Structural results for conditionally intersecting families and some applications (Q2185223)

Summary: Let \(k\geqslant d\geqslant 3\) be fixed. Let \(\mathcal{F}\) be a \(k\)-uniform family on \([n]\). Then \(\mathcal{F}\) is \((d,s)\)-conditionally intersecting if it does not contain \(d\) sets with union of size at most \(s\) and empty intersection. Answering a question of \textit{P. Frankl} [Discrete Math. 340, No. 5, 1039--1041 (2017; Zbl 1357.05108)], we present some structural results for families that are \((d,s)\)-conditionally intersecting with \(s\geqslant 2k+d-3\), and families that are \((k,2k)\)-conditionally intersecting. As applications of our structural results we present some new proofs to the upper bounds for the size of the following \(k\)-uniform families on \([n]\): (a) \((d,2k+d-3)\)-conditionally intersecting families with \(n\geqslant 3k^5\); (b) \((k,2k)\)-conditionally intersecting families with \(n\geqslant k^2/(k-1)\); (c) Nonintersecting \((3,2k)\)-conditionally intersecting families with \(n\geqslant 3k\binom{2k}{k} \). Our results for \((c)\) confirms a conjecture of \textit{A. Mammoliti} and \textit{T. Britz} [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 32, No. 3, 2361--2380 (2018; Zbl 1396.05112)] for the case \(d=3\).