Related papers: Maximum union-free subfamilies
This paper discusses the question of how many non-empty subsets of the set $[n] = \{ 1, 2, ..., n\}$ we can choose so that no chosen subset is the union of some other chosen subsets. Let $M(n)$ be the maximum number of subsets we can…
A family of sets is union-free if there are no three distinct sets in the family such that the union of two of the sets is equal to the third set. Kleitman proved that every union-free family has size at most $(1+o(1))\binom{n}{n/2}$.…
For a property $\Gamma$ and a family of sets $\cF$, let $f(\cF,\Gamma)$ be the size of the largest subfamily of $\cF$ having property $\Gamma$. For a positive integer $m$, let $f(m,\Gamma)$ be the minimum of $f(\cF,\Gamma)$ over all…
Let $\mathcal{F}_1$ and $\mathcal{F}_2$ be two families of subsets of an $n$-element set. We say that $\mathcal{F}_1$ and $\mathcal{F}_2$ are multiset-union-free if for any $A,B\in \mathcal{F}_1$ and $C,D\in \mathcal{F}_2$ the multisets…
Let $m(n)$ denote the maximum size of a family of subsets which does not contain two disjoint sets along with their union. In 1968 Kleitman proved that $m(n) = {n\choose m+1}+\ldots +{n\choose 2m+1}$ if $n=3m+1$. Confirming the conjecture…
The union-closed sets conjecture states that if a family of sets $\mathcal{A} \neq \{\emptyset\}$ is union-closed, then there is an element which belongs to at least half the sets in $\mathcal{A}$. In 2001, D. Reimer showed that the average…
Let $3\le d\le k$ and $\nu\ge 0$ be fixed and $\mathcal{F}\subset\binom{[n]}{k}$. The matching number of $\mathcal{F}$, denoted by $\nu(\mathcal{F})$, is the maximum number of pairwise disjoint sets in $\mathcal{F}$, and $\mathcal{F}$ is…
The Frankl conjecture, also known as the union-closed sets conjecture, states that in any finite non-empty union-closed family, there exists an element in at least half of the sets. From an optimization point of view, one could instead…
A collection of $k$ sets is said to form a $k$-sunflower, or $\Delta$-system, if the intersection of any two sets from the collection is the same, and we call a family of sets $\mathcal{F}$ sunflower-free if it contains no sunflowers.…
A family of sets is called union-closed if whenever $A$ and $B$ are sets of the family, so is $A\cup B$. The long-standing union-closed conjecture states that if a family of subsets of $[n]$ is union-closed, some element appears in at least…
Union-free families of subsets of $[n]=\{1,... n\}$ have been studied in \cite{FF}. In this paper, we provide a complete characterization of maximal {\it symmetric difference}-free families of subsets of $[n]$.
A family of sets is said to be \emph{intersecting} if any two sets in the family have nonempty intersection. In 1973, Erd\H{o}s raised the problem of determining the maximum possible size of a union of $r$ different intersecting families of…
A family of sets is union-closed (UC) if the union of any two sets in the family is also in the family. Frankl's UC sets conjecture states that for any nonempty UC family $\mathcal{F} \subseteq 2^{[n]}$ such that $\mathcal{F} \neq…
The Union-Closed Sets Conjecture, often attributed to P\'eter Frankl in 1979, remains an open problem in discrete mathematics. It posits that for any finite family of sets $S\neq\{\emptyset\}$, if the union of any two sets in the family is…
Cameron and Erd\H{o}s raised the question of how many maximal sum-free sets there are in $\{1, \dots , n\}$, giving a lower bound of $2^{\lfloor n/4 \rfloor }$. In this paper we prove that there are in fact at most $2^{(1/4+o(1))n}$ maximal…
Two subsets $A$ and $B$ of a ground set $X$ are \emph{crossing} if none of the four sets $A\setminus B,B\setminus A,A\cap B, X\setminus (A\cup B)$ are empty. Almost fifty years ago, Karzanov and Lomonosov conjectured that every family of…
For a given number of $k$-sets, how should we choose them so as to minimize the union-closed family that they generate? Our main aim in this paper is to show that, if $\mathcal{A}$ is a family of $k$-sets of size $\binom{t}{k}$, and $t$ is…
Our aim in this note is to show that, for any $\epsilon>0$, there exists a union-closed family $\mathcal F$ with (unique) smallest set $S$ such that no element of $S$ belongs to more than a fraction $\epsilon$ of the sets in $\mathcal F$.…
We call a family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $[n]$ $s$-saturated if it contains no $s$ pairwise disjoint sets, and moreover no set can be added to $\mathcal{F}$ while preserving this property (here $[n] = \{1,\ldots,n\}$). More than 40…
A finite family $\mathrsfs{F}$ of subsets of a finite set $X$ is union-closed whenever $f,g\in\mathrsfs{F}$ implies $f\cup g\in\mathrsfs{F}$. These families are well known because of Frankl's conjecture. In this paper we developed further…