On intersecting families of finite sets

Abstract

Let F be a family of k-element subsets of an n-set, n > n0(k). Suppose any two members of F have non-empty intersection. Let τ(F) denote min|T|, T meets every member of F. Erdös, Ko and Rado proved and that if equality holds then τ(F) = 1. Hilton and Milner determined max|F| for τ(F) = 2. In this paper we solve the problem for τ(F) = 3.The extremal families look quite complicated which shows the power of the methods used for their determination.