In 1965, Paul Erdős asked about the largest family $Y$ of $k$-sets in $\{ 1, \ldots, n \}$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint sets. This problem is commonly known as the Erdős Matching Conjecture. We investigate the $q$-analog of this question, that is we want to determine the size of a largest family $Y$ of $k$-spaces in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ such that $Y$ does not contain $s+1$ pairwise disjoint $k$-spaces. Here we call two subspaces disjoint if they intersect trivially.
Our main result is, slightly simplified, that if $16 s \leq \min\{ q^{\frac{n-k}{4}},$ $q^{\frac{n-2k+1}{3}} \}$, then $Y$ is either small or a union of intersecting families. Thus we show the Erd\H{os} Matching Conjecture for this range. The proof uses a method due to Metsch. We also discuss constructions. In particular, we show that for larger $s$, there are large examples which are close in size to a union of intersecting families, but structurally different.
As an application, we discuss the close relationship between the Erdős Matching Conjecture for vector spaces and Cameron-Liebler line classes (and their generalization to $k$-spaces), a popular topic in finite geometry for the last 30 years. More specifically, we propose the Erdős Matching Conjecture (for vector spaces) as an interesting variation of the classical research on Cameron-Liebler line classes.
A classical result of Erdős and Gallai determines the maximum size $m(n,ν)$ of a graph $G$ of order $n$ and matching number $νn$. We show that $G$ has factorially many maximum matchings provided that its size is sufficiently close to $m(n,ν)$.
We use an algebraic method to prove a degree version of the celebrated Erd\H os-Ko-Rado theorem: given $n>2k$, every intersecting $k$-uniform hypergraph $H$ on $n$ vertices contains a vertex that lies on at most $\binom{n-2}{k-2}$ edges. This result can be viewed as a special case of the degree version of a well-known conjecture of Erdős on hypergraph matchings. Improving the work of Bollobás, Daykin, and Erd\H os from 1976, we show that given integers $n, k, s$ with $n\ge 3k^2 s$, every $k$-uniform hypergraph $H$ on $n$ vertices with minimum vertex degree greater than $\binom{n-1}{k-1}-\binom…
In 1965 Erdős conjectured that the number of edges in k-uniform hypergraphs on n vertices in which the largest matching has s edges is maximized for hypergraphs of one of two special types. We settled this conjecture in the affirmative for k=3 and n is large enough.
In this paper we give a proof that the largest set of perfect matchings, in which any two contain a common edge, is the set of all perfect matchings that contain a fixed edge. This is a version of the famous Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem for perfect matchings. The proof given in this paper is algebraic, we first determine the least eigenvalue of the perfect matching derangement graph and use properties of the perfect matching polytope. We also prove that the perfect matching derangement graph is not a Cayley graph.
We prove a new upper bound for the minimum $d$-degree threshold for perfect matchings in $k$-uniform hypergraphs when $d<k/2$. As a consequence, this determines exact values of the threshold when $0.42k \le d < k/2$ or when $(k,d)=(12,5)$ or $(17,7)$. Our approach is to give an upper bound on the Erdős Matching Conjecture and convert the result to the minimum $d$-degree setting by an approach of Kühn, Osthus and Townsend. To obtain exact thresholds, we also apply a result of Treglown and Zhao.
A perfect matching in the complete graph on $2k$ vertices is a set of edges such that no two edges have a vertex in common and every vertex is covered exactly once. Two perfect matchings are said to be $t$-intersecting if they have at least $t$ edges in common. The main result in this paper is an extension of the famous Erdős-Ko-Rado (EKR) theorem \cite{EKR} to 2-intersecting families of perfect matchings for all values of $k$. Specifically, for $k\geq 3$ a set of 2-intersecting perfect matchings in $K_{2k}$ of maximum size has $(2k-5)(2k-7)\cdots (1)$ perfect matchings.
Two perfect matchings $P$ and $Q$ of the complete graph on $2k$ vertices are said to be set-wise $t$-intersecting if there exist edges $P_{1}, \cdots, P_{t}$ in $P$ and $Q_{1}, \cdots, Q_{t}$ in $Q$ such that the union of edges $P_{1}, \cdots, P_{t}$ has the same set of vertices as the union of $Q_{1}, \cdots, Q_{t}$ has. In this paper we prove an extension of the famous Erdős-Ko-Rado (EKR) theorem to set-wise $2$-intersecting families of perfect matching on all values of $k$, and we conjecture similar statement for all $t\geq 2$.
