A pair degree condition for Hamiltonian cycles in $3$-uniform hypergraphs

Abstract: We prove a new sufficient pair degree condition for tight Hamiltonian cycles in $3$-uniform hypergraphs that (asymptotically) improves the best known pair degree condition due to R\"odl, Ruci\'nski, and Szemer\'edi. For graphs, Chv\'atal characterised all those sequences of integers for which every pointwise larger (or equal) degree sequence guarantees the existence of a Hamiltonian cycle. A step towards Chv\'atal's theorem was taken by P\'osa, who improved on Dirac's tight minimum degree condition for Hamiltonian cycles by showing that a certain weaker condition on the degree sequence of a graph already yields a Hamiltonian cycle. In this work, we take a similar step towards a full characterisation of all pair degree matrices that ensure the existence of tight Hamiltonian cycles in $3$-uniform hypergraphs by proving a $3$-uniform analogue of P\'osa's result. In particular, our result strengthens the asymptotic version of the result by R\"odl, Ruci\'nski, and Szemer\'edi.