Shadows and shifting (Q1175547)

Let \(X=\{1,2,\dots,n\}\). Let \(2^ X\) denote the power set of \(X\) and let \(X\choose k\) denote the collection of \(k\)-element subset of \(X\). The \(h\)- shadow of \({\mathcal F}\), \(\sigma_ h({\mathcal F})\), is defined by \[ \sigma_ h({\mathcal F})=\{G\subseteq X|| G|=h\text{ and } G\subseteq F,\text{ for some }F\in{\mathcal F}\}. \] For \(G\subseteq X\), \(w(G)\) is the polygonal line path in the plane of length \(n\) starting at the origin where the \(i\)-th segment is of length one vertically up or horozontally to the right according as \(i\in G\) or \(i\notin G\). Finally, let \(y=f(x)\) be a monotone increasing function defined for \(x\geq 0\) and assume that \(k\) and \(b\) are positive integers so that \(k>b\) and \(b\leq\lceil f(0)\rceil\). Then define \[ \alpha(f,k,b)=\min\left\{{i+\lceil f(i)\rceil\choose \lceil f(i)\rceil-b}\left/{i+\lceil f(i)\rceil\choose\lceil f(i)\rceil}\right| 0\leq i, f(i)\leq k\right\}. \] The main result of this paper is: Theorem 2. Suppose that \({\mathcal F}\subset{X\choose k}\) and for every \(F\in{\mathcal F}\) the walk \(w(F)\) hits the graph of the function \(y=f(x)\). Then for every \(b\leq\lceil f(0)\rceil\) one has \(|\sigma_{k-b}({\mathcal F})|\geq|{\mathcal F}|\alpha(f,k,b)\).