Principal eigenvectors in hypergraph Turán problems (Q6908607)

Throughout this article, the authors work with simple, \(r\)-uniform hypergraphs, and they sometimes restrict it to the case \(r = 3.\)\N\NFor a general class of \(r\)-uniform hypergraph Turán problems, the authors analyze the principal eigenvector corresponding to the \(p\)-spectral radius (as defined by \textit{P. Keevash} et al. [SIAM J. Discrete Math. 28, No. 4, 1838--1854 (2014; Zbl 1309.05121)] and \textit{V. Nikiforov} [Linear Algebra Appl. 432, No. 9, 2243--2256 (2010; Zbl 1217.05152)]) of the extremal hypergraphs. Specifically, they show in a strong sense that these eigenvectors assign nearly equal weights to each vertex -- equivalently, that the principal ratio is close to 1. They further examine the sharpness of this result: it is conjectured to be tight for the Turán tetrahedron problem. In this latter analysis, a lower bound on the \(p\)-spectral radius of an arbitrary \(r\)-graph is established, which is expressed in terms of the hypergraph's degree sequence. This work extends prior results by \textit{K. Cardoso} and \textit{V. Trevisan} [Linear Multilinear Algebra 69, No. 14, 2641--2656 (2021; Zbl 1472.05094)], \textit{H. Li} et al. [Linear Algebra Appl. 544, 273--285 (2018; Zbl 1436.05062)], \textit{S. M. Cioabă} and \textit{D. A. Gregory} [Electron. J. Linear Algebra 16, 366--379 (2007; Zbl 1142.05337)], and \textit{X.-D. Zhang} [Linear Algebra Appl. 409, 79--86 (2005; Zbl 1072.05040)].\N\NFor the case \(1 < p < r\), the results of this paper reveal subtleties tied to Nikiforov's notion of \(k\)-tightness, which arises from the Perron-Frobenius theory for the \(p\)-spectral radius. A conjecture addressing these subtleties is proposed, and the authors provide some preliminary evidence to support this conjecture.