English

On sets defining few ordinary planes

Metric Geometry 2017-06-22 v5 Combinatorics

Abstract

Let SS be a set of nn points in real three-dimensional space, no three collinear and not all co-planar. We prove that if the number of planes incident with exactly three points of SS is less than Kn2Kn^2 for some K=o(n17)K=o(n^{\frac{1}{7}}) then, for nn sufficiently large, all but at most O(K)O(K) points of SS are contained in the intersection of two quadrics. Furthermore, we prove that there is a constant cc such that if the number of planes incident with exactly three points of SS is less than 12n2cn\frac{1}{2}n^2-cn then, for nn sufficiently large, SS is either a prism, an anti-prism, a prism with a point removed or an anti-prism with a point removed. As a corollary to the main result, we deduce the following theorem. Let SS be a set of nn points in the real plane. If the number of circles incident with exactly three points of SS is less than Kn2Kn^2 for some K=o(n17)K=o(n^{\frac{1}{7}}) then, for nn sufficiently large, all but at most O(K)O(K) points of SS are contained in a curve of degree at most four.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1606.02138,
  title  = {On sets defining few ordinary planes},
  author = {Simeon Ball},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.02138},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

I have made extensive changes, most important of which is to the exponent 1/6, which is replaced by 1/7

R2 v1 2026-06-22T14:19:32.466Z