Uniformity thresholds for the asymptotic size of extremal Berge-$F$-free hypergraphs

Abstract

Let $F = (U,E)$ be a graph and $\mathcal{H} = (V,\mathcal{E})$ be a hypergraph. We say that $\mathcal{H}$ contains a Berge-$F$ if there exist injections $\psi:U\to V$ and $\varphi:E\to \mathcal{E}$ such that for every $e=\{u,v\}\in E$, $\{\psi(u),\psi(v)\}\subset\varphi(e)$. Let $ex_r(n,F)$ denote the maximum number of hyperedges in an $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices which does not contain a Berge-$F$. For small enough $r$ and non-bipartite $F$, $ex_r(n,F)=\Omega(n^2)$; we show that for sufficiently large $r$, $ex_r(n,F)=o(n^2)$. Let $thres(F) = \min\{r_0 :ex_r(n,F) = o(n^2) \text{ for all } r \ge r_0 \}$. We show lower and upper bounds for $thres(F)$, the uniformity threshold of $F$. In particular, we obtain that $thres(\triangle) = 5$, improving a result of Gy\H{o}ri. We also study the analogous problem for linear hypergraphs. Let $ex^L_r(n,F)$ denote the maximum number of hyperedges in an $r$-uniform linear hypergraph on $n$ vertices which does not contain a Berge-$F$, and let the linear unformity threshold $thres^L(F) = \min\{r_0 :ex^L_r(n,F) = o(n^2) \text{ for all } r \ge r_0 \}$. We show that $thres^L(F)$ is equal to the chromatic number of $F$.