Fractional and integer matchings in uniform hypergraphs

Our main result improves bounds of Markstrom and Rucinski on the minimum d-degree which forces a perfect matching in a k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices. We also extend bounds of Bollobas, Daykin and Erdos by asymptotically determining the minimum vertex degree which forces a matching of size t < n/2(k-1) in a k-uniform hypergraph on n vertices. Further asymptotically tight results on d-degrees which force large matchings are also obtained. Our approach is to prove fractional versions of the above results and then translate these into integer versions.