Forbidden subposet problems for traces of set families

In this paper we introduce a problem that bridges forbidden subposet and forbidden subconfiguration problems. The sets $F_1,F_2, \dots,F_{|P|}$ form a copy of a poset $P$, if there exists a bijection $i:P\rightarrow \{F_1,F_2, \dots,F_{|P|}\}$ such that for any $p,p'\in P$ the relation $p<_P p'$ implies $i(p)\subsetneq i(p')$. A family $\mathcal{F}$ of sets is \textit{$P$-free} if it does not contain any copy of $P$. The trace of a family $\mathcal{F}$ on a set $X$ is $\mathcal{F}|_X:=\{F\cap X: F\in \mathcal{F}\}$. We introduce the following notions: $\mathcal{F}\subseteq 2^{[n]}$ is $l$-trace $P$-free if for any $l$-subset $L\subseteq [n]$, the family $\mathcal{F}|_L$ is $P$-free and $\mathcal{F}$ is trace $P$-free if it is $l$-trace $P$-free for all $l\le n$. As the first instances of these problems we determine the maximum size of trace $B$-free families, where $B$ is the butterfly poset on four elements $a,b,c,d$ with $a,b<c,d$ and determine the asymptotics of the maximum size of $(n-i)$-trace $K_{r,s}$-free families for $i=1,2$. We also propose a generalization of the main conjecture of the area of forbidden subposet problems

A group-theoretic approach to fast matrix multiplication

We develop a new, group-theoretic approach to bounding the exponent of matrix multiplication. There are two components to this approach: (1) identifying groups G that admit a certain type of embedding of matrix multiplication into the group algebra C[G], and (2) controlling the dimensions of the irreducible representations of such groups. We present machinery and examples to support (1), including a proof that certain families of groups of order n^(2 + o(1)) support n-by-n matrix multiplication, a necessary condition for the approach to yield exponent 2. Although we cannot yet completely achieve both (1) and (2), we hope that it may be possible, and we suggest potential routes to that result using the constructions in this paper.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, only updates from previous version are page numbers and copyright informatio

Pre-compact families of finite sets of integers and weakly null sequences in Banach spaces

Two applications of Nash-Williams' theory of barriers to sequences on Banach spaces are presented: The first one is the $c_0$-saturation of $C(K)$, $K$ countable compacta. The second one is the construction of weakly-null sequences generalizing the example of Maurey-Rosenthal

Two-part set systems

The two part Sperner theorem of Katona and Kleitman states that if $X$ is an $n$-element set with partition $X_1 \cup X_2$, and \cF is a family of subsets of $X$ such that no two sets A, B \in \cF satisfy $A \subset B$ (or $B \subset A$) and $A \cap X_i=B \cap X_i$ for some $i$, then |\cF| \le {n \choose \lfloor n/2 \rfloor}. We consider variations of this problem by replacing the Sperner property with the intersection property and considering families that satisfiy various combinations of these properties on one or both parts $X_1$, $X_2$. Along the way, we prove the following new result which may be of independent interest: let \cF, \cG be families of subsets of an $n$-element set such that \cF and \cG are both intersecting and cross-Sperner, meaning that if A \in \cF and B \in \cG, then $A \not\subset B$ and $B \not\subset A$. Then |\cF| +|\cG| < 2^{n-1} and there are exponentially many examples showing that this bound is tight

On LL-close Sperner systems

For a set $L$ of positive integers, a set system $\mathcal{F} \subseteq 2^{[n]}$ is said to be $L$-close Sperner, if for any pair $F,G$ of distinct sets in $\mathcal{F}$ the skew distance $sd(F,G)=\min\{|F\setminus G|,|G\setminus F|\}$ belongs to $L$. We reprove an extremal result of Boros, Gurvich, and Milani\v c on the maximum size of $L$-close Sperner set systems for $L=\{1\}$ and generalize to $|L|=1$ and obtain slightly weaker bounds for arbitrary $L$. We also consider the problem when $L$ might include 0 and reprove a theorem of Frankl, F\"uredi, and Pach on the size of largest set systems with all skew distances belonging to $L=\{0,1\}$