A family of sets F is said to be union-closed if A \cup B is in F for every A and B in F. Frankl's conjecture states that given any finite union-closed family of sets, not all empty, there exists an element contained in at least half of the sets. Here we prove that the conjecture holds for families containing three 3-subsets of a 5-set, four 3-subsets of a 6-set, or eight 4-subsets of a 6-set, extending work of Poonen and Vaughan. As an application we prove the conjecture in the case that the largest set has at most nine elements, extending a result of Gao and Yu. We also pose several open questions.
The Frankl conjecture (called also union-closed sets conjecture) is one of the famous unsolved conjectures in combinatorics of finite sets. In this short note, we introduce and to some extent justify some variants of the Frankl conjecture.
The union-closed sets conjecture (Frankl's conjecture) says that for any finite union-closed family of finite sets, other than the family consisting only of the empty set, there exists an element that belongs to at least half of the sets in the family. In [3], a stronger version of Frankl's conjecture (S-Frankl conjecture for short) was introduced and a partial proof was given. In particular, it was proved in \cite{CH17} that S-Frankl conjecture holds when $n\leq 5$, where $n$ is the number of all the elements in the family of sets. Now, we want to prove that it holds when $n=6$. Since the pap…
A 3-graph $\mathcal{F}$ is \emph{$U(s, 2s+1)$} if for any $s$ edges $e_1,...,e_s\in E(\mathcal{F})$, $|e_1\cup...\cup e_s|\leq 2s+1$. Frankl and Kupavskii (2020) proposed the following conjecture: For any $3$-graph $\mathcal{F}$ with $n$ vertices, if $\mathcal{F}$ is $U(s, 2s+1)$, then $$e(\mathcal{F})\leq \max\left\{{n-1\choose 2}, (n-s-1){s+1\choose 2}+{s+1\choose 3}, {2s+1\choose 3}\right\}.$$ In this paper, we confirm Frankl and Kupavskii's conjecture.
Frankl and Füredi conjectured in 1989 that the maximum Lagrangian, denoted by $λ_r(m)$, among all $r$-uniform hypergraphs of fixed size $m$ is achieved by the minimum hypergraph $C_{r,m}$ under the colexicographic order. We say $m$ in {\em principal domain} if there exists an integer $t$ such that ${t-1\choose r}\leq m\leq {t\choose r}-{t-2\choose r-2}$. If $m$ is in the principal domain, then Frankl-Füredi's conjecture has a very simple expression: $$λ_r(m)=\frac{1}{(t-1)^r}{t-1\choose r}.$$ Many previous results are focusing on $r=3$. For $r\geq 4$, Tyomkyn in 2017 proved that Frankl-Füredi'…
The Lagrangian of a hypergraph has been a useful tool in hypergraph extremal problems. In most applications, we need an upper bound for the Lagrangian of a hypergraph. Frankl and Furedi in \cite{FF} conjectured that the $r$-graph with $m$ edges formed by taking the first $m$ sets in the colex ordering of ${\mathbb N}^{(r)}$ has the largest Lagrangian of all $r$-graphs with $m$ edges. In this paper, we give some partial results for this conjecture.
We give a new bound on the probability that the random sum $ξ_1 v_1 +...+ ξ_n v_n$ belongs to a ball of fixed radius, where the $ξ_i$ are iid Bernoulli random variables and the $v_i$ are vectors in $\R^d$. As an application, we prove a conjecture of Frankl and Füredi (raised in 1988), which can be seen as the high dimensional version of the classical Littlewood-Offord-Erd\H os theorem.
An old and well-known conjecture of Frankl and Füredi states that the Lagrangian of an $r$-uniform hypergraph with $m$ edges is maximised by an initial segment of colex. In this paper we disprove this conjecture by finding an infinite family of counterexamples for all $r \ge 4$. We also show that, for sufficiently large $t \in \mathbb{N}$, the conjecture is true in the range $\binom{t}{r} \le m \le \binom{t+1}{r} - \binom{t-1}{r-2}$.
First a few reformulations of Frankl's conjecture are given, in terms of reduced families or matrices, or analogously in terms of lattices. These lead naturally to a stronger conjecture with a neat formulation which might be easier to attack than Frankl's. To this end we prove an inequality which might help in proving the stronger conjecture.
