Skip to main content
Log in

An Improvement of the General Bound on the Largest Family of Subsets Avoiding a Subposet

  • Published:
Order Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Let La(n, P) be the maximum size of a family of subsets of [n] = {1, 2, … , n} not containing P as a (weak) subposet, and let h(P) be the length of a longest chain in P. The best known upper bound for La(n, P) in terms of |P| and h(P) is due to Chen and Li, who showed that \(\text {La}(n,P) \le \frac {1}{m+1} \left (|{P}| + \frac {1}{2}(m^{2} +3m-2)(h(P)-1) -1 \right ) {\left (\begin {array}{c}{n}\\ {\lfloor n/2 \rfloor } \end {array}\right )}\) for any fixed m ≥ 1. In this paper we show that \(\text {La}(n,P) \le \frac {1}{2^{k-1}} \left (|P| + (3k-5)2^{k-2}(h(P)-1) - 1 \right ) {\left (\begin {array}{c}{n}\\ {\lfloor n/2 \rfloor } \end {array}\right )}\) for any fixed k ≥ 2, improving the best known upper bound. By choosing k appropriately, we obtain that \(\text {La}(n,P) = \mathcal {O}\left (h(P) \log _{2}\left (\frac {|{P}|}{h(P)}+2\right ) \right ) {\left (\begin {array}{c}{n}\\ {\lfloor n/2 \rfloor } \end {array}\right )}\) as a corollary, which we show is best possible for general P. We also give a different proof of this corollary by using bounds for generalized diamonds. We also show that the Lubell function of a family of subsets of [n] not containing P as an induced subposet is \(\mathcal {O}(n^{c})\) for every \(c>\frac {1}{2}\).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Bonis, A.D., Katona, G.O.H.: Largest families without an r-fork. Ord., 181–191 (2007)

  2. Bukh, B.: Set families with a forbidden subposet. Electron. J. Comb. 16(1), R142 (2009)

    MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Burcsi, P., Nagy, D.T.: The method of double chains for largest families with excluded subposets. Electron. J. Graph Theory Appl. (EJGTA) 1(1) (2013)

  4. Chen, H.B., Li, W.T.: A note on the largest size of families of sets with a forbidden poset. Ord. 31(1), 137–142 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  5. De Bonis, A., Katona, G.O.H., Swanepoel, K.J.: Largest family without A B C D. J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 111(2), 331–336 (2005)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  6. Erdős, P.: On a lemma of Littlewood and Offord. Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 51(12), 898–902 (1945)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  7. Griggs, J.R., Katona, G.O.H.: No four subsets forming an N. J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 115(4), 677–685 (2008)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  8. Griggs, J.R., Li, W.T.: Poset-free families and Lubell-boundedness. J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 134, 166–187 (2015)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  9. Griggs, J.R., Li, W.T., Lu, L.: Diamond-free families. J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 119(2), 310–322 (2012)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  10. Katona, G.O.H., Tarján, T.G.: Extremal problems with excluded subgraphs in the n-cube. In: Graph Theory, pp 84–93. Springer (1983)

  11. Klazar, M., Marcus, A.: Extensions of the linear bound in the Füredi–Hajnal conjecture. Adv. Appl. Math. 38(2), 258–266 (2007)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  12. Lu, L.: On crown-free families of subsets. J. Comb. Theory Ser. A 126, 216–231 (2014)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  13. Marcus, A., Tardos, G.: Excluded permutation matrices and the Stanley-Wilf conjecture. J. Comb. Theory Ser. A (2004)

  14. Methuku, A., Pálvölgyi, D.: Forbidden hypermatrices imply general bounds on induced forbidden subposet problems (2014). arXiv:1408.4093

  15. Mirsky, L.: A dual of Dilworth’s decomposition theorem. Am. Math. Mon. 78(8), 876–877 (1971)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Patkos, B.: Induced and non-induced forbidden subposet problems. Electron. J. Comb. 22(1) (2015)

  17. Sperner, E.: Ein satz über untermengen einer endlichen menge. Math. Z. 27(1), 544–548 (1928)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dániel Grósz.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Grósz, D., Methuku, A. & Tompkins, C. An Improvement of the General Bound on the Largest Family of Subsets Avoiding a Subposet. Order 34, 113–125 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11083-016-9390-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11083-016-9390-3

Keywords

Navigation