On a problem of Brown, Erdős and Sós

Abstract

Let $f^{(r)}(n;s,k)$ be the maximum number of edges in an $n$-vertex $r$-uniform hypergraph not containing a subhypergraph with $k$ edges on at most $s$ vertices. Recently, Delcourt and Postle, building on work of Glock, Joos, Kim, Kühn, Lichev and Pikhurko, proved that the limit ${\lim }_{n\to \infty }{n}^{-2}{f}^{(3)}(n;k+2,k)$ exists for all $k\ge 2$, solving an old problem of Brown, Erdős and Sós (1973). Meanwhile, Shangguan and Tamo asked the more general question of determining if the limit ${\lim }_{n\to \infty }{n}^{-t}{f}^{(r)}(n;k(r-t)+t,k)$ exists for all $r>t\ge 2$ and $k\ge 2$. Here we make progress on their question. For every even $k$, we determine the value of the limit when $r$ is sufficiently large with respect to $k$ and $t$. Moreover, we show that the limit exists for $k\in \{5,7\}$ and all $r>t\ge 2$.

arXiv comment14 pages, final version as accepted for publication in Proceedings of the AMS