Ellis and the third author showed, verifying a conjecture of Frankl, that any $3$-wise intersecting family of subsets of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ admitting a transitive automorphism group has cardinality $o(2^n)$, while a construction of Frankl demonstrates that the same conclusion need not hold under the weaker constraint of being regular. Answering a question of Cameron, Frankl and Kantor from 1989, we show that the restriction of admitting a transitive automorphism group may be relaxed significantly: we prove that any $3$-wise intersecting family of subsets of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$ that is regular and…
Two families $\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G}$ of $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ are called non-trivial cross $t$-intersecting if $|F\cap G|\geq t$ for all $F\in \mathcal{F}, G\in \mathcal{G}$ and $|\cap \{F\colon F\in \mathcal{F}\}|<t$, $|\cap \{G\colon G\in\mathcal{G}\}|<t$. In the present paper, we determine the maximum product of the sizes of two non-trivial cross $t$-intersecting families of $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ for $n\geq 4(t+2)^2k^2$, $k\geq 5$, which is a product version of the Hilton-Milner-Frankl Theorem.
We find previously unknown families of sets which ensure Frankl's conjecture holds for all families that contain them using an algorithmic framework. The conjecture states that for any nonempty union-closed (UC) family there exists an element of the ground set in at least half the sets of the considered UC family. Poonen's Theorem characterizes the existence of weights which determine whether a given UC family implies the conjecture for all UC families which contain it. We design a cutting-plane method that computes the explicit weights which imply the existence conditions of Poonen's Theorem.…
A remarkable connection between the order of a maximum clique and the Graph-Lagrangian of a graph was established by Motzkin and Straus in 1965. This connection and its extension were useful in both combinatorics and optimization. Since then, Graph-Lagrangian has been a useful tool in extremal combinatorics. In this paper, we give a parametrized Graph-Lagrangian for non-uniform hypergraphs and provide several Motzkin-Straus type results for nonuniform hypergraphs which generalize results from [1] and [2]. Another part of the paper concerns a long-standing conjecture of Frankl-Füredi on Graph-L…
We show that the subgroup lattice of any finite group satisfies Frankl's Union-Closed Conjecture. We show the same for all lattices with a modular coatom, a family which includes all supersolvable and dually semimodular lattices. A common technical result used to prove both may be of some independent interest.
A family of sets is said to be symmetric if its automorphism group is transitive, and $3$-wise intersecting if any three sets in the family have nonempty intersection. Frankl conjectured in 1981 that if $\mathcal{A}$ is a symmetric $3$-wise intersecting family of subsets of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$, then $|\mathcal{A}| = o(2^n)$. Here, we give a short proof of Frankl's conjecture using a 'sharp threshold' result of Friedgut and Kalai.
For a family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$, let $\mathcal{D}(\mathcal{F}) = \{F\setminus G: F, G \in \mathcal{F}\}$ be the collection of all (setwise) differences of $\mathcal{F}$. The family $\mathcal{F}$ is called a $t$-intersecting family, if for some positive integer $t$ and any two members $F, G \in \mathcal{F}$ we have $|F\cap G| \geq t$. The family $\mathcal{F}$ is simply called intersecting if $t=1$. Recently, Frankl proved an upper bound on the size of $\mathcal{D}(\mathcal{F})$ for the intersecting families $\mathcal{F}$. In this note we extend the result of Frankl t…
Structure of large $t$-intersecting families I: Stability for the Hilton--Milner--Frankl theorem
School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学数学科学学院）；Laboratory of Mathematics and Complex Systems (Ministry of Education)（数学复杂系统与先进测量教育部重点实验室）
Let $r\geq3$ and $G$ be an $r$-uniform hypergraph with vertex set $\left\{ 1,\ldots,n\right\} $ and edge set $E$. Let \[ μ\left( G\right) :=\max {\textstyle\sum\limits_{\left\{ i_{1},\ldots,i_{r}\right\} \in E}} x_{i_{1}}\cdots x_{i_{r}}, \] where the maximum is taken over all nonnegative $x_{1},\ldots,x_{n}$ with $x_{1}+\cdots+x_{n}=1.$ Let $t\geq r-1$ be the unique real number such that $\left\vert E\right\vert =\binom{t}{r}$. It is shown that if $r\leq5$ or $t\geq4\left( r-1\right) \left( r-2\right) $, then \[ μ\left( G\right) \leq t^{-r}\binom{t}{r}% \] with equality holding if and only if…
We consider the following generalization of the seminal Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem, due to Frankl. For k>= 2, let F be a k-wise intersecting family of r-subsets of an n element set X, i.e. any k sets in F have a nonempty intersection. If r<= (k-1/k)n, then |F|<={n-1 \choose r-1}. We extend Frankl's theorem in a graph-theoretic direction. For a graph G, and r>=1, let P^r(G) be the family of all r-subsets of the vertex set of G such that every r-subset is either an independent set or contains a maximum independent set. We will consider k-wise intersecting subfamilies of this family for the graph M_n,…
The union-closed sets conjecture (Frankl's conjecture) says that for any finite union-closed family of finite sets, other than the family consisting only of the empty set, there exists an element that belongs to at least half of the sets in the family. In this paper, we introduce two stronger versions of Frankl's conjecture and give a partial proof. Three related questions are introduced.
