Exact extremal non-trivial cross-intersecting families

Abstract

Two families $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$ of sets are called cross-intersecting if each pair of sets $A\in \mathcal{A}$ and $B\in \mathcal{B}$ has nonempty intersection. Let $\cal{A}$ and ${\cal B}$ be two cross-intersecting families of $k$-subsets and $\ell$-subsets of $[n]$. Matsumoto and Tokushige [J. Combin. Theory Ser. A 52 (1989) 90--97] studied the extremal problem of the size $|\cal{A}||\cal{B}|$ and obtained the uniqueness of extremal families whenever $n\ge 2 \ell\ge 2k$, building on the work of Pyber. This paper will explore the second extremal size of $|\cal{A}||\cal{B}|$ and obtain that if $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$ are not the subfamilies of Matsumoto--Tokushige's extremal families, then, for $n\ge 2\ell >2k$ or $n> 2\ell=2k$, \begin{itemize} \item[1)]either $|\cal{A}||\cal{B}|\le \left({\binom{n-1}{k-1}}+{\binom{n-2 }{k-1}}\right){\binom{n-2}{\ell-2}}$ with the unique extremal families (up to isomorphism) \[\mbox{$\mathcal{A}=\{A\in {\binom{[n]}{k}}: 1\in A \: \rm{ or} \: 2\in A\}$ \quad and \quad $\mathcal{B}=\{B\in {\binom{[n]}{\ell}}: [2] \subseteq B\}$};\] \item[2)] or $|\cal{A}||\cal{B}|\le \left({\binom{n-1}{k-1}}+1\right)\left({\binom{n-1}{\ell-1}}-{\binom{n-k-1}{\ell-1}}\right)$ with the unique extremal families (up to isomorphism) \[\mbox{$\mathcal{A}=\{A\in {\binom{[n]}{k}}: 1\in A\}\cup \{[2,k+1] \}$\quad and \quad $\mathcal{B}=\{B\in {\binom{[n]}{\ell}}: 1\in B, B\cap [2,k+1]\neq \emptyset \}$.}\] \end{itemize} The bound ``$n\ge 2\ell >2k$ or $n> 2\ell=2k$" is sharp for $n$. To achieve the above results, we establish some size-sensitive inequalities for cross-intersecting families. As by-products, we will recover the main results of Frankl and Kupavskii [European J. Combin. 62 (2017) 263--271].