Extremal problems for ordered hypergraphs: small patterns and some enumeration

Abstract

We investigate extremal functions ex_e(F,n) and ex_i(F,n) counting maximum numbers of edges and maximum numbers of vertex-edge incidences in simple hypergraphs H which have n vertices and do not contain a fixed hypergraph F; the containment respects linear orderings of vertices. We determine both functions exactly if F has only distinct singleton edges or if F is one of the 55 hypergraphs with at most four incidences (we give proofs only for six cases). We prove some exact formulae and recurrences for the numbers of hypergraphs, simple and all, with n incidences and derive rough logarithmic asymptotics of these numbers. Identities analogous to Dobinski's formula for Bell numbers are given.