A celebrated unresolved conjecture of Peter Frankl states that every finite union-closed collection of sets ($B$), with non-empty universe, admits an abundant element. The best result in the literature states that if $|B|=n$, then there exists $x$ in the universe of $B$ with frequency at least $$\frac{n-1}{\log_2n}.$$ But $(n-1)/(n\log_2n)\rightarrow 0$ as $n\rightarrow \infty$.\\ In this paper, we show that there exists a constant $g>0$ such that for every $B$; there exists $x\in \texttt{U}(B)$ such that $$|B_x|\geq g|B|$$ where $B_x=\{A\in B: x\in A\}$ and $$\texttt{U}(B)=\bigcup_{A\in B}A.$…
Frankl's union-closed sets conjecture states that in every finite union-closed set of sets, there is an element that is contained in at least half of the member-sets (provided there are at least two members). The conjecture has an equivalent formulation in terms of graphs: In every bipartite graph with least one edge, both colour classes contain a vertex belonging to at most half of the maximal stable sets. We prove that, for every fixed edge-probability, almost every random bipartite graph almost satisfies Frankl's conjecture.
Frankl and Füredi conjectured in 1989 that the maximum Lagrangian of all $r$-uniform hypergraphs of fixed size $m$ is realised by the initial segment of the colexicographic order. In particular, in the principal case $m=\binom{t}{r}$ their conjecture states that every $H\subseteq \mathbb{N}^{(r)}$ of size $\binom{t}{r}$ satisfies \begin{align*} \max \{\sum_{A \in H}\prod_{i\in A} y_i \ \colon \ y_1,y_2,\ldots \geq 0; \sum_{i\in \mathbb{N}} y_i=1 \}&\leq \frac{1}{t^r}\binom{t}{r}. \end{align*} We prove the above statement for all $r\geq 4$ and large values of $t$ (the case $r=3$ was settled by …
We consider families of $k$-subsets of $\{1, \dots, n\}$, where $n$ is a multiple of $k$, which have no perfect matching. An equivalent condition for a family $\mathcal{F}$ to have no perfect matching is for there to be a blocking set, which is a set of $b$ elements of $\{1, \dots, n\}$ that cannot be covered by $b$ disjoint sets in $\mathcal{F}$. We are specifically interested in the largest possible size of a family $\mathcal{F}$ with no perfect matching and no blocking set of size less than $b$. Frankl resolved the case of families with no singleton blocking set (in other words, the $b=2$ c…
Frankl and Füredi conjectured in 1989 that the maximum Lagrangian of all $r$-uniform hypergraphs of fixed size $m$ is realized by the minimum hypergraph $C_{r,m}$ under the colexicographic order. In this paper, we prove a weaker version of the Frankl and Füredi's conjecture at $r=3$: there exists an absolute constant $c>0$ such that for any $3$-uniform hypergraph $H$ with $m$ edges, the Lagrangian of $H$ satisfies $λ(H)\leq λ(C_{3,m+cm^{2/9}})$. In particular, this result implies that the Frankl and Füredi's conjecture holds for $r=3$ and $m\in [{t-1\choose 3}, {t\choose 3}-(t-2)-ct^{\frac{2}{…
We say that a family of $k$-subsets of an $n$-element set is intersecting, if any two of its sets intersect. In this paper we study different extremal properties of intersecting families, as well as the structure of large intersecting families. We also give some results on $k$-uniform families without $s$ pairwise disjoint sets, related to the Erdős Matching Conjecture. We prove a conclusive version of Frankl's theorem on intersecting families with bounded maximal degree. This theorem, along with its generalizations to cross-intersecting families, implies many results on the topic, obtained by…
A fundamental result in extremal set theory is Katona's shadow intersection theorem, which extends the Kruskal-Katona theorem by giving a lower bound on the size of the shadow of an intersecting family of $k$-sets in terms of its size. We improve this classical result and a related result of Ahlswede, Aydinian, and Khachatrian by proving tight bounds for families that can be quite small. For example, when $k=3$ our result is sharp for all families with $n$ points and at least $3n-7$ triples. Katona's theorem was extended by Frankl to families with matching number $s$. We improve Frankl's resul…
In this paper we present a simple unifying approach to prove several statements about intersecting and cross-intersecting families, including the Erd\H os--Ko--Rado theorem, the Hilton--Milner theorem, a theorem due to Frankl concerning the size of intersecting families with bounded maximal degree, and versions of results on the sum of sizes of non-empty cross-intersecting families due to Frankl and Tokushige. Several new stronger results are also obtained. Our approach is based on the use of regular bipartite graphs. These graphs are quite often used in Extremal Set Theory problems, however, …
