English

Tight colorful no-dimensional Tverberg theorem

Metric Geometry 2025-09-29 v3

Abstract

We study colorful no-dimensional Tverberg-type problems and obtain several optimal results. A colorful no-dimensional Tverberg-type theorem provides a bound on a radius RR such that, for any pairwise disjoint kk-element subsets Q1,,QnQ_1,\dots,Q_n of a normed space, there exists a partition of Q1QnQ_1\cup\cdots\cup Q_n into disjoint transversals {P1,,Pk}\{P_1,\dots,P_k\} for which a ball of radius RR intersects the convex hull of each PiP_i (1ik1\le i\le k). Our methods are deterministic and dimension-free, and they are unified by optimizing two functionals: a quadratic \emph{selection} functional whose local maximizers produce a complete system of disjoint transversals, and a convex \emph{intersection} functional that certifies a common point. First, in the Euclidean setting we bound RR in terms of the Chebyshev radii (minimal enclosing-ball radii) of the color classes Q1,,QnQ_1,\dots,Q_n. A key observation is a ``combinatorial'' subadditivity of the squared Chebyshev radius: given sequences X=(x1,,xk)X=(x_1,\dots,x_k) and Y=(y1,,yk)Y=(y_1,\dots,y_k) of points in a Euclidean space, contained in balls of radii RXR_X and RYR_Y (not necessarily with the same center), one can reenumerate YY so that the pointwise-sum sequence Z=(x1+y1,,xk+yk)Z=(x_1+y_1,\dots,x_k+y_k) is contained in a ball of radius RZR_Z satisfying RZ2RX2+RY2. R_Z^2 \le R_X^2 + R_Y^2 . As a corollary, we obtain the best-possible bound R12nk1kmax1indiam(Qi). R \le \frac{1}{\sqrt{2n}}\sqrt{\frac{k-1}{k}}\, \max_{1\le i\le n} \operatorname{diam}(Q_i). Our algorithm returns the desired disjoint transversals in overall time O(nk3)\mathcal{O}(nk^3). Second, we develop a complementary approach based on the inter-color diameter and extend the framework to obtain no-dimensional colorful Tverberg-type results in the hyperbolic setting and in Banach spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2408.05814,
  title  = {Tight colorful no-dimensional Tverberg theorem},
  author = {Polina Barabanshchikova and Grigory Ivanov and Alexander Polyanskii},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2408.05814},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

v3: 18 pages. Added a new co-author. Paper completely rewritten with new results (Theorem 1.3, Theorem 1.4, Lemma 4.3, etc.)

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:09:53.421Z