1,151 research outputs found
Small Strong Epsilon Nets
Let P be a set of n points in . A point x is said to be a
centerpoint of P if x is contained in every convex object that contains more
than points of P. We call a point x a strong centerpoint for a
family of objects if is contained in every object that contains more than a constant fraction of points of P. A
strong centerpoint does not exist even for halfspaces in . We
prove that a strong centerpoint exists for axis-parallel boxes in
and give exact bounds. We then extend this to small strong
-nets in the plane and prove upper and lower bounds for
where is the family of axis-parallel
rectangles, halfspaces and disks. Here represents the
smallest real number in such that there exists an
-net of size i with respect to .Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure
On Strong Centerpoints
Let be a set of points in and be a
family of geometric objects. We call a point a strong centerpoint of
w.r.t if is contained in all that
contains more than points from , where is a fixed constant. A
strong centerpoint does not exist even when is the family of
halfspaces in the plane. We prove the existence of strong centerpoints with
exact constants for convex polytopes defined by a fixed set of orientations. We
also prove the existence of strong centerpoints for abstract set systems with
bounded intersection
On the mathematical and foundational significance of the uncountable
We study the logical and computational properties of basic theorems of
uncountable mathematics, including the Cousin and Lindel\"of lemma published in
1895 and 1903. Historically, these lemmas were among the first formulations of
open-cover compactness and the Lindel\"of property, respectively. These notions
are of great conceptual importance: the former is commonly viewed as a way of
treating uncountable sets like e.g. as 'almost finite', while the
latter allows one to treat uncountable sets like e.g. as 'almost
countable'. This reduction of the uncountable to the finite/countable turns out
to have a considerable logical and computational cost: we show that the
aforementioned lemmas, and many related theorems, are extremely hard to prove,
while the associated sub-covers are extremely hard to compute. Indeed, in terms
of the standard scale (based on comprehension axioms), a proof of these lemmas
requires at least the full extent of second-order arithmetic, a system
originating from Hilbert-Bernays' Grundlagen der Mathematik. This observation
has far-reaching implications for the Grundlagen's spiritual successor, the
program of Reverse Mathematics, and the associated G\"odel hierachy. We also
show that the Cousin lemma is essential for the development of the gauge
integral, a generalisation of the Lebesgue and improper Riemann integrals that
also uniquely provides a direct formalisation of Feynman's path integral.Comment: 35 pages with one figure. The content of this version extends the
published version in that Sections 3.3.4 and 3.4 below are new. Small
corrections/additions have also been made to reflect new development
- …