Let $k, r, n \geq 1$ be integers, and let $§_{n, k, r}$ be the family of $r$-signed $k$-sets on $[n] = \{1, \dots, n\}$ given by $$ \mathcal{S}_{n, k, r} = \Big\{\{(x_1, a_1), \dots, (x_k, a_k)\}: \{x_1, \dots, x_k\} \in \binom{[n]}{k}, a_1, \dots, a_k \in [r] \Big\}. $$ A family $\mathcal{A} \subseteq §_{n, k, r}$ is \emph{intersecting} if $A, B \in \mathcal{A}$ implies $A \cap B \not= \emptyset$. A well-known result (first stated by Meyer and proved using different methods by Deza and Frankl, and Bollobás and Leader) states that if $\mathcal{A} \subseteq \mathcal{S}_{n, k, r}$ is intersectin…
Given a family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $[n]$, we say two sets $A, B \in \mathcal{F}$ are comparable if $A \subset B$ or $B \subset A$. Sperner's celebrated theorem gives the size of the largest family without any comparable pairs. This result was later generalised by Kleitman, who gave the minimum number of comparable pairs appearing in families of a given size. In this paper we study a complementary problem posed by Erdős and Daykin and Frankl in the early '80s. They asked for the maximum number of comparable pairs that can appear in a family of $m$ subsets of $[n]$, a quantity we denote …
We say that a family of $k$-subsets of an $n$-element set is intersecting if any two of its sets intersect. In this paper we study properties and structure of large intersecting families. We prove a conclusive version of Frankl's theorem on intersecting families with bounded maximal degree. This theorem, along with its generalizations to cross-intersecting families, strengthens the results obtained by Frankl, Frankl and Tokushige, Kupavskii and Zakharov and others. We study the structure of large intersecting families, obtaining some very general structural theorems which extend the results of…
Paul Erdős and László Lovász established that any \emph{maximal intersecting family of $k-$sets} has at most $k^{k}$ blocks. They introduced the problem of finding the maximum possible number of blocks in such a family. They also showed that there exists a maximal intersecting family of $k-$sets with approximately $(e-1)k!$ blocks. Later Péter Frankl, Katsuhiro Ota and Norihide Tokushige used a remarkable construction to prove the existence of a maximal intersecting family of $k-$sets with at least $(\frac{k}{2})^{k-1}$ blocks. In this article we introduce the notion of a \emph{closed intersec…
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 $\mathcal{F} \neq \left\{\emptyset\right\}$, there exists an element $i \in [n]$ that is contained in at least half the sets of $\mathcal{F}$. The 3-sets conjecture of Morris states that the smallest number of distinct 3-sets (whose union is an $n$-set) that ensure Frankl's conjecture is satisfied for any UC family that contains them is $ \lfloor{n/2\rfloor} + 1$ for all $n \geq 4$. F…
We give a new proof of the Frankl-Rödl theorem on forbidden intersections, via the probabilistic method of dependent random choice. Our method extends to codes with forbidden distances, where over large alphabets our bound is significantly better than that obtained by Frankl and Rödl. We also apply our bound to a question of Ellis on sets of permutations with forbidden distances, and to establish a weak form of a conjecture of Alon, Shpilka and Umans on sunflowers.
On the Frankl--Tokushige conjecture and almost complete $r$-cross $t$-intersection theorems for vector spaces
Laboratory of Mathematics and Complex Systems (Ministry of Education), School of Mathematical Sciences, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学数学科学学院数学与复杂系统教育部重点实验室）
本文证明 Frankl--Tokushige 猜想（除至多三个 n 值外），通过 t-覆盖方法建立向量空间中 r-交叉 t-相交族的乘积上界，并刻画极值配置。
A family $\mathcal F\subset 2^{[n]}$ is called intersecting if any two of its sets intersect. Given an intersecting family, its diversity is the number of sets not passing through the most popular element of the ground set. Peter Frankl made the following conjecture: for $n> 3k>0$ any intersecting family $\mathcal F\subset {[n]\choose k}$ has diversity at most ${n-3\choose k-2}$. This is tight for the following "two out of three" family: $\{F\in {[n]\choose k}: |F\cap [3]|\ge 2\}$. In this note, we prove this conjecture for $n\ge ck$, where $c$ is a constant independent of $n$ and $k$. In the …
