English

Transversal numbers over subsets of linear spaces

Optimization and Control 2010-10-07 v2 Metric Geometry

Abstract

Let MM be a subset of Rk\mathbb{R}^k. It is an important question in the theory of linear inequalities to estimate the minimal number h=h(M)h=h(M) such that every system of linear inequalities which is infeasible over MM has a subsystem of at most hh inequalities which is already infeasible over M.M. This number h(M)h(M) is said to be the Helly number of M.M. In view of Helly's theorem, h(Rn)=n+1h(\mathbb{R}^n)=n+1 and, by the theorem due to Doignon, Bell and Scarf, h(Zd)=2d.h(\mathbb{Z}^d)=2^d. We give a common extension of these equalities showing that h(Rn×Zd)=(n+1)2d.h(\mathbb{R}^n \times \mathbb{Z}^d) = (n+1) 2^d. We show that the fractional Helly number of the space MRdM \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d (with the convexity structure induced by Rd\mathbb{R}^d) is at most d+1d+1 as long as h(M)h(M) is finite. Finally we give estimates for the Radon number of mixed integer spaces.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1002.0948,
  title  = {Transversal numbers over subsets of linear spaces},
  author = {Gennadiy Averkov and Robert Weismantel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1002.0948},
  year   = {2010}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-21T14:43:19.160Z