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We show that there are sets of $n$ points in the plane with $n$ arbitrarily large that contain more than $n^{1.014}$ pairs of points separated by a distance exactly $1$. This improves on very recent work of a team at OpenAI, who proved the…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2026-05-21 Will Sawin

An old question posed by Erd\H{o}s asked whether there exists a set of $n$ points such that $c \cdot n$ distances occur more than $n$ times. We provide an affirmative answer to this question, showing that there exists a set of $n$ points…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-07-08 Krishnendu Bhowmick

Begin with a set of four points in the real plane in general position. Add to this collection the intersection of all lines through pairs of these points. Iterate. Ismailescu and Radoi\v{c}i\'{c} (2003) showed that the limiting set is dense…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2008-07-11 Joshua Cooper , Mark Walters

An ordinary plane of a finite set of points in real 3-space with no three collinear is a plane intersecting the set in exactly three points. We prove a structure theorem for sets of points spanning few ordinary planes. Our proof relies on…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-02-25 Aaron Lin , Konrad Swanepoel

Erd\H{o}s asked the following question: given $n$ points in the plane in almost general position (no 4 collinear), how large a set can we guarantee to find that is in general position (no 3 collinear)? F\"uredi constructed a set of $n$…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-01-28 Luka Milićević

Erd\H{o}s' unit distance problem and Erd\H{o}s' distinct distances problem are among the most classical and well-known open problems in discrete mathematics. They ask for the maximum number of unit distances, or the minimum number of…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2024-11-08 Noga Alon , Matija Bucić , Lisa Sauermann

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…

Metric Geometry · Mathematics 2016-11-17 Oliver Roche-Newton

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…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2014-10-09 Vasek Chvatal

We prove that if $N$ points lie in convex position in the plane then they determine $\Omega(N^{5/4})$ distinct angles, provided that the points do not lie on a common circle. This is derived from a more general claim that if $N$ points in…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-10-14 Sergei V. Konyagin , Jonathan Passant , Misha Rudnev

In this paper we show that the number of distinct distances determined by a set of $n$ points on a constant-degree two-dimensional algebraic variety $V$ (i.e., a surface) in $\mathbb R^3$ is at least $\Omega\left(n^{7/9}/{\rm polylog}…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2016-04-07 Micha Sharir , Noam Solomon

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…

Number Theory · Mathematics 2025-08-26 Rachel Greenfeld , Marina Iliopoulou , Sarah Peluse

The celebrated Szemer\'edi--Trotter theorem states that the maximum number of incidences between $n$ points and $n$ lines in the plane is $O(n^{4/3})$, which is asymptotically tight. Solymosi (2005) conjectured that for any set of points…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2025-09-29 Martin Balko , Nóra Frankl

In 1989, Erd\H{o}s conjectured that for a sufficiently large $n$ it is impossible to place $n$ points in general position in a plane such that for every $1\le i \le n-1$ there is a distance that occurs exactly $i$ times. For small $n$ this…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2015-09-25 David Burt , Eli Goldstein , Sarah Manski , Steven J. Miller , Eyvindur A. Palsson , Hong Suh

De Bruijn and Erd\H{o}s proved that every noncollinear set of n points in the plane determines at least n distinct lines. Chen and Chv\'atal suggested a possible generalization of this theorem in the framework of metric spaces. We provide…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2012-05-08 Ehsan Chiniforooshan , Vašek Chvátal

The famous Szemer\'{e}di-Trotter theorem states that any arrangement of $n$ points and $n$ lines in the plane determines $O(n^{4/3})$ incidences, and this bound is tight. In this paper, we prove the following Tur\'an-type result for…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-06-23 Mozhgan Mirzaei , Andrew Suk

Let $S$ be a set of $n$ points in real three-dimensional space, no three collinear and not all co-planar. We prove that if the number of planes incident with exactly three points of $S$ is less than $Kn^2$ for some $K=o(n^{\frac{1}{7}})$…

Metric Geometry · Mathematics 2017-06-22 Simeon Ball

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…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2013-06-04 Micha Sharir , Adam Sheffer , József Solymosi

Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in real projective $d$-space, not all contained in a hyperplane, such that any $d$ points span a hyperplane. An ordinary hyperplane of $P$ is a hyperplane containing exactly $d$ points of $P$. We show that if…

Combinatorics · Mathematics 2020-04-24 Aaron Lin , Konrad Swanepoel

Given a set of N points, we have discovered an algorithm that can separate these points from one another by n-dimensional planes. Each point is chosen at random and put into a set S and planes which separate them are determined and put into…

Computational Geometry · Computer Science 2015-10-26 K. Eswaran

We begin by revisiting a paper of Erd\H{o}s and Fishburn, which posed the following question: given $k\in \mathbb{N}$, what is the maximum number of points in a plane that determine at most $k$ distinct distances, and can such optimal…