A proof of the strong Erdős--Frankl--Füredi cover-free conjecture

Abstract

A family of nonempty sets is $r$-cover-free if no member is contained in the union of at most $r$ other members. Let $T(r)$ denote the least $n$ for which there is an $r$-cover-free family on $n$ points with more than $n$ members. In this paper, we prove that $T(r)\ge (r+1{)}^2$ for every integer $r\ge 1$, confirming the strong form of the Erdős--Frankl--Füredi cover-free conjecture. In particular, $T(r)=(r+1{)}^2$ whenever $r+1$ is a prime power.

arXiv comment5 pages. Comments are welcome!