Proof of a conjecture of Erdős on triangles in set-systems (Q2368590): Difference between revisions

Let \(f(r,n)\) denote that maximal number of \(r\)-element subsets of an \(n\)-element set containing no triangle. (Three subsets \(A,B,C\) are called a triangle if \(A\cap B,A\cap C,B\cap C \) are nonempty and \(A\cap B\cap C\) is the empty set.) An old conjecture of Erdős (1971) says that \(f(r,n)=\binom{n-1}{r-1}\) for \(n\geq 3r/2 \). Several special cases of this conjecture were proved and even a generalization of this quetion was raised -- with only partial answers. In this paper the following theorem settles Erdős's conjecture (and several others): Let \(r\geq d+1\geq 3\) and \(n\geq (d+1)r/d\). Let \(\mathcal A\) be the family of the \(r\)-element subsets of a set of size \(n\) such that \(\mathcal A\) contains no intersecting family of size \(d+1\). Then \(|\mathcal A|\leq \binom {n-1}{r-1}\). In case \(d=2\) we obtain Erdős's conjecture. \(|\mathcal A|\leq \frac{1}{3} \left(\left\lceil\frac{d}{3}\right\rceil +\frac{1}{d+3} \right)\binom{n}{2} \) is proved for \(r=3\) and \(d\geq 10\).