English

A multi-parameter variant of the Erd\H{o}s distance problem

Combinatorics 2017-12-13 v1

Abstract

We study the following variant of the Erd\H{o}s distance problem. Given EE and FF a point sets in Rd\mathbb{R}^d and p=(p1,,pq)p = (p_1, \ldots, p_q) with p1++pq=dp_1+ \cdots + p_q = d is an increasing partition of dd define Bp(E,F)={(x1y1,,xqyq):xE,yF}, B_p(E,F)=\{(|x_1-y_1|, \ldots, |x_q-y_q|): x \in E, y \in F \}, where x=(x1,,xq)x=(x_1, \ldots, x_q) with xix_i in Rpi\mathbb{R}^{p_i}. For p12p_1 \geq 2 it is not difficult to construct EE and FF such that Bp(E,F)=1|B_{p}(E,F)|=1. On the other hand, it is easy to see that if γq\gamma_q is the best know exponent for the distance problem in Rpi\mathbb{R}^{p_i} that Bp(E,E)CEγqq|B_p(E,E)| \geq C{|E|}^{\frac{\gamma_q}{q}}. The question we study is whether we can improve the exponent γqq\frac{\gamma_q}{q}. We first study partitions of length two in detail and prove the optimal result (up to logarithms) that B2,2(E)E. |B_{2,2}(E)| \gtrapprox |E|. In the generalised two dimensional case for Bk,lB_{k,l} we need the stronger condition that EE is ss-adaptable for s<k2+13s<\frac{k}{2}+\frac{1}{3}, letting γm\gamma_m be the best known exponent for the Erd\H{o}s-distance problem in Rm\mathbb{R}^m for klk \neq l we gain a further optimal result of, Bk,l(E)Eγl. |B_{k,l}(E)| \gtrapprox |E|^{\gamma_l}. When k=lk=l we use the explicit γm=m22m(m+2)\gamma_m=\frac{m}{2}-\frac{2}{m(m+2)} result due to Solymosi and Vu to gain Bk,k(E)E1314γk. |B_{k,k}(E)| \gtrapprox |E|^{\frac{13}{14}\gamma_k}. For a general partition, let γi=2pi2pi(pi+2)\gamma_i = \frac{2}{p_i}-\frac{2}{p_i(p_i+2)} and ηi=22d(pi1)\eta_i = \frac{2}{2d-(p_i-1)}. Then if EE is ss-adaptable with s>dp12+13s>d-\frac{p_1}{2}+\frac{1}{3} we have Bp(E)Eτwhereτ=γq(γ1+η1γq+(q1)(γ1+η1)). B_p(E) \gtrapprox |E|^\tau \hspace{0.5cm} \text{where} \hspace{0.5cm} \tau = \gamma_q\left(\frac{\gamma_1+\eta_1}{\gamma_q+(q-1)(\gamma_1+\eta_1)}\right). Where pidqp_i \sim \frac{d}{q} implies τγq(1q+1dq)\tau \sim \gamma_{q}\left(\frac{1}{q}+\frac{1}{dq}\right) and pqdp_q \sim d (with q<<dq<<d) implies τγq(1q+1q2)\tau \sim \gamma_{q}\left(\frac{1}{q}+\frac{1}{q^2}\right).

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1712.04060,
  title  = {A multi-parameter variant of the Erd\H{o}s distance problem},
  author = {Alex Iosevich and Maria Janczak and Jonathan Passant},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1712.04060},
  year   = {2017}
}

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19 Pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T23:14:57.111Z