English

Improved Helly numbers of product sets

Combinatorics 2025-04-24 v2 Metric Geometry

Abstract

A finite family F\mathcal F of convex sets is kk-intersecting in SRdS \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d if the intersection of every subset of kk convex sets in F\mathcal F contains a point in SS. The Helly number of SS is the minimum kk, if it exists, such that every kk-intersecting family contains a point of SS in its intersection. In this paper, we improve bounds on the Helly number of product sets of the form AdA^d for various sets ARA \subseteq \mathbb{R}, including the ``exponential grid'' A={αn:nN}A = \{\alpha^n : n \in \mathbb{N}\} and sets AZA\subseteq \mathbb{Z} defined by congruence relations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2409.07262,
  title  = {Improved Helly numbers of product sets},
  author = {Srinivas Arun and Travis Dillon},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.07262},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

11 pages, 2 figures. The results in this version (v2) are a subset of those in v1 after splitting v1 into two papers

R2 v1 2026-06-28T18:41:07.324Z