doi:10.1016/j.ejc.2006.07.001
Copyright © 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Minimal paths and cycles in set systems
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Dhruv Mubayia,
and Jacques Verstraëteb, 
aDepartment of Mathematical Statistics and Computer Science, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
bDepartment of Combinatorics and Optimization, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Received 3 December 2003;
accepted 10 July 2006.
Available online 6 September 2006.
Abstract
A minimal k-cycle is a family of sets A0,…,Ak−1 for which Ai∩Aj≠0/ if and only if i=j or i and j are consecutive modulo k. Let fr(n,k) be the maximum size of a family of r-sets of an n element set containing no minimal k-cycle. Our results imply that for fixed r,k≥3,
where
ℓ=
(k−1)/2
. We also prove that

as
n→∞. This supports a conjecture of Z. Füredi [Hypergraphs in which all disjoint pairs have distinct unions, Combinatorica 4 (2–3) (1984) 161–168] on families in which no two pairs of disjoint sets have the same union.