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Babai and Frankl posed the ``odd cover problem" of finding the minimum cardinality of a collection of complete bipartite graphs such that every edge of the complete graph of order $n$ is covered an odd number of times. In a previous paper with O'Neill, some of the authors proved that this value is always $\lceil n / 2 \rceil$ or $\lceil n / 2 \rceil + 1$ and that it is the former whenever $n$ is a multiple of $8$. In this paper, we determine this value to be $\lceil n / 2 \rceil$ whenever $n$ is odd or equivalent to $18$ modulo $24$. We also further the study of odd covers of graphs which are not complete, wherein edges are covered an odd number of times and nonedges an even number of times by the complete bipartite graphs in the collection. Among various results on disjoint unions, we find the minimum cardinality of an odd cover of a union of odd cliques and of a union of cycles., Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures

Let us consider a collection $\mathcal G$ of codewords of length $n$ over an alphabet of size $s$. Let $t_1,\ldots, t_s$ be nonnegative integers. What is the maximum of $|\mathcal G|$ subject to the condition that any two codewords should have at least $t_i$ positions where both have letter $i$ ($1\le i\le s$). In the case $s=2$ it is a longstanding open question. Quite surprisingly, we obtain an almost complete answer for $s\ge 3$. The main tool is a correlation inequality.

A $k$-uniform family $\mathcal{F}$ is called intersecting if $F\cap F'\neq \emptyset$ for all $F,F'\in \mathcal{F}$. The shadow family $\partial \mathcal{F}$ is the family of $(k-1)$-element sets that are contained in some members of $\mathcal{F}$. The shadow degree (or minimum positive co-degree) of $\mathcal{F}$ is defined as the maximum integer $r$ such that every $E\in \partial \mathcal{F}$ is contained in at least $r$ members of $\mathcal{F}$. In 2021, Balogh, Lemons and Palmer determined the maximum size of an intersecting $k$-uniform family with shadow degree at least $r$ for $n\geq n_0(k,r)$, where $n_0(k,r)$ is doubly exponential in $k$ for $4\leq r\leq k$. In the present paper, we present a short proof of this result for $n\geq 2(r+1)^rk \frac{\binom{2k-1}{k}}{\binom{2r-1}{r}}$ and $4\leq r\leq k$.

There are four non-isomorphic configurations of triples that can form a triangle in a $3$-uniform hypergraph. Forbidding different combinations of these four configurations, fifteen extremal problems can be defined, several of which already appeared in the literature in some different context. Here we systematically study all of these problems solving the new cases exactly or asymptotically. In many cases we also characterize the extremal constructions., Comment: 44 pages, 4 figures

A family of sets is $r$-wise agreeing if for any $r$ sets from the family there is an element $x$ that is either contained in all or contained in none of the $r$ sets. The study of such families is motivated by questions in discrete optimization. In this paper, we determine the size of the largest non-trivial $r$-wise agreeing family. This can be seen as a generalization of the classical Brace-Daykin theorem.

Two celebrated extensions of Helly's theorem are the Fractional Helly theorem of Katchalski and Liu (1979) and the Quantitative Volume theorem of B\'ar\'any, Katchalski, and Pach (1982). Improving on several recent works, we prove an optimal combination of these two results. We show that given a family $\mathcal{F}$ of $n$ convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that at least $\alpha \binom{n}{d+1}$ of the $(d+1)$-tuples of $\mathcal{F}$ have an intersection of volume at least 1, then one can select $\Omega_{d,\alpha}(n)$ members of $\mathcal{F}$ whose intersection has volume at least $\Omega_d(1)$. Furthermore, with the help of this theorem, we establish a quantitative version of the $(p,q)$ theorem of Alon and Kleitman. Let $p\geq q\geq d+1$ and let $\mathcal{F}$ be a finite family of convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$ such that among any $p$ elements of $\mathcal{F}$, there are $q$ that have an intersection of volume at least $1$. Then, we prove that there exists a family $T$ of $O_{p,q}(1)$ ellipsoids of volume $\Omega_d(1)$ such that every member of $\mathcal{F}$ contains at least one element of $T$. Finally, we present extensions about the diameter version of the Quantitative Helly theoerm., Comment: 11 pages, extended with the diameter version of the Fractional Helly theorem

Extending the notion of sunflowers, we call a family of at least two sets an odd-sunflower if every element of the underlying set is contained in an odd number of sets or in none of them. It follows from the Erd\H os--Szemer\'edi conjecture, recently proved by Naslund and Sawin, that there is a constant $\mu<2$ such that every family of subsets of an $n$-element set that contains no odd-sunflower consists of at most $\mu^n$ sets. We construct such families of size at least $1.5021^n$. We also characterize minimal odd-sunflowers of triples.

