Abstract. Two hypergraphs H 1 , H 2 are called cross-intersecting if e 1 ∩ e 2 = ∅ for every pair of edges e 1 ∈ H 1 , e 2 ∈ H 2 . Each of the hypergraphs is then said to block the other. Given parameters n, r, m we determine the maximal size of a sub-hypergraph of [n] r (meaning that it is r-partite, with all sides of size n) for which there exists a blocking sub-hypergraph of [n] r of size m. The answer involves a fractal-like (that is, self-similar) sequence, first studied by Knuth. We also study the same question with n r replacing [n] r .1. Blockers in r-partite hypergraphs 1.1. Blockers. For a set A and a number r let A r be the set of all subsets of size r of A. Given numbers r and n let [n] = {1, 2, . . . , n}, and let [n] r be the complete r-partite hypergraph with all sides being equal to [n]. Let U be either [n] r or [n] r , and let F be a sub-hypergraph of U . The blocker B(F ) of F is the set of those edges of U that meet all edges of F . For a number t we denote by b(t) the maximal size of |B(F )|, where F ranges over all sets of t edges in U . Which of the two meanings of "b(t)" we are using will be clear from the context.
Background -the Erdős-Ko-Rado theorem and rainbow matchings.A matching is a collection of disjoint sets. The largest size of a matching in a hypergraph H is denoted by ν(H). The famous Erdős-Ko-Rado (EKR) theorem [8] states that if r ≤ n 2 and a hypergraph H ⊆ [n] r has more than n−1 r−1 edges, then ν(H) > 1. This has been extended in more than one way to pairs of hypergraphs. For example, in [17,19] the following was proved: Theorem 1.1. If r ≤ n 2 , and2 (in particular if |H i | > n−1 r−1 , i = 1, 2), then there exist disjoint edges, e 1 ∈ H 1 , e 2 ∈ H 2 .In [17] this was also extended to hypergraphs of different uniformities. In [20,21] a version of this result was proved for t-intersecting pairs of hypergraphs, for large enough n.