Maximum Size $t$-Intersecting Families and Anticodes

Abstract

The maximum size of $t$-intersecting families is one of the most celebrated topics in combinatorics, and its size is known as the Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem. Such intersecting families, also known as constant-weight anticodes in coding theory, were considered in a generalization of the well-known sphere-packing bound. In this work we consider the maximum size of $t$-intersecting families and their associated maximum size constant-weight anticodes over alphabet of size $q >2$. It is proved that the structure of the maximum size constant-weight anticodes with the same length, weight, and diameter, depends on the alphabet size. This structure implies some hierarchy of constant-weight anticodes.