On the connected Turán number of Berge paths and Berge cycles

Abstract

Given a graph $F$, a Berge copy of $F$ (Berge-$F$ for short) is a hypergraph obtained by enlarging the edges arbitrarily. Győri, Salia and Zamora determined the maximum number of hyperedges in a connected $r$-uniform hypergraph on $n$ vertices containing no Berge path of length $k-1$ for all $k\ge 2r+14$ and sufficiently large $n$, and asked for the minimum $k_0$ such that this extremal number holds for all $k\ge k_0$. In this paper, we prove that the extremal number holds for all $k\ge 2r+2$ and fails for $k\le 2r+1$, thereby completely resolving the problem posed by Győri, Salia and Zamora. Moreover, we improve the result of Füredi, Kostochka and Luo, who determined the maximum number of hyperedges in a $2$-connected $n$-vertex $r$-uniform hypergraph containing no Berge cycle of length at least $k$ for all $k\ge 4r$ and sufficiently large $n$, by showing that this extremal number holds for all $k\ge 2r+2$ and fails for $k\le 2r+1$. Our approach reduces Berge-Turán problems to classical extremal graph theory problems, and applies recent work of Ai, Lei, Ning and Shi concerning the feasibility of graph parameters and the Kelmans operation.