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Erdős–Ko–Rado in Random Hypergraphs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2009

JÓZSEF BALOGH
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA (e-mail: jobal@math.uiuc.edu)
TOM BOHMAN
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA (e-mail: tbohman@math.cmu.edu)
DHRUV MUBAYI
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60607, USA (e-mail: mubayi@math.uic.edu)

Abstract

Let 3 ≤ k < n/2. We prove the analogue of the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem for the random k-uniform hypergraph Gk(n, p) when k < (n/2)1/3; that is, we show that with probability tending to 1 as n → ∞, the maximum size of an intersecting subfamily of Gk(n, p) is the size of a maximum trivial family. The analogue of the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem does not hold for all p when kn1/3.

We give quite precise results for k < n1/2−ϵ. For larger k we show that the random Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem holds as long as p is not too small, and fails to hold for a wide range of smaller values of p. Along the way, we prove that every non-trivial intersecting k-uniform hypergraph can be covered by k2k + 1 pairs, which is sharp as evidenced by projective planes. This improves upon a result of Sanders [7]. Several open questions remain.

Type
Paper
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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