Lagrangian densities of short 3-uniform linear paths and Tur\'an numbers of their extensions

Abstract

For a fixed positive integer $n$ and an $r$-uniform hypergraph $H$, the Tur\'an number $ex(n,H)$ is the maximum number of edges in an $H$-free $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices, and the Lagrangian density of $H$ is defined as $\pi_{\lambda}(H)=\sup \{r! \lambda(G) : G \;\text{is an}\; H\text{-free} \;r\text{-uniform hypergraph}\}$, where $\lambda(G)$ is the Lagrangian of $G$. For an $r$-uniform hypergraph $H$ on $t$ vertices, it is clear that $\pi_{\lambda}(H)\ge r!\lambda{(K_{t-1}^r)}$. We say that an $r$-uniform hypergraph $H$ on $t$ vertices is perfect if $\pi_{\lambda}(H)= r!\lambda{(K_{t-1}^r)}$. Let $P_t=\{e_1, e_2, \dots, e_t\}$ be the linear $3$-uniform path of length $t$, that is, $|e_i|=3$, $|e_i \cap e_{i+1}|=1$ and $e_i \cap e_j=\emptyset$ if $|i-j|\ge 2$. We show that $P_3$ and $P_4$ are perfect, this supports a conjecture in \cite{yanpeng} proposing that all $3$-uniform linear hypergraphs are perfect. Applying the results on Lagrangian densities, we determine the Tur\'an numbers of their extensions.