Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Inequalities and Applications Volume 2010, Article ID 546015, 4 pages doi:10.1155/2010/546015 Research Article Alon-Babai-Suzuki’s Conjecture Related to Binary Codes in Nonmodular Version K.-W. Hwang,1 T. Kim,2 L. C. Jang,3 P. Kim,4 and Gyoyong Sohn5 1 Department of Mathematics, Donga-A University, Pusan 604-714, South Korea Division of General Edu.-Math., Kwangwoon University, Seoul 139-701, South Korea 3 Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Konkook University, Chungju 139-701, South Korea 4 Department of Mathematics, Kyungpook National University, Taegu 702-701, South Korea 5 Department of Computer Science, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 361-763, South Korea 2 Correspondence should be addressed to K.-W. Hwang, khwang7@kookmin.ac.kr Received 23 August 2009; Accepted 22 January 2010 Academic Editor: Ram N. Mohapatra Copyright q 2010 K.-W. Hwang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Let K {k1 , k2 , . . . , kr } and L {l1 , l2 , . . . , ls } be sets of nonnegative integers. Let F {F1 , F2 , . . . , Fm } be a family of subsets of n with Fi ∈ K for each i and |Fi ∩ Fj | ∈ L for any i/ j. Every subset Fe of n can be represented by a binary code a a1 , a2 , . . . , an such that ai 1 ∈ Fe . Alon et al. made a conjecture in 1991 in modular version. We prove if i ∈ Fe and ai 0 if i / Alon-Babai-Sukuki’s in nonmodular version. For any K and L with n ≥ s max ki , Conjecture |F| ≤ n−1 s n−1 s−1 ··· n−1 s−2r1 . 1. Introduction In this paper, F stands for a family of subsets of n {1, 2, . . . , n}, K {k1 , . . . , kr }, and L {l1 , . . . , ls }, where |Fi | ∈ K for all Fi ∈ F, |Fi ∩ Fj | ∈ L for all Fi , Fj ∈ F, i / j. The variable x will stand as a shorthand for the n-dimensional vector variable x1 , x2 , . . . , xn . Also, since these variables will take the values only 0 and 1, all the polynomials we will work with will be reduced modulo the relation xi2 xi . We define the characteristic vector vi vi1 , vi2 , . . . , vin ∈ Fi . We will present some results in this paper of Fi such that vij 1 if j ∈ Fi and vij 0 if j / that give upper bounds on the size of F under various conditions. Below is a list of related results by others. Theorem 1.1 Ray-Chaudhuri and 1. If K {k}, and L is any set of nonnegative nWilson integers with k > max lj , then |F| ≤ s . 2 Journal of Inequalities and Applications Theorem 1.2 Alon net al.2. If K and Lnaretwo sets of nonnegative integers with ki > s − r, for n every i, then |F| ≤ s s−1 · · · s−r1 . Theorem 1.3 Snevily 3. If K and L are any sets such that min ki > max lj , then |F| ≤ n−1 n−1 ··· . s−1 n−1 s 0 Theorem 1.4 Snevily 4. Let K and L be sets of nonnegative integers such that min ki > max lj . n−1 n−1 n−1 ··· . Then, |F| ≤ s s−1 s−2r1 Conjecture 1.5 Snevily 5. For any K and L with min ki > max lj , |F| ≤ n s . In the same paper in which he stated the above conjecture, Snevily mentions that it seems hard to prove the above bound and states the following weaker conjecture. n−1 n−1 Conjecture 1.6 Snevily 5. For any K and L with min ki > max lj , |F| ≤ ··· s s−1 n−1 . s−r Hwang and Sheikh 6 proved the bound of Conjecture 1.6 when K is a consecutive set. The second theorem we prove is a special case of Conjecture 1.6 with the extra condition that m / ∅. These two theorems are stated hereunder. i1 Fi Theorem 1.7 Hwang and Sheikh 6. Let K {k1 , k2 , . . . , kr } where ki k1 i − 1, k1 > s − r, . . . ,Fm } be such that ∈ L, and and L {l1 , l2 , . . . , ls }. Let F {F 1 , F2 , n−1|F i | ∈ K for each i, |Fi | / n−1 n−1 |Fi ∩ Fj | ∈ L for any i / ··· . j. Then |F| ≤ s s−1 s−r Theorem 1.8 Hwang and Sheikh 6. Let K {k1 , k2 , . . . , kr }, L {l1 , l2 , . . . , ls }, and F j, and ki > s − r. If {F1 , F2 , . . . , Fm } be such that |Fi | ∈ K for each i, |Fi ∩ Fj | ∈ L for any i / n−1 n−1 n−1 m ··· . ∅, then |F| ≤ i1 Fi / s s−1 s−r Theorem 1.9 Alon et al. 2. Let K and L be subsets of {0, 1, ..., p − 1} such that K ∩ L ∅, where p is a prime and F {F1 , F2 , . . . , Fm } a family of subsets of n such that |Fi |mod p ∈ K j. If rs − r 1 ≤ p − 1, and n ≥ s max ki , then for all Fi ∈ F and |Fi ∩ Fj |mod p ∈ L for i / n n n |F| ≤ s s−1 · · · s−r1 . Conjecture 1.10 Alon et al. 2. Let K and L be subsets of {0, 1, . . . , p − 1} such that K ∩ L ∅, where p is a prime and F {F1 , F2 , . . . , Fm } a family of subsets of n such for |Fni |modp ∈ K n that n j. If n ≥ smax ki , then |F| ≤ s s−1 · · · s−r1 . all Fi ∈ F and |Fi ∩Fj |mod p ∈ L for i / In 2, Alon et al. proved their conjectured bound under the extra conditions that rs − r 1 ≤ p − 1 and n ≥ s max ki . Qian and Ray-Chaudhuri 7 proved that if n > 2s − r instead of n ≥ s max ki , then the above bound holds. We prove an Alon-Babai-Suzuki’s conjecture in non-modular version. Theorem 1.11. Let K {k1 , k2 , . . . , kr }, L {l1 , l2 , . . . , ls } be two sets of nonnegative integers and j, and n ≥ smaxi |Fi |. let F {F1 , F2 , . . . , Fm } be such that |Fi | ∈ K for each i, |Fi ∩Fj | ∈ L for any i / n n n then |F| ≤ s s−1 · · · s−r1 . Journal of Inequalities and Applications 3 2. Proof of Theorem Proof of Theorem 1.11. For each Fi ∈ F, consider the polynomial fi x vi · x − ki − lj , 2.1 j lj <|Fi | where vi is the characteristic vector of Fi and vi∗ is the characteristic vector of Fi∗ Fi − {1}. Let vi the characteristic vector of Fic , and vi ∗ be the characteristic vector of Fic ∗ . We order {Fi } by size of Fi , that is, |Fj | ≤ |Fk | if j < k. We substitute the characteristic 0 for 1 ≤ i ≤ m and fi vj 0 for vector vi of Fic by order of size of Fi . Clearly, fi vi / 1 ≤ j < i ≤ m. Assume that αi fi x 0. 2.2 i We prove that {fi x} is linearly independent. Assume that this is false. Let i0 be the smallest 0. We substitute vi0 into the above equation. Then we get αi0 fi0 vi0 0. index such that αi0 / We get a contradiction. So {fi x} is linearly independent. Let E {E1 , . . . , Ee } be the family of subsets of n with size at most s − r, which is ordered by size, that is, |Ei | ≤ |Ej | if i < j, n where e s−r i0 i . Let ui denote the characteristic vector of Ei . We define the multilinear polynomial gi in n variables for each Ei : gi x r n xt − n − kl t1 l1 j∈Ei xj . 2.3 We prove that {gi x} is linearly independent. Assume that βi gi x 0. i 2.4 Choose the smallest size of Ei . Let ui be the characteristic vector of Ei . We substitute ui into 0 and gj ui 0 for any i < j. Since n ≥ s max ki , the above equation. We know that gi ui / we get βi 0. If we follow the same process, then the family {gi x} is linearly independent. Next, we prove that {fi x, gi x} is linearly independent. Now, assume that αi fi x βi gi x 0. i i 2.5 Let F1 be the smallest size of Fi . We substitute the characteristic vector v1 of F1c into the above equation. Since |Fic | n − kl , gi v1 0 for all i. We only get α1 f1 v1 0. So α1 0. By the same way, choose the smallest size from {Fi } after deleting F1 . We do the same process. We also can get α2 0. By the same process, we prove that all αi 0. We prove that {fi x, gi x} is linearly independent. 4 Journal of Inequalities and Applications Any polynomial in the set {fi x, gi x} can be represented by a linear combination of multilinear monomials of degree ≤ s. The space of such multilinear polynomials has s−r n s n dimension i0 i . We found |F| i0 i linearly independent polynomials with degree n n n n s n at most s. So |F| s−r ≤ i0 i . Thus |F| ≤ s s−1 · · · s−r1 . i0 i Acknowledgments The authors thank Zoltán Füredi for encouragement to write this paper. The present research has been conducted by the research grant of the Kwangwoon University in 2009. References 1 D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri and R. M. Wilson, “On t-designs,” Osaka Journal of Mathematics, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 737–744, 1975. 2 N. Alon, L. Babai, and H. Suzuki, “Multilinear polynomials and Frankl-Ray-Chaudhuri–Wilson type intersection theorems,” Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A, vol. 58, no. 2, pp. 165–180, 1991. 3 H. S. Snevily, “On generalizations of the de Bruijn-Erdős theorem,” Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A, vol. 68, no. 1, pp. 232–238, 1994. 4 H. S. Snevily, “A sharp bound for the number of sets that pairwise intersect at k positive values,” Combinatorica, vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 527–533, 2003. 5 H. S. Snevily, “A generalization of the Ray-Chaudhuri-Wilson theorem,” Journal of Combinatorial Designs, vol. 3, no. 5, pp. 349–352, 1995. 6 K.-W. Hwang and N. Sheikh, “Intersection families and Snevily’s conjecture,” European Journal of Combinatorics, vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 843–847, 2007. 7 J. Qian and D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri, “On mod-p Alon-Babai-Suzuki inequality,” Journal of Algebraic Combinatorics, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 85–93, 2000.