Asymptotic enumeration of sparse connected 3-uniform hypergraphs

We derive an asymptotic formula for the number of connected 3-uniform hypergraphs with vertex set $[N]$ and $M$ edges for $M=N/2+R$ as long as $R$ satisfies $R = o(N)$ and $R=\omega(N^{1/3}\ln^{2} N)$. This almost completely fills the gap in the range of $M$ for which the formula is known. We approach the problem using an `inside-out' approach of an earlier paper of Pittel and the second author, for connected graphs. A key part of the method uses structural components of connected hypergraphs called cores and kernels. These are structural components of connected hypergraphs. Our results also give information on the numbers of them with a given number of vertices and edges, and hence their typical size in random connected $3$-uniform hypergraphs with $N$ vertices and $M$ edges, for the range of $M$ we consider.