Quantitative bounds for regular $3$-wise intersecting families

Abstract

Frankston, Kahn and Narayanan proved that every regular increasing $3$-wise intersecting family of subsets of $[n]$ has cardinality $o(2^n)$ using Friedgut's junta theorem. We give a short quantitative proof using elementary tools from the analysis of Boolean functions and entropy. More precisely, if $\mathcal{A}\subseteq\mathcal{P}_n$ is a nonempty $3$-wise intersecting family that is both regular and increasing, then $$ \log\frac{2^n}{|\mathcal{A}|}\ge \frac{n}{2}\left(\frac{|\mathcal{A}|}{2^n-|\mathcal{A}|}\right)^2, $$ and consequently $|\mathcal{A}|\le 2^n\sqrt{W(n)/n}$, where $W$ is the principal Lambert function defined by $W(x)e^{W(x)}=x$ for $x\ge0$. We also give a purely Fourier-analytic proof of the weaker estimate $$ |\mathcal{A}|\le \frac{2^n}{1+n^{1/3}}. $$