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Let $H$ be the $r$-uniform hypergraph and use strong saturation of a uniform hypergraph in its immediate-completion sense: each missing edge $e$ lies in an $(r+t)$-set $T$ whose other $r$-subsets are already edges of $H$. The argument allows existing hypergraph cliques. Take $n\ge r+t$, the usual parameter range; if $r\le n<r+t$, strong saturation forces every possible edge to be present, and the inequality is immediate whenever its binomial terms are defined. The case $t=0$ has the trivial lower bound zero.

For $t\ge 1$, choose distinct real numbers $z_1,\dots ,z_n$ and form the $t\times n$ Vandermonde matrix $M$ whose $i$th column is $(1,z_i,\dots ,z_i^{t-1}{)}^T$. Every $t$ columns are linearly independent by the Vandermonde determinant. Set $U=\ker M\subseteq {\mathbb{R}}^n$, so $\dim U=n-t$, and work in the quotient vector spaceHere the inclusion of ${\bigwedge }^{r}U$ is injective: extend a basis of $U$ to a basis of ${\mathbb{R}}^n$ and use the resulting wedge bases of the exterior powers. Write $w_e$ for the image in $W$ of the coordinate wedge indexed by an $r$-set $e$. All these images span $W$.

For any $(r+t)$-set $T$, let $V_T$ be its coordinate subspace. The restriction of $M$ has rank $t$, so $U\cap V_T$ has dimension $r$. Wedge a basis of this intersection to obtain a nonzero elementEvery coefficient $c_e$ is nonzero. Indeed, projection of $U\cap V_T$ onto the $e$ coordinates is an isomorphism: a vector in its kernel is supported on $T\setminus e$, whose $t$ columns of $M$ are independent. The coefficient is the determinant of that projection in the chosen bases. Passing to $W$ therefore gives a linear dependence

If $e$ is missing from $H$, take its strong-saturation witness $T$. The dependence expresses $w_e$ in the span of the $w_f$ for the other edges $f\subseteq T$, all of which are present. Thus the vectors indexed by the present edges span all of $W$. The exterior-power quotient bound for strong hypergraph saturation follows:The bound is sharp: include precisely the $r$-sets meeting one fixed $t$-set $S$. A missing edge $e$ is disjoint from $S$, and every other $r$-subset of $e\cup S$ meets $S$, so adding $e$ immediately completes a hypergraph clique of order $r+t$. The number of included edges is exactly the displayed bound.

An $r$-uniform hypergraph is strongly saturated with respect to a complete uniform hypergraph of order $r+t$ if adding any missing edge creates a new complete uniform hypergraph on $r+t$ vertices containing that edge. Equivalently, for every missing $r$-set $e$, there is an $(r+t)$-set $T\supseteq e$ for which all other $r$-subsets are edges. Existing complete subhypergraphs are allowed in this strong-saturation definition.

We prove the bound by an exterior-power quotient bound for strong hypergraph saturation. Assume $r,t\ge 1$ and $n\ge r+t$. Let $V={\mathbb{R}}^n$ with basis $e_1,\dots ,e_n$. Choose distinct real numbers $a_1,\dots ,a_n$ and let $U$ be the kernel of the $t\times n$ matrix whose column $i$ isEvery $t$ columns are linearly independent by the Vandermonde determinant, so $\dim U=n-t$. Form the quotient vector spaceFor each $r$-set $e=\{i_1<\cdots <i_r\}$, let $v_e$ be the image in $W$ of the exterior product $e_{i_1}\wedge \cdots \wedge e_{i_r}$. These images span $W$.

For an $(r+t)$-set $T$, let $V_T$ be its coordinate subspace. The matrix restricted to $T$ has rank $t$, so $U\cap V_T$ has dimension $r$. The wedge of a basis of this intersection is a nonzero vectorEvery coefficient $c_e$ is nonzero. Indeed, projection from $U\cap V_T$ onto the $r$ coordinates in $e$ is an isomorphism: a vector in its kernel would be supported on $T\setminus e$, where the $t$ columns are independent, and hence would be zero. That projection's determinant is precisely the corresponding wedge coefficient. Thus, in the quotient vector space,For a missing edge, choose its strong-saturation witness $T$. All other vectors in this relation come from present edges, so the missing edge's vector is in their span. Consequently the present-edge vectors already span all of $W$. Their number is at least its dimension:This is sharp. Take all $r$-sets that meet a fixed $t$-set $D$. A missing edge $e$ is disjoint from $D$, and on $e\cup D$ every other $r$-set meets $D$; adding $e$ completes the required clique. The number of edges is exactly the boxed difference. If $r\le n<r+t$, no missing edge could have a witness, so a strongly saturated hypergraph must be complete; the substantive construction above is for the usual range $n\ge r+t$.

For the set-pair problem, write $m=|I|$ and choose $x_i\in R_i\cap S_i$. If $i\ne j$, the cross-disjointness implies that $x_i$ is in neither $R_j$ nor $S_j$. In particular, the witnesses are distinct. Let $D=\{x_i:i\in I\}$; each $R_i$ and $S_i$ contains exactly its own witness from $D$.

Choose two different indices $i,j$. The sets $R_i\setminus \{x_i\}$ and $S_j\setminus \{x_j\}$ are disjoint, lie outside $D$, and have sizes $r-1$ and $s-1$. HenceFor equality, partition the ground set into disjoint sets $P,Q,D$ with sizes $r-1,s-1,n-r-s+2$, respectively, and enumerate $D$ as $x_1,\dots ,x_m$. SetThen $R_i\cap S_j$ is $\{x_i\}$ for $i=j$ and empty otherwise. This realizes equality whenever the bound permits $m\ge 2$. The argument is a diagonal-intersection set-pair bound, with no additional assumptions on intersections among the $R_i$ or among the $S_i$.

An $r$-uniform hypergraph is strongly saturated with respect to a complete uniform hypergraph of order $r+t$ when every missing edge immediately completes such a clique. Existing cliques are allowed. All $r$-sets meeting a fixed $t$-set give an example: the witness for a missing edge is its union with that fixed set. It has $\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n}{r}\right)-\left(\genfrac{}{}{0ex}{}{n-t}{r}\right)$ edges, and the exterior-power quotient bound for strong hypergraph saturation proves optimality.