Related papers: Bollob\'as-Meir TSP Conjecture Holds Asymptoticall…
Let $u_k$ be a solution of the Helmholtz equation with the wave number $k$, $\Delta u_k+k^2 u_k=0$, on a small ball in either $\mathbb{R}^n$, $\mathbb{S}^n$, or $\mathbb{H}^n$. For a fixed point $p$, we define $M_{u_k}(r)=\max_{d(x,p)\le…
Let $(M,g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $n$, and $k\geq 1$ an integer such that $n>2k$. We show that there exists $B_0>0$ such that for all $u \in H^{k}(M)$, \[\|u\|_{L^{2^\sharp}(M)}^2 \leq K_0^2 \int_M |\Delta_g^{k/2}…
Motivated by a balanced ternary representation of the Collatz map we define the map $C_\mathbb{R}$ on the positive real numbers by setting $C_\mathbb{R}(x)=\frac{1}{2}x$ if $[x]$ is even and $C_\mathbb{R}(x)=\frac{3}{2}x$ if $[x]$ is odd,…
In 1946 Erd\H os asked for the maximum number of unit distances, $u(n)$, among $n$ points in the plane. He showed that $u(n)> n^{1+c/\log\log n}$ and conjectured that this was the true magnitude. The best known upper bound is…
Let $S_{n,k}$ denote the random geometric graph obtained by placing points in a square box of area $n$ according to a Poisson process of intensity 1 and joining each point to its $k$ nearest neighbours. Balister, Bollob\'as, Sarkar and…
We revisit the traveling salesman problem with neighborhoods (TSPN) and propose several new approximation algorithms. These constitute either first approximations (for hyperplanes, lines, and balls in $\mathbb{R}^d$, for $d\geq 3$) or…
The Heilbronn triangle problem asks for the placement of $n$ points in a unit square that maximizes the smallest area of a triangle formed by any three of those points. In $1972$, Schmidt considered a natural generalization of this problem.…
In this paper we prove the conjecture of Korevaar and Meyers: for each $N\ge c_dt^d$ there exists a spherical $t$-design in the sphere $S^d$ consisting of $N$ points, where $c_d$ is a constant depending only on $d$.
Raghavendra (STOC 2008) gave an elegant and surprising result: if Khot's Unique Games Conjecture (STOC 2002) is true, then for every constraint satisfaction problem (CSP), the best approximation ratio is attained by a certain simple…
The Euclidean k-means problem is arguably the most widely-studied clustering problem in machine learning. While the k-means objective is NP-hard in the worst-case, practitioners have enjoyed remarkable success in applying heuristics like…
Let $\{p_1, \ldots , p_n \} \subset {\Bbb{R}}^2$ be a separated point set, i.e., any two points have a distance at least $1$. Let $k \ge 1$ be an integer, and $1 \le t_1 < \ldots < t_k$ be real numbers. Let $\delta > 0$. Suppose for all $1…
For a graph $G$, let $cp(G)$ denote the minimum number of cliques of $G$ needed to cover the edges of $G$ exactly once. Similarly, let $bp_k(G)$ denote the minimum number of bicliques (i.e. complete bipartite subgraphs of $G$) needed to…
In 1963, Anton Kotzig famously conjectured that $K_{n}$, the complete graph of order $n$, where $n$ is even, can be decomposed into $n-1$ perfect matchings such that every pair of these matchings forms a Hamilton cycle. The problem is still…
A family of sets is called union-closed if whenever $A$ and $B$ are sets of the family, so is $A\cup B$. The long-standing union-closed conjecture states that if a family of subsets of $[n]$ is union-closed, some element appears in at least…
We study the function $H_n(C_{2k})$, the maximum number of Hamilton paths such that the union of any pair of them contains $C_{2k}$ as a subgraph. We give upper bounds on this quantity for $k\ge 3$, improving results of Harcos and…
What is the largest constant $c\in [0,1]$ with the property that every finite collection $\mathcal{C}$ of axis-parallel squares in the plane admits a disjoint sub-collection $\mathcal{S}$ occupying at least a fraction $c$ of the area…
Fix $d \ge 3$. We show the existence of a constant $c>0$ such that any graph of diameter at most $d$ has average distance at most $d-c \frac{d^{3/2}}{\sqrt n}$, where $n$ is the number of vertices. Moreover, we exhibit graphs certifying…
A celebrated unit distance conjecture due to Erd\H os says that that the unit distances cannot arise more than $C_{\epsilon}n^{1+\epsilon}$ times (for any $\epsilon>0$) among $n$ points in the Euclidean plane (see e.g. \cite{SST84} and the…
The Rolling Ball Theorem asserts that given a convex body K in Euclidean space and having a smooth surface bd(K) with all principal curvatures not exceeding c>0 at all boundary points, K necessarily has the property that to each boundary…
We say that a set of points $S\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ is an $\varepsilon$-nearly $k$-distance set if there exist $1\le t_1\le \ldots\le t_k,$ such that the distance between any two distinct points in $S$ falls into…