On transversal and 2-packing numbers in uniform linear systems

Abstract

A linear system is a pair $(P,\mathcal{L})$ where $\mathcal{L}$ is a family of subsets on a ground finite set $P$, such that $|l\cap l^\prime|\leq 1$, for every $l,l^\prime \in \mathcal{L}$. The elements of $P$ and $\mathcal{L}$ are called points and lines, respectively, and the linear system is called intersecting if any pair of lines intersect in exactly one point. A subset $T$ of points of $P$ is a transversal of $(P,\mathcal{L})$ if $T$ intersects any line, and the transversal number, $τ(P,\mathcal{L})$, is the minimum order of a transversal. On the other hand, a 2-packing set of a linear system $(P,\mathcal{L})$ is a set $R$ of lines, such that any three of them have a common point, then the 2-packing number of $(P,\mathcal{L})$, $ν_2(P,\mathcal{L})$, is the size of a maximum 2-packing set. It is known that the transversal number $τ(P,\mathcal{L})$ is bounded above by a quadratic function of $ν_2(P,\mathcal{L})$. An open problem is to haracterize the families of linear systems which satisfies $τ(P,\mathcal{L})\leq λν_2(P,\mathcal{L})$, for some $λ\geq1$. In this paper, we give an infinite family of linear systems $(P,\mathcal{L})$ which satisfies $τ(P,\mathcal{L})=ν_2(P,\mathcal{L})$ with smallest possible cardinality of $\mathcal{L}$, as well as some properties of $r$-uniform intersecting linear systems $(P,\mathcal{L})$, such that $τ(P,\mathcal{L})=ν_2(P,\mathcal{L})=r$. Moreover, we state a characterization of $4$-uniform intersecting linear systems $(P,\mathcal{L})$ with $τ(P,\mathcal{L})=ν_2(P,\mathcal{L})=4$.