The stronger q-analogue of the reverse oddtown theorem

From papers

Let nn be an even positive integer and let FqnF_q^n be an nn-dimensional vector space over the finite field with qq elements. Write sub(Fqn)\mathrm{sub}(F_q^n) for its subspaces, and let [n1]q[n-1]_q denote the qq-integer. Let Fsub(Fqn)\mathcal{F} \subseteq \mathrm{sub}(F_q^n) satisfy that dim(A)\dim(A) is even for every AFA \in \mathcal{F} and dim(AB)\dim(A \cap B) is odd for every distinct A,BFA,B \in \mathcal{F}. The stronger q-analogue of the reverse oddtown theorem. If qq is an odd prime power, then

F[n1]q.|\mathcal{F}| \leq [n-1]_q.

The preceding reverse oddtown q-analogue gives the weaker bound F[n]q1|\mathcal{F}| \leq [n]_q-1 when nn is even, while the family of codimension-one subspaces inside a fixed (n1)(n-1)-dimensional subspace has size [n1]q[n-1]_q. The conjecture asserts that this construction is optimal; its status is open based on the information provided.

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Primary source

Hiranya Kishore Dey, “q-analogues of Fisher's inequality and oddtown theorem”, arXiv:2505.15664 (2025).

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