Related papers: Better bounds for planar sets avoiding unit distan…

In this paper we prove that among the permutations of length n with i fixed points and j excedances, the number of 321-avoiding ones equals the number of 132-avoiding ones, for all given i,j<=n. We use a new technique involving diagonals of…

We prove the universal optimality of four remarkable spherical 11-designs in 48 dimensions either among all antipodal codes, or all spherical 3-designs, whose inner-products avoid the set $T_1=(-1/3,-1/6) \cup (1/6,1/3)$. We also prove the…

For a planar point-set $P$, let D(P) be the minimum number of pairwise-disjoint empty disks such that each point in $P$ lies on the boundary of some disk. Further define D(n) as the maximum of D(P) over all n-element point sets. Hosono and…

A finite set of real numbers is called convex if the differences between consecutive elements form a strictly increasing sequence. We show that, for any pair of convex sets $A, B\subset\mathbb R$, each of size $n^{1/2}$, the convex grid…

According to a classical result of Spencer, Szemer\'edi, and Trotter (1984), the maximum number of times the unit distance can occur among $n$ points in the plane is $O(n^{4/3})$. This is far from Erd\H{o}s's lower bound, $n^{1+O(1/\log\log…

Building on previous results of Xing, we give new lower bounds on the rate of intersecting codes over large alphabets. The proof is constructive, and uses algebraic geometry, although nothing beyond the basic theory of linear systems on…

Consider the sets of integers $A$ that avoid any arrangement of $g$ congruent $h$-subsets. Our findings refine and improve upon some results by Erd\H{o}s and Harzheim about these sets.

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…

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…

Recently, Brualdi and Cao studied $I_k$-avoiding $(0,1)$-matrices by decomposing them into zigzag paths and proved that the maximum number of $1$'s in such a matrix is given by an exact formula. We further study the structure of maximal…

We prove a special case of Erd\H{o}s' unit distance problem using a corollary of the subspace theorem bounding the number of solutions of linear equations from a multiplicative group. We restrict our attention to unit distances coming from…

Negative avoiding sequences of span $n$ are periodic sequences of elements from $\mathbb{Z}_k$ for some $k$ with the property that no $n$-tuple occurs more than once in a period and if an $n$-tuple does occur then its negative does not.…

In this paper we prove a result on the structure of the elements of an additive {\it maximum rank distance (MRD) code} over the field of order two, namely that in some cases such codes must contain a semifield spread set. We use this result…

Motivated by a question of Erd\H{o}s on blocking sets in a projective plane that intersect every line only a few times, several authors have used unions of algebraic curves to construct such sets in $\mathbb{P}^2(\mathbb{F}_q)$. In this…

For $\varepsilon\in(0,1/2)$ and a natural number $d\ge 2$, let $N$ be a natural number with \[ N \,\ge\, 2^9\,\log_2(d)\, \left(\frac{\log_2(1/\varepsilon)}{\varepsilon}\right)^2. \] We prove that there is a set of $N$ points in the unit…

We prove that the number of permutations avoiding an arbitrary consecutive pattern of length m is asymptotically largest when the avoided pattern is 12...m, and smallest when the avoided pattern is 12...(m-2)m(m-1). This settles a…

We study the fine-grained uniform convergence behavior of halfspaces beyond worst-case VC bounds. For inhomogeneous halfspaces in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with $d\ge 2$, we show that standard first-order VC bounds are essentially tight: even…

In this paper we prove that a set of points $B$ of PG(n,2) is a minimal blocking set if and only if $<B>=PG(d,2)$ with $d$ odd and $B$ is a set of $d+2$ points of $PG(d,2)$ no $d+1$ of them in the same hyperplane. As a corollary to the…

In many covering settings, it is natural to consider the presence both of elements that we seek to include and of elements that we seek to avoid. This paper introduces a novel combinatorial problem formalizing this tradeoff: from a…

The theory of limits of permutations leads to limit objects called permutons, which are certain Borel measures on the unit square. We prove that permutons avoiding a given permutation of order $k$ have a particularly simple structure.…