A proof of Frankl's conjecture on cross-union families

TL;DR

This paper proves Frankl's conjecture that the maximum arithmetic mean size of cross-union families of k-subsets of [n] is achieved by the natural family, extending a classical combinatorial theorem.

Contribution

The paper provides a proof of Frankl's conjecture on the maximum arithmetic mean of cross-union families, confirming the natural family as the unique maximizer.

Findings

Frankl's conjecture is proven in a strong form.

The natural family {[n-1] choose k} uniquely maximizes the arithmetic mean.

The result extends the Erdős–Ko–Rado theorem to a new setting.

Abstract

The families $\mathcal F_0,\ldots,\mathcal F_s$ of $k$-element subsets of $[n]:=\{1,2,\ldots,n\}$ are called cross-union if there is no choice of $F_0\in \mathcal F_0, \ldots, F_s\in \mathcal F_s$ such that $F_0\cup\ldots\cup F_s=[n]$. A natural generalization of the celebrated Erd\H{o}s--Ko--Rado theorem, due to Frankl and Tokushige, states that for $n\le (s+1)k$ the geometric mean of $\lvert \mathcal F_i\rvert$ is at most $\binom{n-1}{k}$. Frankl conjectured that the same should hold for the arithmetic mean under some mild conditions. We prove Frankl's conjecture in a strong form by showing that the unique (up to isomorphism) maximizer for the arithmetic mean of cross-union families is the natural one $\mathcal F_0=\ldots=\mathcal F_s={[n-1]\choose k}$.