No Arabic abstract
We prove the following generalised empty pentagon theorem: for every integer $ell geq 2$, every sufficiently large set of points in the plane contains $ell$ collinear points or an empty pentagon. As an application, we settle the next open case of the big line or big clique conjecture of Kara, Por, and Wood [emph{Discrete Comput. Geom.} 34(3):497--506, 2005].
We consider the number of distinct distances between two finite sets of points in ${bf R}^k$, for any constant dimension $kge 2$, where one set $P_1$ consists of $n$ points on a line $l$, and the other set $P_2$ consists of $m$ arbitrary points, such that no hyperplane orthogonal to $l$ and no hypercylinder having $l$ as its axis contains more than $O(1)$ points of $P_2$. The number of distinct distances between $P_1$ and $P_2$ is then $$ Omegaleft(minleft{ n^{2/3}m^{2/3},; frac{n^{10/11}m^{4/11}}{log^{2/11}m},; n^2,; m^2right}right) . $$ Without the assumption on $P_2$, there exist sets $P_1$, $P_2$ as above, with only $O(m+n)$ distinct distances between them.
Given a finite point set $P$ in the plane, a subset $S subseteq P$ is called an island in $P$ if $conv(S) cap P = S$. We say that $Ssubset P$ is a visible island if the points in $S$ are pairwise visible and $S$ is an island in $P$. The famous Big-line Big-clique Conjecture states that for any $k geq 3$ and $ell geq 4$, there is an integer $n = n(k,ell)$, such that every finite set of at least $n$ points in the plane contains $ell$ collinear points or $k$ pairwise visible points. In this paper, we show that this conjecture is false for visible islands, by constructing arbitrarily large finite point sets in the plane with no 4 collinear members and no visible island of size $2^{42}$.
We show that, for every set of $n$ points in the $d$-dimensional unit cube, there is an empty axis-parallel box of volume at least $Omega(d/n)$ as $ntoinfty$ and $d$ is fixed. In the opposite direction, we give a construction without an empty axis-parallel box of volume $O(d^2log d/n)$. These improve on the previous best bounds of $Omega(log d/n)$ and $O(2^{7d}/n)$ respectively.
We study a combinatorial problem that recently arose in the context of shape optimization: among all triangles with vertices $(0,0)$, $(x,0)$, and $(0,y)$ and fixed area, which one encloses the most lattice points from $mathbb{Z}_{>0}^2$? Moreover, does its shape necessarily converge to the isosceles triangle $(x=y)$ as the area becomes large? Laugesen and Liu suggested that, in contrast to similar problems, there might not be a limiting shape. We prove that the limiting set is indeed nontrivial and contains infinitely many elements. We also show that there exist `bad areas where no triangle is particularly good at capturing lattice points and show that there exists an infinite set of slopes $y/x$ such that any associated triangle captures more lattice points than any other fixed triangle for infinitely many (and arbitrarily large) areas; this set of slopes is a fractal subset of $[1/3, 3]$ and has Minkowski dimension at most $3/4$.
We say that a finite set of red and blue points in the plane in general position can be $K_{1,3}$-covered if the set can be partitioned into subsets of size $4$, with $3$ points of one color and $1$ point of the other color, in such a way that, if at each subset the fourth point is connected by straight-line segments to the same-colored points, then the resulting set of all segments has no crossings. We consider the following problem: Given a set $R$ of $r$ red points and a set $B$ of $b$ blue points in the plane in general position, how many points of $Rcup B$ can be $K_{1,3}$-covered? and we prove the following results: (1) If $r=3g+h$ and $b=3h+g$, for some non-negative integers $g$ and $h$, then there are point sets $Rcup B$, like ${1,3}$-equitable sets (i.e., $r=3b$ or $b=3r$) and linearly separable sets, that can be $K_{1,3}$-covered. (2) If $r=3g+h$, $b=3h+g$ and the points in $Rcup B$ are in convex position, then at least $r+b-4$ points can be $K_{1,3}$-covered, and this bound is tight. (3) There are arbitrarily large point sets $Rcup B$ in general position, with $r=b+1$, such that at most $r+b-5$ points can be $K_{1,3}$-covered. (4) If $ble rle 3b$, then at least $frac{8}{9}(r+b-8)$ points of $Rcup B$ can be $K_{1,3}$-covered. For $r>3b$, there are too many red points and at least $r-3b$ of them will remain uncovered in any $K_{1,3}$-covering. Furthermore, in all the cases we provide efficient algorithms to compute the corresponding coverings.