AN ERDŐS-KO-RADO THEOREM FOR MINIMAL COVERS

Let $[n]=\{1,2,{\ldots},n\}$. A set ${\mathbf{A}}=\{A_1,A_2,{\ldots},A_l\}$ is a minimal cover of [n] if ${\cup}_{1{\leq}i{\leq}l}A_i=[n]$ and $$\bigcup_{{1{\leq}i{\leq}l,}\\{i{\neq}j_0}}A_i{\neq}[n]\text{ for all }j_0{\in}[l]$$. Let ${\mathcal{C}}(n)$ denote the collection of all minimal covers of [n], and write $C_n={\mid}{\mathcal{C}}(n){\mid}$. Let ${\mathbf{A}}{\in}{\mathcal{C}}(n)$. An element $u{\in}[n]$ is critical in ${\mathbf{A}}$ if it appears exactly once in ${\mathbf{A}}$. Two minimal covers ${\mathbf{A}},{\mathbf{B}}{\in}{\mathcal{C}}(n)$ are said to be restricted t-intersecting if they share at least t sets each containing an element which is critical in both ${\mathbf{A}}$ and ${\mathbf{B}}$. A family ${\mathcal{A}}{\subseteq}{\mathcal{C}}(n)$ is said to be restricted t-intersecting if every pair of distinct elements in ${\mathcal{A}}$ are restricted t-intersecting. In this paper, we prove that there exists a constant $n_0=n_0(t)$ depending on t, such that for all $n{\geq}n_0$, if ${\mathcal{A}}{\subseteq}{\mathcal{C}}(n)$ is restricted t-intersecting, then ${\mid}{\mathcal{A}}{\mid}{\leq}{\mathcal{C}}_{n-t}$. Moreover, the bound is attained if and only if ${\mathcal{A}}$ is isomorphic to the family ${\mathcal{D}}_0(t)$ consisting of all minimal covers which contain the singleton parts $\{1\},{\ldots},\{t\}$. A similar result also holds for restricted r-cross intersecting families of minimal covers.