Related papers: Piercing axis-parallel boxes
An axis-parallel $d$--dimensional box is a Cartesian product $R_1 \times R_2 \times ... \times R_d$ where $R_i$ (for $1 \le i \le d$) is a closed interval of the form $[a_i, b_i]$ on the real line. For a graph $G$, its \emph{boxicity}…
We show that for any compact convex set $K$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and any finite family $\mathcal{F}$ of convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$, if the intersection of every sufficiently small subfamily of $\mathcal{F}$ contains an isometric copy of $K$…
Take a thin, rectangular strip of paper, add in an odd number of half-twists, then join the ends together. This gives a multi-twist paper M\"obius band. We prove that any multi-twist paper M\"obius band can be constructed so the aspect…
We provide a simple proof of the existence of a planar separator by showing that it is an easy consequence of the circle packing theorem. We also reprove other results on separators, including: (A) There is a simple cycle separator if the…
Motivated by a result of [1] which states that if F is a subgraph of a convex complete graph K_n and F contains no boundary edge of K_n and |E(F)| \leq n-3, then K_n - F admits a triangulation, we determine necessary and sufficient…
We study families of rational curves on an algebraic variety satisfying incidence conditions. We prove an analogue of bend-and-break: that is, we show that under suitable conditions, such a family must contain reducibles. In the case of…
We give an infinite family of knots such that for any given $r \geq 3$, the family contains a knot which can be embedded on a hexagonal $r$-mosaic, but cannot fit on a hexagonal $r$-mosaic in an embedding that achieves its crossing number.…
Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in general position in the plane. Let $R$ be a set of points disjoint from $P$ such that for every $x,y \in P$ the line through $x$ and $y$ contains a point in $R$. We show that if $|R| < \frac{3}{2}n$ and $P…
If two closed Jordan curves in the plane have precisely one point in common, then it is called a {\em touching point}. All other intersection points are called {\em crossing points}. The main result of this paper is a Crossing Lemma for…
A family $\mathcal{F}$ of elliptic curves defined over number fields is said to be typically bounded in torsion if the torsion subgroups $E(F)[$tors$]$ of those elliptic curves $E_{/F}\in \mathcal{F}$ can be made uniformly bounded after…
The well-known Erdos-Ko-Rado Theorem states that if F is a family of k-element subsets of {1,2,...,n} (n>2k-1) such that every pair of elements in F has a nonempty intersection, then |F| is at most $\binom{n-1}{k-1}$. The theorem also…
For a family $\mathcal{F}$ of subsets of a finite set, define $\mathcal{D}(\mathcal{F})=\{F\setminus F': F, F'\in\mathcal{F}\}$. A family $\mathcal{F}$ is called intersecting if $F\cap F'\not=\emptyset$ for all $F, F'\in\mathcal{F}$. Frankl…
We study incidences between points and algebraic curves in three dimensions, taken from a family $C$ of curves that have almost two degrees of freedom, meaning that every pair of curves intersect in $O(1)$ points, for any pair of points…
We obtain estimates on the number $|\mathcal{A}_{\boldsymbol{\lambda}}|$ of elements on a linear family $\mathcal{A}$ of monic polynomials of $\mathbb{F}_q[T]$ of degree $n$ having factorization pattern…
Let $q$ be an odd prime power. Let $f\in \mathbb{F}_q[x]$ be a polynomial having degree at least $2$, $a\in \mathbb{F}_q$, and denote by $f^n$ the $n$-th iteration of $f$. Let $\chi$ be the quadratic character of $\mathbb{F}_q$, and…
Starting with a finite point set $X \subset \mathbf{R}^d$, the peeling process repeatedly removes the set of the vertices of the convex hull of the current set. The number of peeling steps required to completely remove $X$ is called the…
Two kinds of approximation algorithms exist for the k-BALANCED PARTITIONING problem: those that are fast but compute unsatisfying approximation ratios, and those that guarantee high quality ratios but are slow. In this paper we prove that…
A monotone cylindrical graph is a topological graph drawn on an open cylinder with an infinite vertical axis satisfying the condition that every vertical line intersects every edge at most once. It is called simple if any pair of its edges…
Let $p$ denote the characteristic of ${\mathbb F}_q$, the finite field with $q$ elements. We prove that if $q$ is odd then an arc of size $q+2-t$ in the projective plane over ${\mathbb F}_q$, which is not contained in a conic, is contained…
We prove that any finite collection of polygons of equal area has a common hinged dissection. That is, for any such collection of polygons there exists a chain of polygons hinged at vertices that can be folded in the plane continuously…