Cocliques in the Kneser graph on the point-hyperplane flags of a projective space (Q397059)

Let \(V\) be a vector space of finite dimension \(n\) over the finite field \(\mathbb{F}_q\) of order \(q\). Consider now in the corresponding projective space \(\mathrm{PG}(n-1,q)\), the flags \((P,H)\), consisting of an incident point-hyperplane pair, i.e., \(P\subset H\). The Kneser graph \(\Gamma(V)\) is the graph with as vertices these flags \((P,H)\), and where two vertices \((P,H)\) and \((P\prime,H\prime)\) are adjacent when \(P\not\subset H^\prime\) and \(P\prime\not\subset H\). This article investigates the maximal cocliques in this graph. Equivalently, this article proves an Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem for the Kneser graph on the point-hyperplane flags in \(\mathrm{PG}(n-1,q)\). Let \(F=(X_1,\ldots,X_{n-1})\) be a maximal flag (chamber) in \(\mathrm{PG}(n-1,q)\). This means that \(X_i\) is a vector space of dimension \(i\), and \(X_i\subset X_j\), for all \(i<j\). Using a chamber \(F\), it is possible to construct a maximal coclique \(C_F=\{(P,H)\mid \exists i:P\subset X_i\subset H\}\) of size \(1+2q+3q^2+\cdots+(n-1)q^{n-2}\) in the Kneser graph \(\Gamma(V)\). For an arbitrary coclique \(C\) in \(\Gamma(V)\), define \(Z(C)=\{P\mid (P,H)\in C\}.\) The main result of this article states that: Let \(C\) be a coclique in the Kneser graph \(\Gamma(V)\) and let \(Z=Z(C)\). Let \(f(n)=1+2q+3q^2+\cdots+(n-1)q^{n-2}\) and \(g(n)=1+q+q^2+\cdots+q^{n-2}\). Then {\parindent=7mm\begin{itemize}\item[(i)] \(| C| \leq f(n)\), and equality holds iff \(C=C_F\) for some chamber \(F\), and \item[(ii)] \(| Z| \leq g(n)\), and for \(q>2\) equality holds iff \(Z\) is a hyperplane. \end{itemize}} The case \(q=2\) needs special attention and is also investigated in this article, since for \(q=2\), there are other examples with \(| Z| =g(n)=2^{n-1}-1\).