TITLE: Seperating $2n$ elements with subsets of size $n$
QUESTION [5 upvotes]: Suppose I have a set $X$ with $2n$ elements ($n$ nonzero natural number). I now want to find a collection of subsets $X_1, \ldots, X_k$ of $X$ such that

Every $X_i$ contains $n$ elements.
For every $x, y \in X$, there exists an $X_i$ such that $x \in X_i$ and $y \not\in X_i$ or $x \not\in X_i$ and $y \in X_i$ (the $X_i$ "seperate" the elements of $X$, in that the topology on $X$ generated by the $X_i$ is Kolmogorov)
$k$ is minimal with respect to the above to properties.

An algorithm to find $X_1, \ldots, X_k$ would be great, but I am mostly looking for a way to calculate $k$. My intuition tells me that $k$ should be at least $\log_2(2n)$, more specifically I feel like
$$
\max_{x \in X} \# \lbrace y \in X \mid \not\exists i \in \lbrace 1, \ldots, j \rbrace : x \in X_i \enspace \& \enspace y \not\in X_i \rbrace \geq \log_2(\frac{2n}{j})
$$
should hold for all $j \in \lbrace 1, \ldots, k \rbrace$, but I don't know how to prove this.

REPLY [2 votes]: Suppose $X$ contains $2^l$ elements. Let $(A_i^m)$ be the family of subsets of $X$ of non-separated elements after introducing $X_1, \cdots, X_m$, i.e. sets of elements for which the second requirement does not hold (check that these sets are well defined and uniquely partition $X$). Ultimately, we want that all the subsets $A_i$ contain just a single element (i.e. every element is separated from all other elements).
With each $X_i$ we want to separate as many elements as possible. Now, at first $A_1 = X$ containing $2^l$ elements and we take $X_1$ just an arbitrary set of $n$ elements. After this, we have sets $A_1$, $A_2$, both containing $2^{l-1}$ elements. Now, with $X_2$ we can again split both in half, resulting in four 'remaining sets' with $2^{l-2}$ elements. Continue recursively to see that $k=l$. Moreover, it is clear that after introducing $m$ sets, $\max_i \# A_i^m \geq 2^{l-m}$, so that our result is indeed optimal.
For example, start with $X = A_1^0 = \{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8\}$. Introduce $X_1 = \{1,2,3,4\}$ to get $A_1^1 = \{1,2,3,4\}, A_2^1 = \{5,6,7,8\}$. Introduce $X_2 = \{1,2,5,6\}$ and $X_3 = \{1,3,5,7\}$ to finish the job. (Make sure to check the corresponding sets $(A_i^m)$.)
Now, for any other number of elements $2n$, your 'splits' wil not be optimal. You can check that  $\max_i \# A_i^m \geq 2n\cdot2^{-m}$ still holds.