A general bound for the induced poset saturation problem

For a fixed poset P, a family F of subsets of [n] is induced P-saturated if F does not contain an induced copy of P, but for every subset S of [n] such that S ∉ F, then P is an induced subposet of F ∪ {S}. The size of the smallest such family F is denoted by sat^* (n, P). Keszegh, Lemons, Martin, Pálvölgyi and Patkós [Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A, 2021] proved that there is a dichotomy of behaviour for this parameter: given any poset P, either sat* (n, P) = O(1) or sat* (n, P) ≥  log₂n. We improve this general result showing that either sat* (n, P) = O(1) or sat* (n, P) ≥ 2√n-2. Our proof makes use of a Turán-type result for digraphs.

Curiously, it remains open as to whether our result is essentially best possible or not. On the one hand, a conjecture of Ivan states that for the so-called diamond poset ◊ we have sat* (n, ◊) = Θ(√n); so if true this conjecture implies our result is tight up to a multiplicative constant. On the other hand, a conjecture of Keszegh, Lemons, Martin, Pálvölgyi and Patkós states that given any poset P, either sat* (n, P)= O(1) or sat* (n, P) ≥ n + 1. We prove that this latter conjecture is true for a certain class of posets P.