Fractional and integer matchings in uniform hypergraphs

A conjecture of Erdős from 1965 suggests the minimum number of edges in a kuniform hypergraph on n vertices which forces a matching of size t, where t ≤ n/k. Our main result verifies this conjecture asymptotically, for all t < 0.48n/k. This gives an approximate answer to a question of Huang, Loh and Sudakov, who proved the conjecture for t ≤ n/3k. As a consequence of our result, we extend bounds of Bollobás, Daykin and Erdős by asymptotically determining the minimum vertex degree which forces a matching of size t < 0.48n/(k − 1) in a k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices. We also obtain further results on d-degrees which force large matchings. In addition we improve bounds of Markström and Ruciński on the minimum ddegree which forces a perfect matching in a k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices. Our approach is to inductively prove fractional versions of the above results and then translate these into integer versions.