A Hilton-Milner theorem for vector spaces (Q976727)

Summary: We show for \(k \geq 2\) that if \(q\geq 3\) and \(n \geq 2k+1\), or \(q=2\) and \(n \geq 2k+2\), then any intersecting family \({\mathcal F}\) of \(k\)-subspaces of an \(n\)-dimensional vector space over \(GF(q)\) with \(\bigcap_{F \in {\mathcal F}} F=0\) has size at most \(\left[{n-1\atop k-1}\right]-q^{k(k-1)}\left[{n-k-1\atop k-1}\right]+q^k\). This bound is sharp as is shown by Hilton-Milner type families. As an application of this result, we determine the chromatic number of the corresponding \(q\)-Kneser graphs.