Drisko \cite{drisko} proved (essentially) that every family of $2n-1$ matchings of size $n$ in a bipartite graph possesses a partial rainbow matching of size $n$. In \cite{bgs} this was generalized as follows: Any $\lfloor \frac{k+2}{k+1} n \rfloor -(k+1)$ matchings of size $n$ in a bipartite graph have a rainbow matching of size $n-k$. We extend this latter result to matchings of not necessarily equal cardinalities. Settling a conjecture of Drisko, we characterize those families of $2n-2$ matchings of size $n$ in a bipartite graph that do not possess a rainbow matching of size $n$. Combining …
In 1965 Erdős asked, what is the largest size of a family of $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set that does not have a matching of size $s+1$? In this note, we improve upon a recent result of Frankl and resolve this problem for $s>101k^{3}$ and $(s+1)k\le n<(s+1)(k+\frac{1}{100k})$.
We say that the families $\mathcal F_1,\ldots, \mathcal F_{s+1}$ of $k$-element subsets of $[n]$ are cross-dependent if there are no pairwise disjoint sets $F_1,\ldots, F_{s+1}$, where $F_i\in \mathcal F_i$ for each $i$. The rainbow version of the Erd\H os Matching Conjecture due to Aharoni and Howard and independently to Huang, Loh and Sudakov states that $\min_{i} |\mathcal F_i|\le \max\big\{{n\choose k}-{n-s\choose k}, {(s+1)k-1\choose k}\big\}$ for $n\ge (s+1)k$. In this paper, we prove this conjecture for $n>3e(s+1)k$ and $s>10^7$. One of the main tools in the proof is a concentration ine…
For a $k$-uniform hypergraph $H$, let $δ_1(H)$ denote the minimum vertex degree of $H$, and $ν(H)$ denote the size of the largest matching in $H$. In this paper, we show that for any $k\geq 3$ and $β>0$, there exists an integer $n_0(β,k)$ such that for positive integers $n\geq n_0$ and $m\leq (\frac{k}{2(k-1)}-β)\frac{n}{k}$, if $H$ is an $n$-vertex $k$-graph with $δ_1(H)>{{n-1}\choose {k-1}}-{{n-m}\choose {k-1}},$ then $ν(H)\geq m$. This improves upon earlier results of Bollobás, Daykin and Erdős (1976) for the range $n> 2k^3(m+1)$ and Huang and Zhao (2017) for the range $n\geq 3k^2 m$.
More than 50 years ago, Erd\H os asked the following question: what is the maximum size of a family $\mathcal F$ of $k$-element subsets of an $n$-element set if it has no $s+1$ pairwise disjoint sets? This question attracted a lot of attention recently, in particular, due to its connection to various combinatorial, probabilistic and theoretical computer science problems. Improving the previous best bound due to the first author, we prove that $|\mathcal F|\le {n\choose k}-{n-s\choose k}$, provided $n\ge \frac 53sk -\frac 23 s$ and $s$ is sufficiently large. We derive several corollaries concer…
Let $\mathcal{H}=(V,\mathcal{E})$ be an $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices and fix a positive integer $k$ such that $1\le k\le r$. A $k$-\emph{matching} of $\mathcal{H}$ is a collection of edges $\mathcal{M}\subset \mathcal{E}$ such that every subset of $V$ whose cardinality equals $k$ is contained in at most one element of $\mathcal{M}$. The $k$-matching number of $\mathcal{H}$ is the maximum cardinality of a $k$-matching. A well-known problem, posed by Erdős, asks for the maximum number of edges in an $r$-uniform hypergraph under constraints on its $1$-matching number. In this article we…
The Kneser hypergraph ${\rm KG}^r_{n,k}$ is an $r$-uniform hypergraph with vertex set consisting of all $k$-subsets of $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ and any collection of $r$ vertices forms an edge if their corresponding $k$-sets are pairwise disjoint. The random Kneser hypergraph ${\rm KG}^r_{n,k}(p)$ is a spanning subhypergraph of ${\rm KG}^r_{n,k}$ in which each edge of ${\rm KG}^r_{n,k}$ is retained independently of each other with probability $p$. The independence number of random subgraphs of ${\rm KG}^2_{n,k}$ was recently addressed in a series of works by Bollob{á}s, Narayanan, and Raigorodskii (20…
