Improved bounds on the maximum diversity of intersecting families

Abstract: A family $\mathcal{F}\subset \binom{[n]}{k}$ is called an intersecting family if $F\cap F'\neq \emptyset$ for all $F,F'\in \mathcal{F}$. If $\cap \mathcal{F}\neq \emptyset$ then $\mathcal{F}$ is called a star. The diversity of an intersecting family $\mathcal{F}$ is defined as the minimum number of $k$-sets in $\mathcal{F}$, whose deletion results in a star. In the present paper, we prove that for $n>36k$ any intersecting family $\mathcal{F}\subset \binom{[n]}{k}$ has diversity at most $\binom{n-3}{k-2}$, which improves the previous best bound $n>72k$ due to the first author. This result is derived from some strong bounds concerning the maximum degree of large intersecting families. Some related results are established as well.