English

Saturation numbers for $3$-uniform Berge-$K_4$

Combinatorics 2026-01-27 v1

Abstract

The saturation number satr(n,F)\text{sat}_r(n,\mathcal{F}) is the minimum number of hyperedges in an rr-uniform F\mathcal{F}-saturated hypergraph on nn vertices. We determine this parameter for 33-uniform Berge-K4K_4 hypergraphs, proving that sat3(n,Berge-K4)=n\text{sat}_3(n,\text{Berge-}K_4)=n for n=5,7,8n =5,7,8 and n96n\ge 96, while sat3(6,Berge-K4)=5\text{sat}_3(6,\text{Berge-}K_4)=5. This resolves a problem posed by English, Kritschgau, Nahvi, and Sprangel~\cite{EKNS2024} for large n.n. Using a computer search, we classify all extremal hypergraphs for 5n8.5\le n\le 8. For n96n\geq 96, we further show the existence of many non-isomorphic extremal families. Our approach synthesizes structural insights with computational power.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.18455,
  title  = {Saturation numbers for $3$-uniform Berge-$K_4$},
  author = {Yihan Chen and Jialin He and Tianying Xie},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.18455},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

22 pages, 2 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T09:20:22.333Z