On cross-2-intersecting families

Abstract

Two families $\mathcal A\subseteq\binom{[n]}{k}$ and $\mathcal B\subseteq\binom{[n]}{\ell}$ are called cross-$t$-intersecting if $|A\cap B|\geq t$ for all $A\in\mathcal A$, $B\in\mathcal B$. Let $n$, $k$ and $\ell$ be positive integers such that $n\geq 3.38\ell$ and $\ell\geq k\geq 2$. In this paper, we will determine the upper bound of $|\mathcal A||\mathcal B|$ for cross-$2$-intersecting families $\mathcal A\subseteq\binom{[n]}{k}$ and $\mathcal B\subseteq\binom{[n]}{\ell}$. The structures of the extremal families attaining the upper bound are also characterized. The similar result obtained by Tokushige can be considered as a special case of ours when $k=\ell$, but under a more strong condition $n>3.42k$. Moreover, combined with the results obtained in this paper, the complicated extremal structures attaining the upper bound for nontrivial cases can be relatively easy to reach with similar techniques.