayi's Conjecture is true for all families that are invariant with respect to shifting; indeed, these families satisfy a stronger version of Mubayi's Conjecture. Relevant to the conjecture, we prove a fundamental bijective duality between (i,j)(i,j)-unstable families and (j,i)(j,i)-unstable families. Generalising previous intersecting conditions, we introduce the (d,s,t)(d,s,t)-conditionally intersecting condition for families of sets and prove general results thereon. We conjecture on the size and extremal structures of families F([n]k)\mathcal{F}\in\binom{[n]}{k} that are (d,2k)(d,2k)-conditionally intersecting but which are not intersecting, and prove results related to this conjecture. We prove fundamental theorems on two (d,s)(d,s)-conditionally intersecting families that generalise previous intersecting families, and we pose an extension of a previous conjecture by Frankl and F\"uredi on (3,2k1)(3,2k-1)-conditionally intersecting families. Finally, we generalise a classical result by Erd\H{o}s, Ko and Rado by proving tight upper bounds on the size of (2,s)(2,s)-conditionally intersecting families F2[n]\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]} and by characterising the families that attain these bounds. We extend this theorem for certain parametres as well as for sufficiently large families with respect to (2,s)(2,s)-conditionally intersecting families F2[n]\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]} whose members have at most a fixed number uu members.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1711.05442,
  title  = {On Mubayi's Conjecture and conditionally intersecting sets},
  author = {Adam Mammoliti and Thomas Britz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1711.05442},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:46:28.587Z