English

Proof of Frankl's conjecture on cross-intersecting families

Combinatorics 2025-05-13 v2

Abstract

Two families F\mathcal{F} and G\mathcal{G} are called cross-intersecting if for every FFF\in \mathcal{F} and GGG\in \mathcal{G}, the intersection FGF\cap G is non-empty. For any positive integers nn and kk, let ([n]k)\binom{[n]}{k} denote the family of all kk-element subsets of {1,2,,n}\{1,2,\ldots,n\}. Let t,s,k,nt, s, k, n be non-negative integers with ks+1k \geq s+1 and n2k+tn \geq 2 k+t. In 2016, Frankl proved that if F([n]k+t)\mathcal{F} \subseteq\binom{[n]}{k+t} and G([n]k)\mathcal{G} \subseteq\binom{[n]}{k} are cross-intersecting families, and F\mathcal{F} is (t+1)(t+1)-intersecting and F1|\mathcal{F}| \geq 1, then F+G(nk)(nktk)+1|\mathcal{F}|+|\mathcal{G}| \leq\binom{n}{k}-\binom{n-k-t}{k}+1. Furthermore, Frankl conjectured that under an additional condition ([k+t+s]k+t)F\binom{[k+t+s]} {k+t}\subseteq\mathcal{F}, the following inequality holds: F+G(k+t+sk+t)+(nk)i=0s(k+t+si)(nktski). |\mathcal{F}|+|\mathcal{G}| \leq\binom{k+t+s}{k+t}+\binom{n}{k}-\sum_{i=0}^s\binom{k+t+s}{i}\binom{n-k-t-s}{k-i}. In this paper, we prove this conjecture. The key ingredient is to establish a theorem for cross-intersecting families with a restricted universe. Moreover, we derive an analogous result for this conjecture.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.09490,
  title  = {Proof of Frankl's conjecture on cross-intersecting families},
  author = {Yongjiang Wu and Lihua Feng and Yongtao Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.09490},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

Final version, any comments are welcome