Related papers: The Four Vertex Theorem and its Converse

The Descartes circle theorem states that if four circles are mutually tangent with disjoint intersion, then their curvatures (or "bends) b_j = 1/r_j satisfy the relation (b_1 + b_2 + b_3 + b_4)^2 = 2(b_1^2 + b_2^2 + b_3^2 + b_4^2). We show…

We prove discrete analogs of four-vertex type theorems of spherical curves, which imply corresponding results for space polygons. The smooth theory goes back to the work of Beniamino Segre and, more recently, by Mohammad Ghomi, and consists…

In 1880, P. G. Tait showed that the four colour theorem is equivalent to the assertion that every 3-regular planar graph without cut-edges is 3-edge-colourable, and in 1891, J. Petersen proved that every 3-regular graph with at most two…

Toeplitz's Square Peg Problem asks whether every continuous simple closed curve in the plane contains the four vertices of a square. It has been proved for various classes of sufficiently smooth curves, some of which are dense, none of…

We prove that the torsion of any closed space curve which bounds a simply connected locally convex surface vanishes at least 4 times. This answers a question of Rosenberg related to a problem of Yau on characterizing the boundary of…

We prove the following form of the Clemens conjecture in low degree. Let $d\le9$, and let $F$ be a general quintic threefold in $\IP^4$. Then (1)~the Hilbert scheme of rational, smooth and irreducible curves of degree $d$ on $F$ is finite,…

In this paper we present proofs of basic results, including those developed so far by H. Bell, for the plane fixed point problem. Some of these results had been announced much earlier by Bell but without accessible proofs. We define the…

Let F be a finite set of circles in the plane. We point out that the usual convex closure restricted to F yields a convex geometry, that is, a combinatorial structure introduced by P. H Edelman in 1980 under the name "anti-exchange closure…

John Conway's Circle Theorem is a gem of plane geometry. The six points formed by continuing the sides of a triangle beyond every vertex by the length of its opposite side, are concyclic. The theorem has attracted several proofs. We present…

Seiberg-Witten theory leads to a delicate interplay between Riemannian geometry and smooth topology in dimension four. In particular, the scalar curvature of any metric must satisfy certain non-trivial estimates if the manifold in question…

Menger's Edge Theorem asserts that there exist $k$ pairwise edge-disjoint paths between two vertices in an undirected graph if and only if a deletion of any $k-1$ or less edges does not disconnect these two vertices. Alternatively, there…

Let $Y$ be the complement of a plane quartic curve $D$ defined over a number field. Our main theorem confirms the Lang-Vojta conjecture for $Y$ when $D$ is a generic smooth quartic curve, by showing that its integral points are confined in…

The Tait-Kneser theorem, first demonstrated by Peter G. Tait in 1896, states that the osculating circles along a plane curve with monotone non-vanishing curvature are pairwise disjoint and nested. This note contains a proof of this theorem…

A digraph $D$ is an oriented graph if $D$ does not have a pair of opposite arcs. The degree of a vertex $v$ of $D$ is the sum of the in-degree and out-degree of $v.$ Let $fvs(D)$ be the minimum number of vertices whose deletion from $D$…

The classical Hurwitz theorem says that if n first "harmonics" (2n + 1 Fourier coefficients) of a continuous function f(x) on the unit circle are zero, then f(x) changes sign at least 2n + 1 times. We show that similar facts and its…

A simple closed curve $\gamma$ in the real projective plane $P^2$ is called anti-convex if for each point $p$ on the curve, there exists a line which is transversal to the curve and meets the curve only at $p$. We shall prove the relation…

One of the general problems in algebraic geometry is to determine algorithmically whether or not a given geometric object, defined by explicit polynomial equations (e.g. a curve or a surface), satisfies a given property (e.g. has…

We prove a variant of the Sylvester-Gallai theorem for cubics (algebraic curves of degree three): If a finite set of sufficiently many points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ is not contained in a cubic, then there is a cubic that contains exactly nine of…

The celebrated theorem of Feuerbach states that the nine-point circle of a nonequilateral triangle is tangent to both its incircle and its three excircles. In this note, we give a simple proof of Feuerbach's Theorem using straightforward…

In his 1990 Inventiones paper, P. Jones characterized subsets of rectifiable curves in the plane via a multiscale sum of $\beta$-numbers. These $\beta$-numbers are geometric quantities measuring how far a given set deviates from a best…