English

The fractional Helly number for separable convexity spaces

Combinatorics 2025-02-19 v3

Abstract

A convex lattice set in Zd\mathbb{Z}^d is the intersection of a convex set in Rd\mathbb{R}^d and the integer lattice Zd\mathbb{Z}^d. A well-known theorem of Doignon states that the Helly number of dd-dimensional convex lattice sets equals 2d2^d, while a remarkable theorem of B\'ar\'any and Matou\v{s}ek states that the fractional Helly number is only d+1d+1. In this paper we generalize their result to abstract convexity spaces that are equipped with a suitable separation property. We also disprove a conjecture of B\'ar\'any and Kalai about an existence of fractional Helly property for a family of solutions of bounded-degree polynomial inequalities.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2412.01445,
  title  = {The fractional Helly number for separable convexity spaces},
  author = {Andreas F. Holmsen and Zuzana Patáková},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.01445},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

11 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:19:38.089Z