Hypergraphs without Subgraphs of Given Connectivity

Abstract

In this paper, we study the problem of determining the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $r$-uniform hypergraph that contains no $(k+1)$-connected subgraph. The graph case is a classical problem initiated by Mader, central to graph theory, and still open. First, for all $r \ge 3$, we determine this maximum up to an $O(n)$ error term, thereby identifying its leading term. We also address a related question of Carmesin by establishing a tight bound for $r$-uniform hypergraphs with no $(k+1)$-connected subgraph on more than $Ck$ vertices for any constant $C>2$ and sufficiently large $r$, and further obtain an asymptotically tight bound in the case $C=2$. Our proof combines the separator tree method introduced by Carmesin with several new combinatorial and optimization techniques, and we conclude with related remarks and open problems.