Let $\mathcal{F}\subset \binom{X}{k}$ be a family consisting of $k$-subsets of the $n$-set $X$. Suppose that $\mathcal{F}$ is intersecting, i.e., $F\cap F'\neq \emptyset$ for all $F,F'\in \mathcal{F}$. Let $\Delta(\mathcal{F})$ be the maximum degree of $\mathcal{F}$. For a constant $C\geq 1$ the $C$-diversity, $\gamma_C(\mathcal{F})$ is defined as $|\mathcal{F}|-C\Delta(\mathcal{F})$. Define $\mathcal{F}_{123} =\left\{F\in \binom{X}{k}\colon |F\cap \{1,2,3\}|=2\right\}$. It has $C$-diversity $(3-2C)\binom{n-3}{k-2}$. The main result shows that for $1< C<\frac{3}{2}$ and $n\geq \frac{42}{3-2C}k$, $\gamma_C(\mathcal{F})\leq \gamma_C(\mathcal{F}_{123})$ with equality if and only if $\mathcal{F}$ is isomorphic to $\mathcal{F}_{123}$. For the case of ordinary diversity $(C=1)$ a strong stability is proven., Comment: 17 pages

We prove that for any $\ell_p$-norm in the plane with $1

Let $X$ be an $n$-element set. A set-pair system $\mbox{$\cal P$}=\{(A_i,B_i)\}_{1\leq i\leq m}$ is a collection of pairs of disjoint subsets of $X$. It is called skew Bollob\'as system if $A_i\cap B_j\neq \emptyset$ for all $1\leq i

A family $\mathcal{F}\subset \binom{[n]}{k}$ is called an intersecting family if $F\cap F'\neq \emptyset$ for all $F,F'\in \mathcal{F}$. If $\cap \mathcal{F}\neq \emptyset$ then $\mathcal{F}$ is called a star. The diversity of an intersecting family $\mathcal{F}$ is defined as the minimum number of $k$-sets in $\mathcal{F}$, whose deletion results in a star. In the present paper, we prove that for $n>36k$ any intersecting family $\mathcal{F}\subset \binom{[n]}{k}$ has diversity at most $\binom{n-3}{k-2}$, which improves the previous best bound $n>72k$ due to the first author. This result is derived from some strong bounds concerning the maximum degree of large intersecting families. Some related results are established as well., Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:2207.05487

An $r$-uniform hypergraph has $(q,p)$-property if any set of $q$ vertices spans a complete sub-hypergraph on $p$ vertices. Let $t_r(n,q,p)$ be the minimum edge density of an $n$-vertex $r$-uniform hypergraph with {\em $(q,p)$-property} and let $t_r(q,p)=\lim_{n\to\infty}t_r(n,q,p)$. A disjoint union of $k$ complete hypergraphs has $(q,\lceil q/k\rceil)$-property, which gives $t_r((q,\lceil{q/k}\rceil))\le 1/k^{r-1}$. The first author, Huang and R\"odl showed that these constructions are the best asymptotically, that is, $\lim_{q\to\infty}t_r((q,\lceil{q/k}\rceil))=1/k^{r-1}$. They asked whether it is true for all real number $\gamma\ge1$ that $\lim_{q\to\infty}t_r((q,\lceil{q/\gamma}\rceil))=1/\lfloor{\gamma}\rfloor^{r-1}$. In this paper, we give positive answers to this question for a small range of real numbers, and, on the other hand, provide new constructions that give negative answers for many other ranges., Comment: 12 pages

Answering a question by Letzter and Snyder, we prove that for large enough $k$ any $n$-vertex graph $G$ with minimum degree at least $\frac{1}{2k-1}n$ and without odd cycles of length less than $2k+1$ is $3$-colourable. In fact, we prove a stronger result that works with a slightly smaller minimum degree.

