With balanced cyclically ordered vertex classes and , include an -set if some start has at least vertices in its first classes for every . The cycle lemma implies every -set contains an edge. Its asymptotic density is ; taking the hypergraph complement gives a lower bound for the Turán density of a complete uniform hypergraph.
There is a genuine error in the printed threshold. With , its only nontrivial requirement is that some two consecutive classes contain at least one vertex of the triple. Every triple meets some class, so every triple qualifies. For example, when , the printed construction is the complete 3-uniform hypergraph, of edge density , whereas the claimed density is . Thus the stated edge-count assertion is false even in a nondegenerate parameter range.
The intended cyclic Turán covering construction, which gives the claimed density and the stated lower bound, uses threshold , in the natural range . We solve this repaired version explicitly. Denote it by to keep it separate from the literal printed construction.
A cyclic prefix argument gives the covering property. We first prove the relevant cycle lemma. If integers satisfy , exactly one cyclic starting position has every nonempty partial sum strictly positive. Existence follows by starting after the last minimum among the proper partial sums . Subsequent nonwrapped sums are strictly above that minimum, and wrapped sums add the total . For uniqueness, if two starts split the cycle into arcs with sums and , both positive, their integrality would require and , a contradiction.
Take any vertices and let count them in class . The increments sum to one. The cycle lemma gives a start for which the first classes contain at least vertices, for every . Take the first vertices encountered from that start in class order. The first classes already contain at least vertices; the chosen vertices therefore satisfy all the repaired prefix inequalities. Hence
Every repaired edge also satisfies the weaker printed inequalities. Thus this argument proves the covering assertion for the printed construction too, although it cannot repair its false edge count.
Count the repaired edges by labelled class assignments. Put . For a fixed cyclic start, an edge satisfying the repaired inequalities has all vertices in its first classes. Assign labelled vertices to these positions. There are assignments in total. Their occupancy counts satisfy ; the cycle lemma says exactly one of their cyclic starts has the required prefixes. Rotational symmetry therefore gives exactly good assignments for a specified start.
We must check that summing over the starts does not count an edge twice. Suppose two starts cut the circle into arcs of lengths and . If an arc has length at most , goodness of its starting point forces that arc to contain at least its length plus one vertices. If its length is greater than , it contains all vertices, while the other good start demands vertices in the disjoint complementary arc, impossible. If both lengths are at most , their combined demand is at least vertices, again impossible. Thus a repaired edge has a unique good start.
There are consequently good assignments of class labels to labelled vertices. For any such assignment, balanced class sizes give
where is the falling factorial. Divide the total count of ordered distinct vertices by . For fixed ,
This is precisely the edge density requested, but for the corrected construction.
Pass from covering to a forbidden-hypergraph clique construction. Use balanced classes in and take its hypergraph complement. Every -set contains an edge of , so the complement contains no complete -uniform hypergraph . The preceding count gives
Here Turán density means for a fixed -uniform forbidden hypergraph; the limit exists because these normalized extremal densities are nonincreasing under averaging over smaller vertex subsets.
A corresponding classical upper bound is the de Caen bound for hypergraph Turán density:
Equivalently, an -uniform covering hypergraph in which every -set contains an edge has asymptotic edge density at least . Its proof recursively counts complete subhypergraphs by their one-vertex extensions. Double counting the extensions and applying the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality to common extension neighbourhoods gives a lower bound for the ratio of successive hypergraph clique counts. If the missing-edge density were smaller than , those bounds would force a positive number of -vertex hypergraph cliques, a contradiction. Applying the resulting covering bound to the complement of a -free hypergraph gives the displayed upper bound. This incidence argument supplies the extra factor beyond the simpler direct count of one covering edge in each -set, which alone yields only .
The lower bound is therefore valid via , while the printed enumeration cannot be proved with threshold . Both the counterexample and the necessary repair are part of the solution, rather than a silent change of the definition.
The general upper bound is recorded, for example, in Turán densities of some hypergraphs related to complete uniform hypergraphs.