English

Rigidity and stability for biased cross-intersecting families

Combinatorics 2026-07-29 v1

Abstract

Let p=(p1,,pn)\mathbf p=(p_1,\ldots,p_n) and q=(q1,,qn)\mathbf q=(q_1,\ldots,q_n) belong to (0,1/2]n(0,1/2]^n, and let μp\mu_{\mathbf p} and μq\mu_{\mathbf q} be the associated measures on 2[n]2^{[n]}. Suppose that p1q1=maxi[n]piqip_1q_1=\max_{i\in[n]}p_iq_i. We prove that every pair of cross-intersecting families A,B2[n]\mathcal A,\mathcal B\subseteq2^{[n]} satisfies the sharp inequality μp(A)μq(B)p1q1\mu_{\mathbf p}(\mathcal A)\mu_{\mathbf q}(\mathcal B)\leq p_1q_1. This confirms a conjecture of Suda, Tanaka and Tokushige [Math. Program. 166 (2017) 113--130]. We also determine all equality cases. When p1q1<1/4p_1q_1<1/4, equality is attained only when both families consist of all subsets containing the same product-maximizing coordinate. At the endpoint p1q1=1/4p_1q_1=1/4, we identify precisely the additional extremal pairs, which are induced by half-sized increasing families on the coordinates satisfying pi=qi=1/2p_i=q_i=1/2. We further resolve the remaining conjecture from the same paper by proving a dimension-free stability theorem. Assume that the first coordinate has maximum probability under both measures and that p1,q1<1/2p_1,q_1<1/2. If μp(A)μq(B)(1ε)p1q1\mu_{\mathbf p}(\mathcal A)\mu_{\mathbf q}(\mathcal B)\geq(1-\varepsilon)p_1q_1, then there exists a coordinate jj such that both A\mathcal A and B\mathcal B are within c(p1,q1)εc(p_1,q_1)\varepsilon, in their respective measures, of the family of all subsets containing jj. This improves the conjectured O(ε)O(\sqrt{\varepsilon}) bound to a linear one. The main new ingredient in the sharp measure theorem is a log-odds interpolation combined with induction on coordinate sections, while stability follows from a semidefinite estimate and a one-coordinate approximation theorem.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.26871,
  title  = {Rigidity and stability for biased cross-intersecting families},
  author = {Yongjiang Wu and Lihua Feng},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.26871},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

51 pages