Let $[n]=X_1\cup X_2\cup X_3$ be a partition with $\lfloor\frac{n}{3}\rfloor \leq |X_i|\leq \lceil\frac{n}{3}\rceil$ and define $\mathcal{G}=\{G\subset [n]\colon |G\cap X_i|\leq 1, 1\leq i\leq 3\}$. It is easy to check that the trace $\mathcal{G}_{\mid Y}:=\{G\cap Y\colon G\in \mathcal{G}\}$ satisfies $|\mathcal{G}_{\mid Y}|\leq 12$ for all 4-sets $Y\subset [n]$. For $n\geq 25$ it is proven that whenever $\mathcal{F}\subset 2^{[n]}$ satisfies $|\mathcal{F}|>|\mathcal{G}|$ then $|\mathcal{F}_{\mid C}|\geq 13$ for some $C\subset [n]$, $|C|=4$. Several further results of a similar flavor are established as well.

Given a set $S \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$, define the \emph{Helly number of $S$}, denoted by $H(S)$, as the smallest positive integer $N$, if it exists, for which the following statement is true: for any finite family $\mathcal{F}$ of convex sets in~$\mathbb{R}^2$ such that the intersection of any $N$ or fewer members of~$\mathcal{F}$ contains at least one point of $S$, there is a point of $S$ common to all members of $\mathcal{F}$. We prove that the Helly numbers of \emph{exponential lattices} $\{\alpha^n \colon n \in \mathbb{N}_0\}^2$ are finite for every $\alpha>1$ and we determine their exact values in some instances. In particular, we obtain $H(\{2^n \colon n \in \mathbb{N}_0\}^2)=5$, solving a problem posed by Dillon (2021). For real numbers $\alpha, \beta > 1$, we also fully characterize exponential lattices $L(\alpha,\beta) = \{\alpha^n \colon n \in \mathbb{N}_0\} \times \{\beta^n \colon n \in \mathbb{N}_0\}$ with finite Helly numbers by showing that $H(L(\alpha,\beta))$ is finite if and only if $\log_\alpha(\beta)$ is rational., Comment: 24 pages, 5 figures, minor changes

For a family $\mathcal{F}\subset \binom{[n]}{k}$ and two elements $x,y\in [n]$ define $\mathcal{F}(\bar{x},\bar{y})=\{F\in \mathcal{F}\colon x\notin F,\ y\notin F\}$. The double-diversity $\gamma_2(\mathcal{F})$ is defined as the minimum of $|\mathcal{F}(\bar{x},\bar{y})|$ over all pairs $x,y$. Let $\mathcal{L}\subset\binom{[7]}{3}$ consist of the seven lines of the Fano plane. For $n\geq 7$, $k\geq 3$ one defines the Fano $k$-graph $\mathcal{F}_{\mathcal{L}}$ as the collection of all $k$-subsets of $[n]$ that contain at least one line. It is proven that for $n\geq 13k^2$ the Fano $k$-graph is the essentially unique family maximizing the double diversity over all $k$-graphs without a pair of disjoint edges. Some similar, although less exact results are proven for triple and higher diversity as well.

We determine the maximum possible number of edges of a graph with $n$ vertices, matching number at most $s$ and clique number at most $k$ for all admissible values of the parameters.

For positive integers $n>k>t$ let $\binom{[n]}{k}$ denote the collection of all $k$-subsets of the standard $n$-element set $[n]=\{1,\ldots,n\}$. Subsets of $\binom{[n]}{k}$ are called $k$-graphs. A $k$-graph $\mathcal{F}$ is called $t$-intersecting if $|F\cap F'|\geq t$ for all $F,F'\in \mathcal{F}$. One of the central results of extremal set theory is the Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado Theorem which states that for $n\geq (k-t+1)(t+1)$ no $t$-intersecting $k$-graph has more than $\binom{n-t}{k-t}$ edges. For $n$ greater than this threshold the $t$-star (all $k$-sets containing a fixed $t$-set) is the only family attaining this bound. Define $\mathcal{F}(i)=\{F\setminus \{i\}\colon i\in F\in \mathcal{F}\}$. The quantity $\varrho(\mathcal{F})=\max\limits_{1\leq i\leq n}|\mathcal{F}(i)|/|\mathcal{F}|$ measures how close a $k$-graph is to a star. The main result (Theorem 1.5) shows that $\varrho(\mathcal{F})>1/d$ holds if $\mathcal{F}$ is 1-intersecting, $|\mathcal{F}|>2^dd^{2d+1}\binom{n-d-1}{k-d-1}$ and $n\geq 4(d-1)dk$. Such a statement can be deduced from the results of \cite{F78-2} and \cite{DF}, however only for much larger values of $n/k$ and/or $n$. The proof is purely combinatorial, it is based on a new method: shifting ad extremis. The same method is applied to obtain some nearly optimal bounds in the case of $t\geq 2$ (Theorem 1.11) along with a number of related results., Comment: 35 pages

