On the number of edges in hypergraphs critical with respect to strong colourings (Q1971806)

A colouring of the vertices of a hypergraph \(G\) is called strong if, for every edge \(A\), the colours of all vertices in \(A\) are distinct. In this paper the minimum number of edges possible in a \(k\)-splitting-critical \(t\)-uniform hypergraph with a given number of vertices is estimated. In particular it is shown that, for \(k\geq t+2\), the problem reduces in a way to the corresponding problem for graphs. In the case when the generated graph of the hypergraph has bounded clique number, a lower bound that is valid for sufficiently large \(k\) and is asymptotically tight in \(k\) is given; this bound also holds for list strong colourings.