Exact hyperplane covers for subsets of the hypercube (Q2037567)

The exact cover of \(B\subseteq \{0, 1\}^n\), denoted by \(\mathrm{ec}(B)\), is a set of hyperplanes in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) whose union intersects \(\{0, 1\}^n\) exactly at \(B\) -- that is, the points in \(\{0,1\}^n\setminus B\) are not covered. If just one point, say \(0\), is removed, then \(\mathrm{ec}(\{0,1\}^n\setminus\{0\})=n\) from work of \textit{N. Alon} and \textit{Z. Füredi} [Eur. J. Comb. 14, No. 2, 79--83 (1993; Zbl 0773.52011)]. In this article, the authors generalize this to up to \(4\) points removed. They show that \(\mathrm{ec}(\{0,1\}^n\setminus S) = n-1\) if \(|S|\in\{2,3\}\), and if \(|S|=4\), then \(\mathrm{ec}(\{0,1\}^n\setminus S)\) is \(n-1\) if the four points of \(S\) are not coplanar, and \(n-2\) otherwise. The authors prove asymptotic bounds concerning the following two numbers: for \(n,k\in\mathbb{N}\), \begin{align*} \mathrm{ec}(n, k) &= \max\{\mathrm{ec}(\{0,1\}^n\setminus S) : S\subseteq \{0,1\}^n, \; |S|=k \}, \\ \mathrm{ec}(n) &= \max\{\mathrm{ec}(B) : B\subseteq \{0,1\}^n \}. \end{align*} They close by posing two problems that would, if answered affirmatively, tighten the bounds they determined.