Related papers: Lines, Circles, Planes and Spheres

We use polynomial method techniques to bound the number of tangent pairs in a collection of $N$ spheres in $\mathbb{R}^n$ subject to a non-degeneracy condition, for any $n \geq 3$. The condition, inspired by work of Zahl for $n=3$, asserts…

We show that any set of $n$ points in general position in the plane determines $n^{1-o(1)}$ pairwise crossing segments. The best previously known lower bound, $\Omega\left(\sqrt n\right)$, was proved more than 25 years ago by Aronov, Erd\H…

Using graph-theoretic methods we give a new proof that for all sufficiently large $n$, there exist sphere packings in $\R^n$ of density at least $cn2^{-n}$, exceeding the classical Minkowski bound by a factor linear in $n$. This matches up…

The aim of this paper is to generalize Apollonius' problem. The problem is to construct a circle that is tangent to three given circles in a plane. We find the maximum possible number of solution circles in the case of more than the three…

We develop a new approach to address some classical questions concerning the size and structure of integer distance sets. Our main result is that any integer distance set in the Euclidean plane is either very sparse or has all but an…

We study straight-line drawings of planar graphs with few segments and few slopes. Optimal results are obtained for all trees. Tight bounds are obtained for outerplanar graphs, 2-trees, and planar 3-trees. We prove that every 3-connected…

We give superexponential lower and upper bounds on the number of coloured $d$-dimensional triangulations whose underlying space is an oriented manifold, when the number of simplices goes to infinity and $d\geq 3$ is fixed. In the special…

A set of n segments in the plane may form a Euclidean TSP tour, a tree, or a matching, among others. Optimal TSP tours as well as minimum spanning trees and perfect matchings have no crossing segments, but several heuristics and…

We estimate from below the number of lines meeting each of given 4 disjoint smooth closed curves in a given cyclic order in the real projective 3-space and in a given linear order in the Euclidean 3-space. Similarly, we estimate the number…

We study the number of points in the family of plane curves defined by a trinomial \[ \mathcal{C}(\alpha,\beta)= \{(x,y)\in\mathbb{F}_q^2\,:\,\alpha x^{a_{11}}y^{a_{12}}+\beta x^{a_{21}}y^{a_{22}}=x^{a_{31}}y^{a_{32}}\} \] with fixed…

We construct 2^{\Omega(n^{5/4})} combinatorial types of triangulated 3-spheres on n vertices. Since by a result of Goodman and Pollack (1986) there are no more than 2^{O(n log n)} combinatorial types of simplicial 4-polytopes, this proves…

A n-set of equi-isoclinic planes in R^r is a set of n planes spanning R^r each pair of which has the same non-zero angle arccos(sqrt(lambda)). We prove that for any odd integer k such that 2k=p^alpha+1, p odd prime, alpha non-negative…

We show that for any n divisible by 3, almost all order-n Steiner triple systems have a perfect matching (also known as a parallel class or resolution class). In fact, we prove a general upper bound on the number of perfect matchings in a…

Dirac and Motzkin conjectured that any set X of $n$ non-collinear points in the plane has an element incident with at least $\lceil \frac{n}{2} \rceil$ lines spanned by X. In this paper we prove that any set X of $n$ non-collinear points in…

A problem that is simple to state in the context of spherical geometry, and that seems rather interesting, appears to have been unexamined to date in the mathematical literature. The problem can also be recast as a problem in the real…

A set of n non-collinear points in the Euclidean plane defines at least n different lines. Chen and Chv\'tal in 2008 conjectured that the same results is true in metric spaces for an adequate definition of line. More recently, it was…

In this article we address the problem of computing the dimension of the space of plane curves of degree $d$ with $n$ general points of multiplicity $m$. A conjecture of Harbourne and Hirschowitz implies that when $d \geq 3m$, the dimension…

Given a sphere of any radius $r$ in an $n$-dimensional Euclidean space, we study the coverings of this sphere with solid spheres of radius one. Our goal is to design a covering of the lowest covering density, which defines the average…

Let S be a set of n points in the plane, and let T be a set of m triangles with vertices in S. Then there exists a point in the plane contained in Omega(m^3 / (n^6 log^2 n)) triangles of T. Eppstein (1993) gave a proof of this claim, but…

Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in the real plane contained in an algebraic curve $C$ of degree $d$. We prove that the number of distinct distances determined by $P$ is at least $c_d n^{4/3}$, unless $C$ contains a line or a circle. We also…