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An ordered hypergraph is a hypergraph whose vertex set is linearly ordered, and a convex geometric hypergraph is a hypergraph whose vertex set is cyclically ordered. Extremal problems for ordered and convex geometric graphs have a rich history with applications to a variety of problems in combinatorial geometry. In this paper, we consider analogous extremal problems for uniform hypergraphs, and discover a general partitioning phenomenon which allows us to determine the order of magnitude of the extremal function for various ordered and convex geometric hypergraphs. A special case is the ordered $n$-vertex $r$-graph $F$ consisting of two disjoint sets $e$ and $f$ whose vertices alternate in the ordering. We show that for all $n \geq 2r + 1$, the maximum number of edges in an ordered $n$-vertex $r$-graph not containing $F$ is exactly \[ {n \choose r} - {n - r \choose r}.\] This could be considered as an ordered version of the Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado Theorem, and generalizes earlier results of Capoyleas and Pach and Aronov-Dujmovi\v{c}-Morin-Ooms-da Silveira., Comment: 16 pages, 2 figures

Given graphs H_1,...,H_k, we study the minimum order of a graph G such that for each i, the induced copies of H_i in G cover V(G). We prove a general upper bound of twice the sum of the numbers m_i, where m_i is one less than the order of H_i. When k=2 and one graph is an independent set of size n, we determine the optimum within a constant. When k=2 and the graphs are a star and an independent set, we determine the answer exactly., 10 pages, 3 figures

A book of size b in a graph is an edge that lies in b triangles. Consider a graph G with n vertices and \lfloor n^2/4\rfloor +1 edges. Rademacher proved that G contains at least \lfloor n/2\rfloor triangles, and Erdos conjectured and Edwards proved that G contains a book of size at least n/6. We prove the following "linear combination" of these two results. Suppose that \alpha\in (1/2, 1) and the maximum size of a book in G is less than \alpha n/2. Then G contains at least \alpha(1-\alpha) n^2/4 - o(n^2) triangles as n approaches infinity. This is asymptotically sharp. On the other hand, for every \alpha\in (1/3, 1/2), there exists \beta>0 such that G contains at least \beta n^3 triangles. It remains an open problem to determine the largest possible \beta in terms of \alpha. Our proof uses the Ruzsa-Szemeredi theorem.

Fix integers $n \ge r \ge 2$. A clique partition of ${[n] \choose r}$ is a collection of proper subsets $A_1, A_2, ..., A_t \subset [n]$ such that $\bigcup_i{A_i \choose r}$ is a partition of ${[n] \choose r}$. Clique partitions are related to design theory, coding theory, projective geometry, and extremal combinatorics. Let $\cp(n,r)$ denote the minimum size of a clique partition of ${[n] \choose r}$. A classical theorem of de Bruijn and Erd\H os states that $\cp(n, 2) = n$ and also determines the extremal configurations. In this paper we study $\cp(n,r)$, and show in general that for each fixed $r \geq 3$, \[\cp(n,r) \geq (1 + o(1))n^{r/2} \quad \quad {as}n \to \infty.\] We conjecture $\cp(n,r) = (1 + o(1))n^{r/2}$, and prove this conjecture in a very strong sense for $r = 3$ by giving a characterization of optimal clique partitions of ${[n] \choose 3}$ for infinitely many $n$. Precisely, when $n = q^2 + 1$ and $q$ is a prime power, we show \[ \cp(n,3) = n\sqrt{n-1} \] and characterize those clique partitions achieving equality. We also give an absolute lower bound $\cp(n,r) \geq {n \choose r}/{q + r - 1 \choose r}$ when $n = q^2 + q + r - 1$, and for each $r$ characterize the finitely many configurations achieving equality with the lower bound. Finally we note the connection of $\cp(n,r)$ to extremal graph theory, and determine some new asymptotically sharp bounds for the Zarankiewicz problem., Comment: This paper has been withdrawn by the authors due to the fact that Theorem 1 was proved earlier.

A triple system is cancellative if no three of its distinct edges satisfy $A \cup B=A \cup C$. It is tripartite if it has a vertex partition into three parts such that every edge has exactly one point in each part. It is easy to see that every tripartite triple system is cancellative. We prove that almost all cancellative triple systems with vertex set [n] are tripartite. This sharpens a theorem of Nagle and Rodl on the number of cancellative triple systems. It also extends recent work of Person and Schacht who proved a similar result for triple systems without the Fano configuration. Our proof uses the hypergraph regularity lemma of Frankl and Rodl, and a stability theorem for cancellative triple systems due to Keevash and the second author.

For various triple systems $F$, we give tight lower bounds on the number of copies of $F$ in a triple system with a prescribed number of vertices and edges. These are the first such results for hypergraphs, and extend earlier theorems of Bollob\'as, Frankl, F\"uredi, Keevash, Pikhurko, Simonovits, and Sudakov who proved that there is one copy of $F$. A sample result is the following: F\"uredi-Simonovits and independently Keevash-Sudakov settled an old conjecture of S\'os by proving that the maximum number of triples in an $n$ vertex triple system (for $n$ sufficiently large and even) that contains no copy of the Fano plane is $p(n)={n/2 \choose 2}n.$ We prove that there is an absolute constant $c$ such that if $n$ is sufficiently large and $1 \le q \le cn^2$, then every $n$ vertex triple system with $p(n)+q$ edges contains at least $6q({n/2 \choose 4}+(n/2 -3){n/2 \choose 3}$$ copies of the Fano plane. This is sharp for $q\le n/2-2$. Our proofs use the recently proved hypergraph removal lemma and stability results for the corresponding Tur\'an problem.

Consider a graph $G$ with chromatic number $k$ and a collection of complete bipartite graphs, or bicliques, that cover the edges of $G$. We prove the following two results: \medskip \noindent $\bullet$ If the bicliques partition the edges of $G$, then their number is at least $2^{\sqrt{\log_2 k}}$. This is the first improvement of the easy lower bound of $\log_2 k$, while the Alon-Saks-Seymour conjecture states that this can be improved to $k-1$. \medskip \noindent $\bullet$ The sum of the orders of the bicliques is at least $(1-o(1))k\log_2 k$. This generalizes, in asymptotic form, a result of Katona and Szemer\'edi who proved that the minimum is $k\log_2 k$ when $G$ is a clique.

For various quadruple systems F, we give asymptotically sharp lower bounds on the number of copies of F in a quadruple system with a prescribed number of vertices and edges. Our results extend those of Furedi, Keevash, Pikhurko, Simonovits and Sudakov who proved under the same conditions that there is one copy of $F$. Our proofs use the hypergraph removal Lemma and stability results for the corresponding Turan problem proved by the above authors.