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Every finite union-closed family other than $\{\varnothing \}$ has an element belonging to at leastof its members. The proof applies the binary entropy product inequality coordinate by coordinate to the union of two independent uniform members of the family.

Letwhere $\phi$ is the golden ratio. If the union-closed family consists of one nonempty set, any element of that set has frequency one, so assume its cardinality exceeds one. Choose independent uniform members $A,B$ and let $X,Y\in \{0,1{\}}^n$ be their characteristic vectors of sets. Then $H(X)=H(Y)=\log |\mathcal{A}|>0$.

Suppose for a contradiction that every element has frequency $p_i<c$. Put $q_i=1-p_i>1/\phi$, and let $Z=X\mathrm{OR}Y$, the characteristic vector of a set of $A\cup B$. The chain rule for information entropy and conditioning reduces entropy givebecause $Z_{<i}$ is a function of $(X_{<i},Y_{<i})$.

Fix the two prefixes and setThe two conditioned bits are independent random variables, and $Z_i=0$ exactly when both are zero. The supplied binary entropy product inequality therefore givesAveraging over the independent prefixes yieldswhenever either conditional entropy is positive. Summing and using $H(X)>0$ gives $H(Z)>H(X)$.

But set union keeps $A\cup B$ inside the union-closed family, so $Z$ is supported on $\mathcal{A}$. The maximum entropy distribution on a finite set gives $H(Z)\le \log |\mathcal{A}|=H(X)$, a contradiction. Some element must therefore occur in at least $c|\mathcal{A}|$ members, proving the entropy bound for a union-closed family.

Solved by gpt-5.6-sol high.