English

Covering half-grids with lines and planes

Combinatorics 2025-01-28 v2 Computational Geometry

Abstract

We study hyperplane covering problems for finite grid-like structures in Rd\mathbb{R}^d. We call a set C\mathcal{C} of points in R2\mathbb{R}^2 a conical grid if the line y=aiy = a_i intersects C\mathcal{C} in exactly ii points, for some a1>>anRa_1 > \cdots > a_n \in \mathbb{R}. We prove that the number of lines required to cover every point of such a grid at least kk times is at least nk(11eO(1n))nk\left(1-\frac{1}{e}-O(\frac{1}{n}) \right). If the grid C\mathcal{C} is obtained by cutting an m×nm \times n grid of points into a half along one of the diagonals, then we prove the lower bound of mk(1enmO(nm2))mk\left(1-e^{-\frac{n}{m}}-O(\frac{n}{m^2})\right). Motivated by the Alon-F\"uredi theorem on hyperplane coverings of grids that miss a point and its multiplicity variations, we study the problem of finding the minimum number of hyperplanes required to cover every point of an n××nn \times \cdots \times n half-grid in Rd\mathbb{R}^d at least kk times while missing a point PP. For almost all such half-grids, with PP being the corner point, we prove asymptotically sharp upper and lower bounds for the covering number in dimensions 22 and 33. For k=1k = 1, d=2d = 2, and an arbitrary PP, we determine this number exactly by using the polynomial method bound for grids.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.11156,
  title  = {Covering half-grids with lines and planes},
  author = {Anurag Bishnoi and Shantanu Nene},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.11156},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

10 pages; minor revision; added a new reference

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:10:49.341Z