No Arabic abstract
We study incidences between points and algebraic curves in three dimensions, taken from a family $C$ of curves that have almost two degrees of freedom, meaning that every pair of curves intersect in $O(1)$ points, for any pair of points $p$, $q$, there are only $O(1)$ curves of $C$ that pass through both points, and a pair $p$, $q$ of points admit a curve of $C$ that passes through both of them iff $F(p,q)=0$ for some polynomial $F$. We study two specific instances, one involving unit circles in $R^3$ that pass through some fixed point (so called anchored unit circles), and the other involving tangencies between directed points (points and directions) and circles in the plane; a directed point is tangent to a circle if the point lies on the circle and the direction is the tangent direction. A lifting transformation of Ellenberg et al. maps these tangencies to incidences between points and curves in three dimensions. In both instances the curves in $R^3$ have almost two degrees of freedom. We show that the number of incidences between $m$ points and $n$ anchored unit circles in $R^3$, as well as the number of tangencies between $m$ directed points and $n$ arbitrary circles in the plane, is $O(m^{3/5}n^{3/5}+m+n)$. We derive a similar incidence bound, with a few additional terms, for more general families of curves in $R^3$ with almost two degrees of freedom. The proofs follow standard techniques, based on polynomial partitioning, but face a novel issue involving surfaces that are infinitely ruled by the respective family of curves, as well as surfaces in a dual 3D space that are infinitely ruled by the respective family of suitably defined dual curves. The general bound that we obtain is $O(m^{3/5}n^{3/5}+m+n)$ plus additional terms that depend on how many curves or dual curves can lie on an infinitely-ruled surface.
We present a direct and fairly simple proof of the following incidence bound: Let $P$ be a set of $m$ points and $L$ a set of $n$ lines in ${mathbb R}^d$, for $dge 3$, which lie in a common algebraic two-dimensional surface of degree $D$ that does not contain any 2-flat, so that no 2-flat contains more than $s le D$ lines of $L$. Then the number of incidences between $P$ and $L$ is $$ I(P,L)=Oleft(m^{1/2}n^{1/2}D^{1/2} + m^{2/3}min{n,D^{2}}^{1/3}s^{1/3} + m + nright). $$ When $d=3$, this improves the bound of Guth and Katz~cite{GK2} for this special case, when $D$ is not too large. A supplementary feature of this work is a review, with detailed proofs, of several basic (and folklore) properties of ruled surfaces in three dimensions.
We give a fairly elementary and simple proof that shows that the number of incidences between $m$ points and $n$ lines in ${mathbb R}^3$, so that no plane contains more than $s$ lines, is $$ Oleft(m^{1/2}n^{3/4}+ m^{2/3}n^{1/3}s^{1/3} + m + nright) $$ (in the precise statement, the constant of proportionality of the first and third terms depends, in a rather weak manner, on the relation between $m$ and $n$). This bound, originally obtained by Guth and Katz~cite{GK2} as a major step in their solution of Erd{H o}ss distinct distances problem, is also a major new result in incidence geometry, an area that has picked up considerable momentum in the past six years. Its original proof uses fairly involved machinery from algebraic and differential geometry, so it is highly desirable to simplify the proof, in the interest of better understanding the geometric structure of the problem, and providing new tools for tackling similar problems. This has recently been undertaken by Guth~cite{Gu14}. The present paper presents a different and simpler derivation, with better bounds than those in cite{Gu14}, and without the restrictive assumptions made there. Our result has a potential for applications to other incidence problems in higher dimensions.
We measure the renormalized effective mass (m*) of interacting two-dimensional electrons confined to an AlAs quantum well while we control their distribution between two spin and two valley subbands. We observe a marked contrast between the spin and valley degrees of freedom: When electrons occupy two spin subbands, m* strongly depends on the valley occupation, but not vice versa. Combining our m* data with the measured spin and valley susceptibilities, we find that the renormalized effective Lande g-factor strongly depends on valley occupation, but the renormalized conduction-band deformation potential is nearly independent of the spin occupation.
We study incidence problems involving points and curves in $R^3$. The current (and in fact only viable) approach to such problems, pioneered by Guth and Katz, requires a variety of tools from algebraic geometry, most notably (i) the polynomial partitioning technique, and (ii) the study of algebraic surfaces that are ruled by lines or, in more recent studies, by algebraic curves of some constant degree. By exploiting and refining these tools, we obtain new and improved bounds for point-curve incidence problems in $R^3$. Incidences of this kind have been considered in several previous studies, starting with Guth and Katzs work on points and lines. Our results, which are based on the work of Guth and Zahl concerning surfaces that are doubly ruled by curves, provide a grand generalization of most of the previous results. We reconstruct the bound for points and lines, and improve, in certain significant ways, recent bounds involving points and circles (in Sharir, Sheffer and Zahl), and points and arbitrary constant-degree algebraic curves (in Sharir, Sheffer and Solomon). While in these latter instances the bounds are not known (and are strongly suspected not) to be tight, our bounds are, in a certain sense, the best that can be obtained with this approach, given the current state of knowledge. As an application of our point-curve incidence bound, we show that the number of triangles spanned by a set of $n$ points in $R^3$ and similar to a given triangle is $O(n^{15/7})$, which improves the bound of Agarwal et al. Our results are also related to a study by Guth et al.~(work in progress), and have been recently applied in Sharir, Solomon and Zlydenko to related incidence problems in three dimensions.
We revisit the problem of building the Lagrangian of a large class of metric theories that respect spatial covariance, which propagate at most two degrees of freedom and in particular no scalar mode. The Lagrangians are polynomials built of the spatially covariant geometric quantities. By expanding the Lagrangian around a cosmological background and focusing on the scalar modes only, we find the conditions for the coefficients of the monomials in order to eliminate the scalar mode at the linear order in perturbations. We find the conditions up to $d=4$ with $d$ the total number of derivatives in the monomials and determine the explicit Lagrangians for the cases of $d=2$, $d=3$ as well as the combination of $d=2$ and $d=3$. We also expand the Lagrangian of $d=2$ to the cubic order in perturbations, and find additional conditions for the coefficients such that the scalar mode is eliminated up to the cubic order. This perturbative analysis can be performed order by order, and one expects to determine the final Lagrangian at some finite order such that the scalar mode is fully eliminated. Our analysis provides an alternative and complimentary approach to building spatially covariant gravity with only tensorial degrees of freedom. The resulting theories can be used as alternatives to the general relativity to describe the tensorial gravitational waves in a cosmological setting.