Uniform Turán density of cycles

Abstract

In the early 1980s, Erdős and Sós initiated the study of the classical Turán problem with a uniformity condition: the uniform Turán density of a hypergraph $H$ is the infimum over all $d$ for which any sufficiently large hypergraph with the property that all its linear-size subhyperghraphs have density at least $d$ contains $H$. In particular, they raise the questions of determining the uniform Turán densities of $K_4^{(3)-}$ and $K_4^{(3)}$. The former question was solved only recently in [Israel J. Math. 211 (2016), 349-366] and [J. Eur. Math. Soc. 20 (2018), 1139-1159], while the latter still remains open for almost 40 years. In addition to $K_4^{(3)-}$, the only $3$-uniform hypergraphs whose uniform Turán density is known are those with zero uniform Turán density classified by Reiher, Rödl and Schacht [J. London Math. Soc. 97 (2018), 77-97] and a specific family with uniform Turán density equal to $1/27$. We develop new tools for embedding hypergraphs in host hypergraphs with positive uniform density and apply them to completely determine the uniform Turán density of a fundamental family of $3$-uniform hypergraphs, namely tight cycles $C_\ell^{(3)}$. The uniform Turán density of $C_\ell^{(3)}$, $\ell\ge 5$, is equal to $4/27$ if $\ell$ is not divisible by three, and is equal to zero otherwise. The case $\ell=5$ resolves a problem suggested by Reiher.