No label defined (Q4945053)

The absolute upper shadow of a family \({\mathcal A}\) of \(r\)-sets on \([n]= \{1,2,\dots, n\}\) is \(\overline\partial{\mathcal A}= \{A\cup\{i\}: A\in {\mathcal A}\), \(i\not\in A\), \(i\in\bigcup{\mathcal A}\}\); while its lower shadow is \(\partial{\mathcal A}= \{A\setminus\{i\}: A\in{\mathcal A}\), \(i\in A\}\). Given \(|{\mathcal A}|\), how small can \(\overline\partial{\mathcal A}\) be? The key to the answer of this question is the following lemma: the first \(m\) elements of the colex(icographic) ordering of all \(r\)-subsets of \([n]\) have lower shadow at most as large as the lower shadow of the first \(m\) elements of the colex ordering of all \(r+1\)-subsets of \([n]\). (In the colex order, set \(A\) precedes set \(B\) if \(\max(A\Delta B)\in B\).) It is worth noting that the extremal sets do not form a nested family. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0933.00056].