DP-colorings of uniform hypergraphs and splittings of Boolean hypercube into faces (Q2170789)

A \(k\)-covering of an \(n\)-dimensional Boolean hypercube \(Q_2^n\) is a set of \((n-k)\)-faces such that their union is \(Q_2^n\). Two \(m\)-faces are antipodal if they have the same directions and if for each vertex of one face the antipodal vertex is contained in another face. A \(k\)-covering \(C\) is a \(k\)-splitting of \(Q_2^n\) into \((n-k)\)-faces, if it consists of exactly \(2^k\) \((n-k)\)-faces. Let \(G\) be an \(r\)-uniform hypergraph on \(n\) vertices. Let \(\Phi\) be a collection of \(\varphi_e\), \(e \in E(G)\), where \(\varphi_e: e \to \{0,1\}\) is a 2-coloring. A 2-coloring \(f:V(G) \to \{0,1\}\) avoids \(\Phi\) if \(f|_e \neq \varphi_e\) and \(f|_e \neq \varphi_e\oplus 1\) for any \(e \in E(G)\). A hypergraph \(G\) is 2-DP-colorable if for every \(\Phi\) there exists a 2-coloring \(f\) that avoids \(\Phi\). \textit{A. Bernshteyn} and \textit{A. Kostochka} [Eur. J. Comb. 78, 134--146 (2019; Zbl 1414.05108)] proved that for odd \(k\), the number of edges in a non-2-DP-colorable \(k\)-uniform hypergraph is at least \(2^{k-1}\) and that the bound is tight for \(k=3\). In this paper, the tightness result is extended to all odd \(k \geq 3\), i.e.\ it is proved that for any odd \(k \geq 3\), there exists a non-2-DP-colorable \(k\)-uniform hypergraph with \(2^{k-1}\) edges. The author of this paper first proves that for any odd \(k \geq 3\) there exists an antipodal \(k\)-splitting of \(Q_2^n\). Then the connection between the problem of non-2-DP-colorability of a \(k\)-uniform hypergraph with \(2^{k-1}\) edges and the problem of the existence of an antipodal \(k\)-splitting of \(Q_2^n\) is presented. The main result of the paper then directly follows from this connection.