A perfect matching of a complete graph $K_{2n}$ is a 1-regular subgraph that contains all the vertices. Two perfect matchings intersect if they share an edge. It is known that if $\mathcal{F}$ is family of intersecting perfect matchings of $K_{2n}$, then $|\mathcal{F}| \leq (2(n-1) - 1)!!$ and if equality holds, then $\mathcal{F} = \mathcal{F}_{ij}$ where $ \mathcal{F}_{ij}$ is the family of all perfect matchings of $K_{2n}$ that contain some fixed edge $ij$. We give a short algebraic proof of this result, resolving a question of Godsil and Meagher. Along the way, we show that if a family $\ma…
The Ramsey number r(H) of a graph H is the minimum positive integer N such that every two-coloring of the edges of the complete graph K_N on N vertices contains a monochromatic copy of H. A graph H is d-degenerate if every subgraph of H has minimum degree at most d. Burr and Erdős in 1975 conjectured that for each positive integer d there is a constant c_d such that r(H) \leq c_dn for every d-degenerate graph H on n vertices. We show that for such graphs r(H) \leq 2^{c_d\sqrt{\log n}}n, improving on an earlier bound of Kostochka and Sudakov. We also study Ramsey numbers of random graphs, showi…
The Erdős Matching Conjecture for 4-uniform hypergraphs
Center for Discrete Mathematics, Fuzhou University（福州大学离散数学中心）；School of Mathematical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学数学科学学院）
In this paper we study conditions which guarantee the existence of perfect matchings and perfect fractional matchings in uniform hypergraphs. We reduce this problem to an old conjecture by Erdős on estimating the maximum number of edges in a hypergraph when the (fractional) matching number is given, which we are able to solve in some special cases using probabilistic techniques. Based on these results, we obtain some general theorems on the minimum $d$-degree ensuring the existence of perfect (fractional) matchings. In particular, we asymptotically determine the minimum vertex degree which gua…
A family $\mathcal F\subset {[n]\choose k}$ is $U(s,q)$ of for any $F_1,\ldots, F_s\in \mathcal F$ we have $|F_1\cup\ldots\cup F_s|\le q$. This notion generalizes the property of a family to be $t$-intersecting and to have matching number smaller than $s$. In this paper, we find the maximum $|\mathcal F|$ for $\mathcal F$ that are $U(s,q)$, provided $n>C(s,q)k$ with moderate $C(s,q)$. In particular, we generalize the result of the first author on the Erdős Matching Conjecture and prove a generalization of the Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem, which states that for $n> s^2k$ the largest family $\mathcal F…
Erdős-Ko-Rado-type problem for hypergraph matchings
School of Mathematics and Statistics, Beijing Jiaotong University（北京交通大学数学与统计学院）；Hebei Provincial Key Laboratory of Mathematical Theory and Analysis for Network and Data Science, Beijing Jiaotong University（北京交通大学网络与数据科学数学理论与分析河北省重点实验室）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Ningbo University（宁波大学数学与统计学院）；Institute of Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Xidian University（西安电子科技大学数学与交叉科学研究院）
We consider the following higher-order analog of the Erdős--Ko--Rado theorem. For positive integers r and n with r<= n, let M^r_n be the family of all matchings of size r in the complete graph K_{2n}. For any edge e in E(K_{2n}), the family M^r_n(e), which consists of all sets in M^r_n containing e, is called the star centered at e. We prove that if r<n and A is an intersecting family of matchings in M^r_n, then |A|<=|M^r_n(e)|$, where e is an edge in E(K_{2n}). We also prove that equality holds if and only if A is a star. The main technique we use to prove the theorem is an analog of Katona's…
This paper examines the structure of the largest subgraphs of the Erdős-Rényi random graph, $G_{n,p}$, with a given matching number. This extends a result of Erdős and Gallai who, in 1959, gave a classification of the structures of the largest subgraphs of $K_n$ with a given matching number. We show that their result extends to $G_{n,p}$ with high probability when $p\ge \frac{8 \ln n}{n}$ or $p \ll \frac{1}{n}$, but that it does not extend (again with high probability) when $\frac{4\ln(2e)}{n} < p< \frac{\ln n}{3n}$.
