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

This work focuses on higgledy-piggledy sets of $k$-subspaces in $\text{PG}(N,q)$, i.e. sets of projective subspaces that are 'well-spread-out'. More precisely, the set of intersection points of these $k$-subspaces with any $(N-k)$-subspace…

A matching is compatible to two or more labeled point sets of size $n$ with labels $\{1,\dots,n\}$ if its straight-line drawing on each of these point sets is crossing-free. We study the maximum number of edges in a matching compatible to…

We give restrictions on the weak combinatorics of line arrangements with singular points of odd multiplicity using topological arguments on locally-flat spheres in 4-manifolds. As a corollary, we show that there is no line arrangement…

In this work, we carry out structural and algorithmic studies of a problem of barrier forming: selecting theminimum number of straight line segments (barriers) that separate several sets of mutually disjoint objects in the plane. The…

A special case of a combinatorial theorem of De Bruijn and Erdos asserts that every noncollinear set of n points in the plane determines at least n distinct lines. Chen and Chvatal suggested a possible generalization of this assertion in…

Given S_1, a finite set of points in the plane, we define a sequence of point sets S_i as follows: With S_i already determined, let L_i be the set of all the line segments connecting pairs of points of the union of S_1,...,S_i, and let…

We consider a question raised by Rudnev: given four pencils of $n$ concurrent lines in $\mathbb R^2$, with the four centres of the pencils non-collinear, what is the maximum possible size of the set of points where four lines meet? Our main…

We show that, for a constant-degree algebraic curve $\gamma$ in $\mathbb{R}^D$, every set of $n$ points on $\gamma$ spans at least $\Omega(n^{4/3})$ distinct distances, unless $\gamma$ is an {\it algebraic helix} (see Definition 1.1). This…

Here is a square problem: in a unit square, is there a point with four rational distances to the vertices? A probability argument suggests a negative answer. This paper proves several special cases of the square problem: if the point sits…

A $1$-avoiding set is a subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$ that does not contain pairs of points at distance $1$. Let $m_1(\mathbb{R}^n)$ denote the maximum fraction of $\mathbb{R}^n$ that can be covered by a measurable $1$-avoiding set. We prove two…

This paper studies {\em strong blocking sets} in the $N$-dimensional finite projective space $\mathrm{PG}(N,q)$. We first show that certain unions of blocking sets cannot form strong blocking sets, which leads to a new lower bound on the…

Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in general position in the plane. Let $R$ be a set of $n$ points disjoint from $P$ such that for every $x,y \in P$ the line through $x$ and $y$ contains a point in $R$ outside of the segment delimited by $x$…

We construct an infinite family of intriguing sets that are not tight in the Grassmann Graph of planes of PG$(n,q)$, $n\ge 5$ odd, and show that the members of the family are the smallest possible examples if $n\ge 9$ or $q\ge 25$.

According to the Erd\H{o}s-Szekeres theorem, for every $n$, a sufficiently large set of points in general position in the plane contains $n$ in convex position. In this note we investigate the line version of this result, that is, we want…

We study spaces of lines that meet a smooth hypersurface X in P^n to high order. As an application, we give a polynomial upper bound on the number of planes contained in a smooth degree d hypersurface in P^5 and provide a proof of a result…

We prove that any planar graph on $n$ vertices has less than $O(5{.}2852^n)$ spanning trees. Under the restriction that the planar graph is 3-connected and contains no triangle and no quadrilateral the number of its spanning trees is less…

New results on pentagonal geometries PENT(k,r) with block sizes k = 3 or k = 4 are given. In particular we completely determine the existence spectra for PENT(3,r) systems with the maximum number of opposite line pairs as well as those…

According to a result of Arkin~\etal~(2016), given $n$ point pairs in the plane, there exists a simple polygonal cycle that separates the two points in each pair to different sides; moreover, a $O(\sqrt{n})$-factor approximation with…

In 1997, Erd\H{o}s asked whether for arbitrarily large $n$ there exists a set of $n$ points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ that determines $O(\frac{n}{\sqrt{\log n}})$ distinct distances while satisfying the local constraint that every 4-point subset…

Given a rank 3 real arrangement $\mathcal A$ of $n$ lines in the projective plane, the Dirac-Motzkin conjecture (proved by Green and Tao in 2013) states that for $n$ sufficiently large, the number of simple intersection points of $\mathcal…