On a Two-Sided Turán Problem

Abstract

Given positive integers $n,k,t$, with $2 \le k\le n$, and $t < 2^k$, let $m(n,k,t)$ be the minimum size of a family ${\cal F}$ of nonempty subsets of $[n]$ such that every $k$-set in $[n]$ contains at least $t$ sets from ${\cal F}$, and every $(k-1)$-set in $[n]$ contains at most $t-1$ sets from ${\cal F}$. Sloan et al. determined $m(n, 3, 2)$ and Füredi et al. studied $m(n, 4, t)$ for $t=2, 3$. We consider $m(n, 3, t)$ and $m(n, 4, t)$ for all the remaining values of $t$ and obtain their exact values except for $k=4$ and $t= 6, 7, 11, 12$. For example, we prove that $m(n, 4, 5) = {n \choose 2}-17$ for $n\ge 160$. The values of $m(n, 4, t)$ for $t=7,11,12$ are determined in terms of well-known (and open) Turán problems for graphs and hypergraphs. We also obtain bounds of $m(n, 4, 6)$ that differ by absolute constants.