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Erdős Problem 447

References:

    erdosproblems.com/447

    [Er65b] Erdős, Paul, Some recent advances and current problems in number theory. Lectures on Modern Mathematics, Vol. III (1965), 196-244.

    [Kl71] Kleitman, Daniel, Collections of subsets containing no two sets and their union. Proceedings of the LA Meeting AMS (1971), 153-155.

open Filternamespace Erdos447

The largest size of a union-free collection $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $[n]$.

noncomputable def maxUnionFree (n : ) : := sSup { k | F : Finset (Finset (Fin n)), F.UnionFree F.card = k }

How large can a union-free collection $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $[n]$ be? By union-free we mean there are no solutions to $A\cup B=C$ with distinct $A,B,C\in \mathcal{F}$. Must $\lvert \mathcal{F}\rvert =o(2^n)$?

In [Er65b] Erdős reported that the estimate $\lvert \mathcal{F}\rvert=o(2^n)$ was proved in unpublished work by Sárközy and Szemerédi.

@[category research solved, AMS 5] theorem erdos_447.parts.i : answer(True) (fun n : => (maxUnionFree n : )) =o[atTop] (fun n : => (2 : ) ^ n) := True (fun n (maxUnionFree n)) =o[atTop] fun n 2 ^ n All goals completed! 🐙

How large can a union-free collection $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of $[n]$ be? By union-free we mean there are no solutions to $A\cup B=C$ with distinct $A,B,C\in \mathcal{F}$. Perhaps even $$\lvert \mathcal{F}\rvert <(1+o(1))\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}?$$

Solved by Kleitman [Kl71], who proved $$\lvert \mathcal{F}\rvert <(1+o(1))\binom{n}{\lfloor n/2\rfloor}.$$

@[category research solved, AMS 5, formal_proof using lean4 at "https://github.com/plby/lean-proofs/blob/main/src/v4.29.1/ErdosProblems/Erdos447.lean"] theorem erdos_447.parts.ii : answer(True) c : , (c =o[atTop] (1 : )) ∀ᶠ n : in atTop, (maxUnionFree n : ) < (1 + c n) * (n.choose (n / 2) : ) := True c, c =o[atTop] 1 ∀ᶠ (n : ) in atTop, (maxUnionFree n) < (1 + c n) * (n.choose (n / 2)) All goals completed! 🐙end Erdos447