In what follows, I will have most variables ranging over positive integers (or sets of positive integers, or even sets of sets of positive integers). Let $n \gt 1$, and consider an interval $I$ of $n$ consecutive integers $[a+1,\ldots, a+n]$. Consider the subset $L$ (depending on $I$) of $P(I)$ of $I$ intersected with maximal antichains in the integer divisibility poset (actually quasi order, but most of the time will be spent in the positive integer part, which looks like a lattice; $0 \lt -a \lt n$ may be considered later), so $M \in L$ iff 1) for all $x,y \in M$, either $x=y$ or $\gcd(x,y)=1$ and 2) for all $z \in I - M$ there is $x \in M$ with $\gcd(x,z) \gt 1$ . Since any two consecutive positive integers are coprime, one has $\card(M) \ge 2$. If $d$ is a multiple of $\pi(n)$ primorial and $d$ happens to be in $M$, then $\card(M) \lt 4$. However, in this same interval containing $d$, we can choose a set $N$ that "looks like" ${d+1, d+2, \ldots, d+p_k}$ where $k$ is $O(\pi(n))$ and $p_j$ is the $j$th (positive) prime. Based on this example, I am confident (but can not yet prove) that a lower bound for the maximum of the cardinalities of sets in $L$ is $\pi(n/2) + 1$. Now let $I_t =\{ m \in I, m $is an integer multiple of $t\}$ For any $M \in L$, we must have $\card(M \cap I_t) \lt 2$ for any prime $t$. So an upper bound for $\card(M)$ is $\pi(n) + \rho(n)$, where $\rho(n)$ is the largest number of integers relatively prime to $P_n$ (the $n$th primorial) in any subset of shape $I$ (collection of $n$ consecutive integers). I do not have a good expression for $\rho(n)/n$, but it is related to the product $\prod_{i \le n} (1 - 1/p_i)$. I am trying to bound this product from below by $1/2\ln(n\ln(n))$, but there are some recent oscillation results by Diamond and Pintz that make me unsure when the bound actually holds. It is related to the MathOverflow question http://mathoverflow.net/questions/37679/erik-westzynthiuss-cool-upper-bound-argument-update which I will update soon (but with results modulo oscillation, rather than absolute results). Gerhard "Ask Me About System Design" Paseman, 2011.02.20