4 research outputs found
Holes or Empty Pseudo-Triangles in Planar Point Sets
Let denote the smallest integer such that any set of at least
points in the plane, no three on a line, contains either an empty
convex polygon with vertices or an empty pseudo-triangle with
vertices. The existence of for positive integers ,
is the consequence of a result proved by Valtr [Discrete and Computational
Geometry, Vol. 37, 565--576, 2007]. In this paper, following a series of new
results about the existence of empty pseudo-triangles in point sets with
triangular convex hulls, we determine the exact values of and , and prove bounds on and , for . By
dropping the emptiness condition, we define another related quantity , which is the smallest integer such that any set of at least points in the plane, no three on a line, contains a convex polygon with
vertices or a pseudo-triangle with vertices. Extending a result of
Bisztriczky and T\'oth [Discrete Geometry, Marcel Dekker, 49--58, 2003], we
obtain the exact values of and , and obtain non-trivial
bounds on .Comment: A minor error in the proof of Theorem 2 fixed. Typos corrected. 19
pages, 11 figure
Higher-order Erdos--Szekeres theorems
Let P=(p_1,p_2,...,p_N) be a sequence of points in the plane, where
p_i=(x_i,y_i) and x_1<x_2<...<x_N. A famous 1935 Erdos--Szekeres theorem
asserts that every such P contains a monotone subsequence S of
points. Another, equally famous theorem from the same paper implies that every
such P contains a convex or concave subsequence of points.
Monotonicity is a property determined by pairs of points, and convexity
concerns triples of points. We propose a generalization making both of these
theorems members of an infinite family of Ramsey-type results. First we define
a (k+1)-tuple to be positive if it lies on the graph of a
function whose kth derivative is everywhere nonnegative, and similarly for a
negative (k+1)-tuple. Then we say that is kth-order monotone if
its (k+1)-tuples are all positive or all negative.
We investigate quantitative bound for the corresponding Ramsey-type result
(i.e., how large kth-order monotone subsequence can be guaranteed in every
N-point P). We obtain an lower bound ((k-1)-times
iterated logarithm). This is based on a quantitative Ramsey-type theorem for
what we call transitive colorings of the complete (k+1)-uniform hypergraph; it
also provides a unified view of the two classical Erdos--Szekeres results
mentioned above.
For k=3, we construct a geometric example providing an upper
bound, tight up to a multiplicative constant. As a consequence, we obtain
similar upper bounds for a Ramsey-type theorem for order-type homogeneous
subsets in R^3, as well as for a Ramsey-type theorem for hyperplanes in R^4
recently used by Dujmovic and Langerman.Comment: Contains a counter example of Gunter Rote which gives a reply for the
problem number 5 in the previous versions of this pape