Related papers: A note on extremal intersecting linear Ryser syste…
We address an old (1977) conjecture of a subset of the authors (a variant of Ryser's conjecture): in every r-coloring of the edges of a biclique [A,B] (complete bipartite graph), the vertex set can be covered by the vertices of at most 2r-2…
A family $\mathcal{A}$ of sets is {\it $t$-intersecting} if the cardinality of the intersection of every pair of sets in $\mathcal{A}$ is at least $t$, and is an {\it $r$-family} if every set in $\mathcal{A}$ has cardinality $r$. A…
The 1913 Helly's theorem states that any family ${\cal K}$ of $n\geq d+1$ convex sets in ${\mathbb R}^d$ can be pierced by a single point if and only if any $d+1$ of ${\cal K}$'s elements can. In 2002 Alon, Kalai, Matou\v{s}ek and Meshulam…
This paper presents the following results on sets that are complete for NP. 1. If there is a problem in NP that requires exponential time at almost all lengths, then every many-one NP-complete set is complete under length-increasing…
A family of $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set is called 3-wise intersecting if any three members in the family have non-empty intersection. We determine the maximum size of such families exactly or asymptotically. One of our results…
The famous Ryser--Brualdi--Stein conjecture asserts that every $k \times k$ Latin square contains a partial transversal of size $k-1$. Since its appearance, the conjecture has attracted significant interest, leading to several proposed…
A family $\mathcal{F}$ on ground set $[n]:=\{1,2,\ldots, n\}$ is maximal $k$-wise intersecting if every collection of at most $k$ sets in $\mathcal{F}$ has non-empty intersection, and no other set can be added to $\mathcal{F}$ while…
The $r$-colour Ramsey number $R_r(k)$ is the minimum $n \in \mathbb{N}$ such that every $r$-colouring of the edges of the complete graph $K_n$ on $n$ vertices contains a monochromatic copy of $K_k$. We prove, for each fixed $r \geqslant 2$,…
A graph is $(t_1, t_2)$-Ramsey if any red-blue coloring of its edges contains either a red copy of $K_{t_1}$ or a blue copy of $K_{t_2}$. The size Ramsey number is the minimum number of edges contained in a $(t_1,t_2)$-Ramsey graph.…
We investigate the product measures of intersection problems in extremal combinatorics. Invoking a recent result of He--Li--Wu--Zhang, we prove that for any $ n \geq t \geq 3$ and $ p_1, p_2 \in (0, \frac{1}{t+1})$, if $ \mathcal{F}_1,…
A famous theorem of Kirkman says that there exists a Steiner triple system of order $n$ if and only if $n\equiv 1,3\mod{6}$. In 1973, Erd\H{o}s conjectured that one can find so-called `sparse' Steiner triple systems. Roughly speaking, the…
For a positive integer $d\geq 2$, a family $\mathcal F\subseteq \binom{[n]}{k}$ is said to be d-wise intersecting if $|F_1\cap F_2\cap \dots\cap F_d|\geq 1$ for all $F_1, F_2, \dots ,F_d\in \mathcal F$. A d-wise intersecting family…
Fix an integer $r\ge2$. For each $n$ we consider families $\mathcal F\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ that form an antichain and have the property that, for every $t$, if there exists $A\in\mathcal F$ with $|A|=t$ then there exist at least $r$ members of…
For positive integers $n,r,k$ with $n\ge r$ and $k\ge2$, a set $\{(x_1,y_1),(x_2,y_2),\dots,(x_r,y_r)\}$ is called a $k$-signed $r$-set on $[n]$ if $x_1,\dots,x_r$ are distinct elements of $[n]$ and $y_1\dots,y_r\in[k]$. We say a…
The well-known Erd\H{o}s--Ko--Rado theorem states that for $n> 2k$, every intersecting family of $k$-sets of $[n]:=\{1,\ldots ,n\}$ has at most $ {n-1 \choose k-1}$ sets, and the extremal family consists of all $k$-sets containing a fixed…
Consider a family of sets and a single set, called the query set. How can one quickly find a member of the family which has a maximal intersection with the query set? Time constraints on the query and on a possible preprocessing of the set…
Burr and Erd\H{o}s in 1975 conjectured, and Chv\'atal, R\"odl, Szemer\'edi and Trotter later proved, that the Ramsey number of any bounded degree graph is linear in the number of vertices. In this paper, we disprove the natural directed…
An old conjecture of Zs. Tuza says that for any graph $G$, the ratio of the minimum size, $\tau_3(G)$, of a set of edges meeting all triangles to the maximum size, $\nu_3(G)$, of an edge-disjoint triangle packing is at most 2. Here,…
If $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ and $n$ are positive integers such that $n = a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$, then the sum $a_1 + a_2 + ... + a_k$ is said to be a \emph{partition of $n$} of \emph{length $k$}, and $a_1, a_2, ..., a_k$ are said to be the…
The restricted hypercube-like graphs, variants of the hypercube, were proposed as desired interconnection networks of parallel systems. The matching preclusion number of a graph is the minimum number of edges whose deletion results in the…