English

No-Three-in-a-$\Theta:$ Variations on the No-Three-in-a-Line Problem

Combinatorics 2023-11-23 v1 Metric Geometry

Abstract

We pose a natural generalization to the well-studied and difficult no-three-in-a-line problem: How many points can be chosen on an n×nn \times n grid such that no three of them form an angle of θ\theta? In this paper, we classify which angles yield nontrivial problems, noting that some angles appear in surprising configurations on the grid. We prove a lower bound of 2n2n points for angles θ\theta such that 135θ<180135^\circ \leq \theta < 180^\circ, and further explore the case θ=135\theta = 135^\circ, utilizing geometric properties of the grid to prove an upper bound of 3n23n - 2 points. Lastly, we generalize the proof strategy used in proving the upper bound for θ=135\theta = 135^\circ to provide a general upper bound for all angles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2311.13183,
  title  = {No-Three-in-a-$\Theta:$ Variations on the No-Three-in-a-Line Problem},
  author = {Natalie Dodson and Anant Godbole and Dashleen Gonzalez and Ryan Lynch and Lani Southern},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2311.13183},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

15 pages, 16 figures