English

Rigidity-Induced Scaling Laws in Unit Distance Graphs: The Algebraic Collapse of Dense Substructures

Combinatorics 2026-01-28 v1 Metric Geometry

Abstract

We revisit the classical Unit Distance Problem posed by Erd\H{o}s in 1946. While the upper bound of O(n4/3)O(n^{4/3}) established by Spencer, Szemer'edi, and Trotter (1984) is tight for systems of pseudo-circles, it fails to account for the algebraic rigidity inherent to the Euclidean metric. By integrating structural rigidity decomposition with the theory of Cayley-Menger varieties, we demonstrate that unit distance graphs exceeding a critical density must contain rigid bipartite subgraphs. We prove a "Flatness Lemma," supported by symbolic computation of the elimination ideal, showing that the configuration variety of a unit-distance K3,3K_{3,3} (and by extension K4,4K_{4,4}) in R2\mathbb{R}^2 is algebraically singular and collapses to a lower-dimensional locus. This dimensional reduction precludes the existence of the amorphous, high-incidence structures required to sustain the n4/3n^{4/3} scaling, effectively improving the upper bound for non-degenerate Euclidean configurations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2601.18831,
  title  = {Rigidity-Induced Scaling Laws in Unit Distance Graphs: The Algebraic Collapse of Dense Substructures},
  author = {Lucas Aloisio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.18831},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

5 pages. Includes a "Flatness Lemma" proven via symbolic computation. Python verification script included as an ancillary file. Linguistic refinement and LaTeX formatting assisted by AI (Gemini)