An Approximate Vertex-Isoperimetric Inequality for $r$-sets

Abstract

We prove a vertex-isoperimetric inequality for \([n]^{(r)}\), the set of all \(r\)-element subsets of \(\{1,2,\ldots,n\}\), where \(x,y \in [n]^{(r)}\) are adjacent if \(|x \Delta y|=2\). Namely, if \(\mathcal{A} \subset [n]^{(r)}\) with \(|\mathcal{A}|=\alpha {n \choose r}\), then its vertex-boundary \(b(\mathcal{A})\) satisfies\[|b(\mathcal{A})| \geq c\sqrt{\frac{n}{r(n-r)}} \alpha(1-\alpha) {n \choose r},\]where \(c\) is a positive absolute constant. For \(\alpha\) bounded away from 0 and 1, this is sharp up to a constant factor (independent of \(n\) and \(r\)).