Related papers: On sets defining few ordinary lines
We extend (and somewhat simplify) the algebraic proof technique of Guth and Katz \cite{GK}, to obtain several sharp bounds on the number of incidences between lines and points in three dimensions. Specifically, we show: (i) The maximum…
Let $\mathcal{P}$ be a set of $n$ points in the Euclidean plane. We prove that, for any $\epsilon > 0$, either a single line or circle contains $n/2$ points of $\mathcal{P}$, or the number of distinct perpendicular bisectors determined by…
We show that if a finite point set $P\subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ has the fewest congruence classes of triangles possible, up to a constant $M$, then at least one of the following holds. (1) There is a $\sigma>0$ and a line $l$ which contains…
We demonstrate an infinite family of pseudoline arrangements, in which an arrangement of n pseudolines has no member incident to more than 4n/9 points of intersection. This shows the "Strong Dirac" conjecture to be false for pseudolines. We…
We pose the following conjecture: (*) If A is the union of line segments in R^n, and B is the union of the corresponding full lines then the Hausdorff dimensions of A and B agree. We prove that this conjecture would imply that every…
Topological drawings are representations of graphs in the plane, where vertices are represented by points, and edges by simple curves connecting the points. A drawing is simple if two edges intersect at most in a single point, either at a…
Let $P$ be a set of points in general position in the plane. Join all pairs of points in $P$ with straight line segments. The number of segment-crossings in such a drawing, denoted by $\crg(P)$, is the \emph{rectilinear crossing number} of…
Fix an integer $s \ge 2$. Let $\mathcal{P}$ be a set of $n$ points and let $\mathcal{L}$ be a set of lines in a linear space such that no line in $\mathcal{L}$ contains more than $(n-1)/(s-1)$ points of $\mathcal{P}$. Suppose that for every…
Let $P = A\times A \subset \mathbb{F}_p \times \mathbb{F}_p$, $p$ a prime. Assume that $P= A\times A$ has $n$ elements, $n<p$. See $P$ as a set of points in the plane over $\mathbb{F}_p$. We show that the pairs of points in $P$ determine…
We say that a line in $\mathbb P^{n+1}_k$ is osculating to a hypersurface $Y$ if they meet with contact order $n+1$. When $k=\mathbb C$, it is known that through a fixed point of $Y$, there are exactly $n!$ of such lines. Under some parity…
We show that each set of $n\ge 2$ points in the plane in general position has a straight-line matching with at least $(5n+1)/27$ edges whose segments form a connected set, and such a matching can be computed in $O(n \log n)$ time. As an…
This paper considers the task of connecting points on a piece of paper by drawing a curve between each pair of them. Under mild assumptions, we prove that many pairwise disjoint curves are unavoidable if either of the following rules is…
For every pattern $P$, consisting of a finite set of points in the plane, $S_{P}(n,m)$ is defined as the largest number of similar copies of $P$ among sets of $n$ points in the plane without $m$ points on a line. A general construction,…
By Fagin's Theorem, NP contains precisely those problems that can be described by formulas starting with an existential second-order quantifier, followed by only first-order quantifiers (ESO formulas). Subsequent research refined this…
In this paper, we prove that a set of $N$ points in ${\bf R}^2$ has at least $c{N \over \log N}$ distinct distances, thus obtaining the sharp exponent in a problem of Erd\"os. We follow the set-up of Elekes and Sharir which, in the spirit…
We consider point sets in $\mathbb{Z}_n^2$ where no three points are on a line - also called caps or arcs. For the determination of caps with maximum cardinality and complete caps with minimum cardinality we provide integer linear…
Erd\H{o}s and Fishburn studied the maximum number of points in the plane that span $k$ distances and classified these configurations, as an inverse problem of the Erd\H{o}s distinct distances problem. We consider the analogous problem for…
We study the maximum number of straight-line segments connecting $n$ points in convex position in the plane, so that each segment intersects at most $k$ others. This question can also be framed as the maximum number of edges of an outer…
In this note, we prove several Tur\'an-type results on geometric hypergraphs. The two main theorems are 1) Every $n$-vertex geometric 3-hypergraph in 2-space with no three strongly crossing edges has at most $O(n^2)$ edges, 2) Every…
We collect some results in combinatorial geometry that follow from an inequality of Langer in algebraic geometry. Langer's inequality gives a lower bound on the number of incidences between a point set and its spanned lines, and was…