Related papers: Small 3-fold blocking sets in $\mathrm{PG}(2,p^n)$

Given a set P of points on the plane, a polygon with vertices in P is said to be empty if it contains no element of P in its interior. We show that every set of n points in general position on the plane determines at least…

We show that the max-min-angle polygon in a planar point set can be found in time $O(n\log n)$ and a max-min-solid-angle convex polyhedron in a three-dimensional point set can be found in time $O(n^2)$. We also study the maxmin-angle…

In the longest plane spanning tree problem, we are given a finite planar point set $\mathcal{P}$, and our task is to find a plane (i.e., noncrossing) spanning tree for $\mathcal{P}$ with maximum total Euclidean edge length. Despite more…

A generating set for a finite group $G$ is said to be minimal if no proper subset generates $G$, and $m(G)$ denotes the maximal size of a minimal generating set for $G$. We prove a conjecture of Lucchini, Moscatiello and Spiga by showing…

A finite set $S \subset \mathbb{Z}$ is a Sidon set if its pairwise differences are distinct. Recall that a perfect difference set (PDS) of order $n$ is a set $B \subset \mathbb{Z}_v$ ($v = n^2 - n + 1$) of size $n$ such that every nonzero…

In 1947, P\'olya proved that if $n=3,4$ the regular polygon $P_n$ minimizes the principal frequency of an n-gon with given area $\alpha>0$ and suggested that the same holds when $n \ge 5$. In $1951,$ P\'olya & Szeg\"o discussed the…

We introduce the theory of div point sets, which aims to provide a framework to study the combinatoric nature of any set of points in general position on an Euclidean plane. We then show that proving the unsatisfiability of some first-order…

Given a finite set of points $S\subset\mathbb{R}^d$, a $k$-set of $S$ is a subset $A \subset S$ of size $k$ which can be strictly separated from $S \setminus A $ by a hyperplane. Similarly, a $k$-facet of a point set $S$ in general position…

The problem of bounding the size of a set system under various intersection restrictions has a central place in extremal combinatorics. We investigate the maximum number of disjoint pairs a set system can have in this setting. In…

We show that every $n$-vertex triangulation has a connected dominating set of size at most $10n/21$. Equivalently, every $n$ vertex triangulation has a spanning tree with at least $11n/21$ leaves. Prior to the current work, the best known…

A set $X$ is called Euclidean Ramsey if, for any $k$ and sufficiently large $n$, every $k$-colouring of $\mathbb{R}^n$ contains a monochromatic congruent copy of $X$. This notion was introduced by Erd\H{o}s, Graham, Montgomery, Rothschild,…

We show that if a finite point set $P\subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ has the fewest congruence classes of triangles possible, up to a constant $M$, then at least one of the following holds. (1) There is a $\sigma>0$ and a line $l$ which contains…

We address several extremal problems concerning the spreading property of point sets of Steiner triple systems. This property is closely related to the structure of subsystems, as a set is spreading if and only if there is no proper…

The maximum number of non-crossing straight-line perfect matchings that a set of $n$ points in the plane can have is known to be $O(10.0438^n)$ and $\Omega^*(3^n)$. The lower bound, due to Garc\'ia, Noy, and Tejel (2000) is attained by the…

New upper bounds on the smallest size t_{2}(2,q) of a complete arc in the projective plane PG(2,q) are obtained for 853<= q<= 2879 and q=3511,4096, 4523,5003,5347,5641,5843,6011. For q<= 2377 and q=2401,2417,2437, the relation…

Say that a subset S of the plane is a "circle-center set" if S is not a subset of a line, and whenever we choose three noncollinear points from S, the center of the unique circle through those three points is also an element of S. A problem…

A compact circle-packing $P$ of the Euclidean plane is a set of circles which bound mutually disjoint open discs with the property that, for every circle $S\in P$, there exists a maximal indexed set $\{A_{0},\ldots,A_{n-1}\}\subseteq P$ so…

We prove a new lower bound for the almost 20 year old problem of determining the smallest possible size of an essential cover of the $n$-dimensional hypercube $\{\pm 1\}^n$, i.e. the smallest possible size of a collection of hyperplanes…

Let G be a complete convex geometric graph, and let F be a family of subgraphs of G. A blocker for F is a set of edges, of smallest possible size, that has an edge in common with every element of F. In [C. Keller and M. A. Perles, Blockers…

Let $p$ be a fixed prime. For a finite group generated by elements of order $p$, the $p$-width is defined to be the minimal $k\in\mathbb{N}$ such that any group element can be written as a product of at most $k$ elements of order $p$. Let…