English

The Hadwiger-Nelson problem over certain fields

Combinatorics 2015-09-24 v1

Abstract

We compute the Hadwiger-Nelson numbers χ(E2)\chi(E^2) for certain number fields EE, that is, the smallest number of colors required to color the points in the plane with coordinates in~EE so that no two points at distance 11 from one another have the same color. Specifically, we show that χ(Q(2)2)=2\chi(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2})^2) = 2, that χ(Q(3)2)=3\chi(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{3})^2) = 3, that χ(Q(7)2)=3\chi(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{7})^2) = 3 despite the fact that the graph Γ(Q(7)2)\Gamma(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{7})^2) is triangle-free, and that 4χ(Q(3,11)2)54 \leq \chi(\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{3}, \sqrt{11})^2) \leq 5. We also discuss some results over other fields, for other quadratic fields. We conclude with some comments on the use of the axiom of choice.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1509.07023,
  title  = {The Hadwiger-Nelson problem over certain fields},
  author = {David A. Madore},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1509.07023},
  year   = {2015}
}

Comments

preliminary version

R2 v1 2026-06-22T11:03:43.960Z