English

Relative Lonely Runner spectra

Number Theory 2024-12-11 v2 Combinatorics

Abstract

For a subtorus T(R/Z)nT \subseteq (\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})^n, let D(T)D(T) denote the LL^\infty-distance from TT to the point (1/2,,1/2)(1/2, \ldots, 1/2). For a subtorus U(R/Z)nU \subseteq (\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})^n, define S1(U)\mathcal{S}_1(U), the Lonely Runner spectrum relative to UU, to be the set of all values of D(T)D(T) as TT ranges over the 11-dimensional subtori of UU not contained in the union of the coordinate hyperplanes of (R/Z)n(\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})^n. The relative spectrum S1((R/Z)n)\mathcal{S}_1((\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})^n) is the ordinary Lonely Runner spectrum that has been studied previously. Giri and the second author recently showed that the relative spectra S1(U)\mathcal{S}_1(U) for 22-dimensional subtori U(R/Z)nU \subseteq (\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})^n essentially govern the accumulation points of the Lonely Runner spectrum S1((R/Z)n)\mathcal{S}_1((\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})^n). In the present work, we prove that such relative spectra S1(U)\mathcal{S}_1(U) have a very rigid arithmetic structure, and that one can explicitly find a complete characterization of each such relative spectrum with a finite calculation; carrying out this calculation for a few specific examples sheds light on previous constructions in the literature on the Lonely Runner Problem.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2411.12684,
  title  = {Relative Lonely Runner spectra},
  author = {Vanshika Jain and Noah Kravitz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2411.12684},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:05:18.500Z