We consider families of k-subsets of the standard n-set. Two families F, G are said to be cross-intersecting if every member of F has non-empty intersection with every member of G. A family is called non-trivial if the intersection of all its members is empty. Supposing that F and G are non-trivial and cross-intersecting, we determine the maximum of |F|+|G|. For the proof a strengthened version of the so-called shifting technique is introduced. The corresponding problem for families of different uniformities is solved as well., Comment: 23 pages

We consider $k$-graphs on $n$ vertices, that is, $\mathcal{F}\subset \binom{[n]}{k}$. A $k$-graph $\mathcal{F}$ is called intersecting if $F\cap F'\neq \emptyset$ for all $F,F'\in \mathcal{F}$. In the present paper we prove that for $k\geq 7$, $n\geq 2k$, any intersecting $k$-graph $\mathcal{F}$ with covering number at least three, satisfies $|\mathcal{F}|\leq \binom{n-1}{k-1}-\binom{n-k}{k-1}-\binom{n-k-1}{k-1}+\binom{n-2k}{k-1}+\binom{n-k-2}{k-3}+3$, the best possible upper bound which was proved in \cite{F80} subject to exponential constraints $n>n_0(k)$., Comment: 30 pages

Given a graph $G$, let $\mu(G)$ denote the size of the smallest maximal independent set in $G$. A family of subsets is called a star if some element is in every set of the family. A split vertex has degree at least 3. Holroyd and Talbot conjectured the following Erd\H{o}s-Ko-Rado type statement about intersecting families of independent sets in graphs: if $1\le r\le \mu(G)/2$ then there is an intersecting family of independent $r$-sets of maximum size that is a star. In this paper we prove similar statements for sparse graphs on $n$ vertices: roughly, for graphs of bounded average degree with $r\le O(n^{1/3})$, for graphs of bounded degree with $r\le O(n^{1/2})$, and for trees having a bounded number of split vertices with $r\le O(n^{1/2})$., Comment: Correction of typos and inclusion of additional history

Two families $\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G}$ of $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ are called non-trivial cross-intersecting if $F\cap G\neq \emptyset$ for all $F\in \mathcal{F}, G\in \mathcal{G}$ and $\cap \{F\colon F\in \mathcal{F}\}=\emptyset=\cap \{G\colon G\in \mathcal{G}\}$. In the present paper, we determine the maximum product of the sizes of two non-trivial cross-intersecting families of $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ for $n\geq 4k$, $k\geq 8$, which is a product version of the classical Hilton-Milner Theorem., Comment: 24 pages

Two families $\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G}$ of $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ are called non-trivial cross $t$-intersecting if $|F\cap G|\geq t$ for all $F\in \mathcal{F}, G\in \mathcal{G}$ and $|\cap \{F\colon F\in \mathcal{F}\}|

The homogeneous causal action principle on a compact domain of momentum space is introduced. The connection to causal fermion systems is worked out. Existence and compactness results are reviewed. The Euler-Lagrange equations are derived and analyzed under suitable regularity assumptions., Comment: 33 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures, smaller improvements (published version)

Let $\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G}$ be two cross-intersecting families of $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$. Let $\mathcal{F}\wedge \mathcal{G}$, $\mathcal{I}(\mathcal{F},\mathcal{G})$ denote the families of all intersections $F\cap G$ with $F\in \mathcal{F},G\in \mathcal{G}$, and all distinct intersections $F\cap G$ with $F\neq G, F\in \mathcal{F},G\in \mathcal{G}$, respectively. For a fixed $T\subset \{1,2,\ldots,n\}$, let $\mathcal{S}_T$ be the family of all $k$-subsets of $\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ containing $T$. In the present paper, we show that $|\mathcal{F}\wedge \mathcal{G}|$ is maximized when $\mathcal{F}=\mathcal{G}=\mathcal{S}_{\{1\}}$ for $n\geq 2k^2+8k$, while surprisingly $|\mathcal{I}(\mathcal{F}, \mathcal{G})|$ is maximized when $\mathcal{F}=\mathcal{S}_{\{1,2\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{3,4\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{1,4,5\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{2,3,6\}}$ and $\mathcal{G}=\mathcal{S}_{\{1,3\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{2,4\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{1,4,6\}}\cup \mathcal{S}_{\{2,3,5\}}$ for $n\geq 100k^2$. The maximum number of distinct intersections in a $t$-intersecting family is determined for $n\geq 3(t+2)^3k^2$ as well.

