Set systems without a 3-simplex

Michael E. Picollelli

Published 2010-10-25Version 1

A 3-simplex is a collection of four sets A_1,...,A_4 with empty intersection such that any three of them have nonempty intersection. We show that the maximum size of a set system on n elements without a 3-simplex is $2^{n-1} + \binom{n-1}{0} + \binom{n-1}{1} + \binom{n-1}{2}$ for all $n \ge 1$, with equality only achieved by the family of sets either containing a given element or of size at most 2. This extends a result of Keevash and Mubayi, who showed the conclusion for n sufficiently large.