Towards the Erdős matching conjecture for 4-uniform hypergraphs: stability and applications
Rényi Institute（雷尼研究所）；School of Mathematics and Statistics, Xi’an Jiaotong University（西安交通大学数学与统计学院）；University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学）；Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University（清华大学丘成桐数学科学中心）
Graph matching is an important problem in machine learning and pattern recognition. Herein, we present theoretical and practical results on the consistency of graph matching for estimating a latent alignment function between the vertex sets of two graphs, as well as subsequent algorithmic implications when the latent alignment is partially observed. In the correlated Erdős-Rényi graph setting, we prove that graph matching provides a strongly consistent estimate of the latent alignment in the presence of even modest correlation. We then investigate a tractable, restricted-focus version of graph…
Let $f(n,r,k)$ be the minimal number such that every hypergraph larger than $f(n,r,k)$ contained in $\binom{[n]}{r}$ contains a matching of size $k$, and let $g(n,r,k)$ be the minimal number such that every hypergraph larger than $g(n,r,k)$ contained in the $r$-partite $r$-graph $[n]^{r}$ contains a matching of size $k$. The Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem states that $f(n,r,2)=\binom{n-1}{r-1}$~~($r \le \frac{n}{2}$) and it is easy to show that $g(n,r,k)=(k-1)n^{r-1}$. The conjecture inspiring this paper is that if $F_1,F_2,\ldots,F_k\subseteq \binom{[n]}{r}$ are of size larger than $f(n,r,k)$ or $F_1,…
The families $\mathcal F_1,\ldots, \mathcal F_s\subset 2^{[n]}$ are called $q$-dependent if there are no pairwise disjoint $F_1\in \mathcal F_1,\ldots, F_s\in\mathcal F_s$ satisfying $|F_1\cup\ldots\cup F_s|\le q.$ We determine $\max |\mathcal F_1|+\ldots +|\mathcal F_s| $ for all values $n\ge q,s\ge 2$. The result provides a far-reaching generalization of an important classical result of Kleitman. The well-known Erd\H os Matching Conjecture suggests the largest size of a family $\mathcal F\subset {[n]\choose k}$ with no $s$ pairwise disjoint sets. After more than 50 years its full solution is…
A Near-Optimal Linear Range for the Erdős Matching Conjecture
Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Renmin University of China（中国人民大学数学科学研究所）；Extremal Combinatorics and Probability Group, Institute for Basic Science（基础科学研究院极值组合与概率组）；Department of Mathematical Sciences, Tsinghua University（清华大学数学科学系）
The matching number of a family of subsets of an $n$-element set is the maximum number of pairwise disjoint sets. The families with matching number $1$ are called intersecting. The famous Erd\H os-Ko-Rado theorem determines the size of the largest intersecting family of $k$-sets. Its generalization to the families with larger matching numbers, known under the name of the Erdős Matching Conjecture, is still open for a wide range of parameters. In this paper, we address the degree versions of both theorems. More precisely, we give degree and $t$-degree versions of the Erdős-Ko-Rado and the Hilto…
Let $\left\{a_1, \dots, a_n\right\} \subset \mathbb{N}$ be a set of positive integers, $a_n$ denoting the largest element, so that for any two of the $2^n$ subsets the sum of all elements is distinct. Erdős asked whether this implies $a_n \geq c \cdot 2^n$ for some universal $c>0$. We prove, slightly extending a result of Elkies, that for any $a_1, \dots, a_n \in \mathbb{R}_{>0}$ $$ \int_{\mathbb{R}} \left( \frac{\sin{ x}}{ x} \right)^2 \prod_{i=1}^{n} \cos{( a_i x)^2} dx \geq \fracπ{2^{n}}$$ with equality if and only if all subset sums are $1-$separated. This leads to a new proof of the curre…
A vertex of a graph is bisimplicial if the set of its neighbors is the union of two cliques; a graph is quasi-line if every vertex is bisimplicial. A recent result of Chudnovsky and Seymour asserts that every non-empty even-hole-free graph has a bisimplicial vertex. Both Hadwiger's conjecture and the Erdős-Lovász Tihany conjecture have been shown to be true for quasi-line graphs, but are open for even-hole-free graphs. In this note, we prove that for all $k\ge7$, every even-hole-free graph with no $K_k$ minor is $(2k-5)$-colorable; every even-hole-free graph $G$ with $ω(G)<χ(G)=s+t-1$ satisfie…
Research Center for Mathematics and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Shandong University（山东大学数学交叉科学研究中心）；Frontiers Science Center for Nonlinear Expectations, Ministry of Education（教育部非线性预期前沿科学中心）
研究向量空间中 Erdős 匹配猜想的类比，通过构造和组合方法证明了对 k=2、n=(s+1)k 及 n 足够大时猜想成立，并得到稳定性定理和极值数结果。
Erdős-Ko-Rado (EKR) type theorems yield upper bounds on the sizes of families of sets, subject to various intersection requirements on the sets in the family. Stability versions of such theorems assert that if the size of a family is close to the maximum possible size, then the family itself must be close (in some appropriate sense) to a maximum-sized family. In this paper, we present an approach to obtaining stability versions of EKR-type theorems, via isoperimetric inequalities for subsets of the hypercube. Our approach is rather general, and allows the leveraging of a wide variety of exact …
The Kneser graph ${\rm KG}_{n,k}$ is a graph whose vertex set is the family of all $k$-subsets of $[n]$ and two vertices are adjacent if their corresponding subsets are disjoint. The classical Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem determines the cardinality and structure of a maximum induced $K_2$-free subgraph in ${\rm KG}_{n,k}$. As a generalization of the Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem, Erdős proposed a conjecture about the maximum order of an induced $K_{s+1}$-free subgraph of ${\rm KG}_{n,k}$. As the best known result concerning this conjecture, Frankl [Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A, 2013], when $n\ge…