We say that $k$ graphs $G_1,G_2,\dots,G_k$ on a common vertex set of size $n$ contain a rainbow copy of a graph $H$ if their union contains a copy of $H$ with each edge belonging to a distinct $G_i$. We provide a counterexample to a conjecture of Frankl on the maximum product of the sizes of the edge sets of three graphs avoiding a rainbow triangle. We propose an alternative conjecture, which we prove under the additional assumption that the union of the three graphs is complete. Furthermore, we determine the maximum product of the sizes of the edge sets of three graphs or four graphs avoiding a rainbow path of length three., Comment: The paper has been expanded to include further results on paths

Let F,G,H be three graphs on the same n vertices. We consider the maximum of the sum and product of the number of their edges subject to the condition in the title.

In 2008, Schmidt and Tuller stated a conjecture concerning optimal packing and covering of integers by translates of a given three-point set. In this note, we confirm their conjecture and relate it to several other problems in combinatorics., Comment: 10 pages. v2 includes an important historical reference and a few modifications based on the reviews

A recent generalization of the Erd\H{o}s Unit Distance Problem, proposed by Palsson, Senger and Sheffer, asks for the maximum number of unit distance paths with a given number of vertices in the plane and in $3$-space. Studying a variant of this question, we prove sharp bounds on the number of unit distance paths and cycles on the sphere of radius $1/\sqrt{2}$. We also consider a similar problem about $3$-regular unit distance graphs in $\mathbb{R}^3$.

In this paper, we show that, given two down-sets (simplicial complexes) there is a matching between them that matches disjoint sets and covers the smaller of the two down-sets. This result generalizes an unpublished result of Berge from circa 1980. The result has nice corollaries for cross-intersecting families and Chv\'atal's conjecture. More concretely, we show that Chv\'atal's conjecture is true for intersecting families with covering number $2$. A family $\mathcal F\subset 2^{[n]}$ is intersection-union (IU) if for any $A,B\in\mathcal F$ we have $1\le |A\cap B|\le n-1$. Using the aforementioned result, we derive several exact product- and sum-type results for IU-families.

Erd\H{o}s and Purdy, and later Agarwal and Sharir, conjectured that any set of $n$ points in $\mathbb R^{d}$ determine at most $Cn^{d/2}$ congruent $k$-simplices for even $d$. We obtain the first significant progress towards this conjecture, showing that this number is at most $C n^{3d/4}$ for $k

Beam Intercepting Devices (BIDs) are essential protection elements for the operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) complex. The LHC internal beam dump (LHC Target Dump Injection or LHC TDI) is the main protection BID of the LHC injection system; its main function is to protect LHC equipment in the event of a malfunction of the injection kicker magnets during beam transfer from the SPS to the LHC. Several issues with the TDI were encountered during LHC operation, most of them due to outgassing from its core components induced by electron cloud effects, which led to limitations of the injector intensity and hence had an impact on LHC availability. The absorbing cores of the TDIs, and of beam intercepting devices in general, need to deal with high thermo-mechanical loads induced by the high intensity particle beams. In addition, devices such as the TDI - where the absorbing materials are installed close to the beam, are important contributors to the accelerator impedance budget. To reduce impedance, the absorbing materials that make up the core must be typically coated with high electrical conductivity metals. Beam impact testing of the coated absorbers is a crucial element of development work to ensure their correct operation. The behaviour of several metal-coated absorber materials was investigated when exposed to high intensity and high energy proton beams in the HiRadMat facility at CERN. Different coating configurations based on copper and molybdenum, and absorbing materials such as isostatic graphite, Carbon Fibre Composite (CfC) and Silicon Carbide reinforced with Silicon Carbide fibres (SiC-SiC), were tested in the facility to assess the TDI's performance and to extract information for other BIDs using these materials. In addition to beam impact tests and an extensive Post Irradiation Examination (PIE) campaign, extensive numerical simulations were carried out., Comment: 32 pages, 25 figures, accepted for publication in Journal of Instrumentation (JINST)