Related papers: Sets with few distinct distances do not have heavy…

We consider the number of distinct distances between two finite sets of points in ${\bf R}^k$, for any constant dimension $k\ge 2$, where one set $P_1$ consists of $n$ points on a line $l$, and the other set $P_2$ consists of $m$ arbitrary…

We show that for $m$ points and $n$ lines in the real plane, the number of distinct distances between the points and the lines is $\Omega(m^{1/5}n^{3/5})$, as long as $m^{1/2}\le n\le m^2$. We also prove that for any $m$ points in the…

We study the structure of planar point sets that determine a small number of distinct distances. Specifically, we show that if a set P of n points determines o(n) distinct distances, then no line contains \Omega(n^{7/8}) points of P and no…

We prove that if $P$ is a set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{C}^2$, then either the points in $P$ determine $\Omega(n^{1-\epsilon})$ complex distances, or $P$ is contained in a line with slope $\pm i$. If the latter occurs then each pair of…

We show that for any large $n$, there exists a set of $n$ points in the plane with $O(n^2/\sqrt{\log n})$ distinct distances, such that any four points in the set determine at least five distinct distances. This answers (in the negative) a…

Let P_1 and P_2 be two sets of points in the plane, so that P_1 is contained in a line L_1, P_2 is contained in a line L_2, and L_1 and L_2 are neither parallel nor orthogonal. Then the number of distinct distances determined by the pairs…

We prove that there exists a norm in the plane under which no n-point set determines more than O(n log n log log n) unit distances. Actually, most norms have this property, in the sense that their complement is a meager set in the metric…

Given a set $P$ of $n$ points in the plane, its separability is the minimum number of lines needed to separate all its pairs of points from each other. We show that the minimum number of lines needed to separate $n$ points, picked randomly…

We give a shorter proof of a slightly weaker version of a theorem of Nets Katz and the author. We prove that if a set of $L$ lines in $\mathbb{R}^3$ contains at most $L^{1/2}$ lines in any low degree algebraic surface, then the number of…

It is widely believed that point sets in the plane which determine few distinct distances must have some special structure. In particular, such sets are believed to be similar to a lattice. This note considers two different ways to quantify…

We prove that if a finite point set in real space does not have too many points on a plane, then it spans a quadratic number of ordinary lines. This answers the real case of a question of Basit, Dvir, Saraf, and Wolf. It shows that there is…

Let $p_1,p_2,p_3$ be three non-collinear points in the plane, and let $P$ be a set of $n$ other points in the plane. We show that the number of distinct distances between $p_1,p_2,p_3$ and the points of $P$ is $\Omega(n^{6/11})$, improving…

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…

Kelly's theorem states that a set of $n$ points affinely spanning $\mathbb{C}^3$ must determine at least one ordinary complex line (a line passing through exactly two of the points). Our main theorem shows that such sets determine at least…

We improve the current best bound for distinct distances on non-ruled algebraic surfaces in ${\mathbb R}^3$. In particular, we show that $n$ points on such a surface span $\Omega\left(n^{32/39-\varepsilon}\right)$ distinct distances, for…

In this paper we study some Erdos type problems in discrete geometry. Our main result is that we show that there is a planar point set of n points such that no four are collinear but no matter how we choose a subset of size $n^{5/6+o(1)} $…

A classic theorem of Euclidean geometry asserts that any noncollinear set of $n$ points in the plane determines at least $n$ distinct lines. Chen and Chv\'atal conjectured that this holds for an arbitrary finite metric space, with a certain…

It is shown that given a set of $N$ points in the plane or on the sphere, there is a subset of size $\gtrsim N^{1/3}/\log N$ with all pairwise distances between points distinct.

We consider the problem of determining the number of distinct distances between two point sets in $\mathbb{R}^2$ where one point set $\mathcal{P}_1$ of size $m$ lies on a real algebraic curve of fixed degree $r$, and the other point set…

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…