The Triangle Operator

We examine the averaging operator corresponding to the manifold in $\mathbb{R}^{2d}$ of pairs of points $(u,v)$ satisfying $|u| = |v| = |u - v| = 1$, so that $\{0,u,v\}$ is the set of vertices of an equilateral triangle. We establish $L^p \times L^q \rightarrow L^r$ boundedness for $T$ for $(1/p, 1/q, 1/r)$ in the convex hull of the set of points $\lbrace (0, 0, 0) ,\, (1, 0 , 1) ,\, (0, 1, 1) , \, ({1}/{p_d}, {1}/{p_d}, {2}/{p_d}) \rbrace$, where $p_d = \frac{5d}{3d - 2}$.Comment: 15 pages, discussion on the maximal variant expande

Variation-norm and fluctuation estimates for ergodic bilinear averages

For any dynamical system, we show that higher variation-norms for the sequence of ergodic bilinear averages of two functions satisfy a large range of bilinear Lp estimates. It follows that, with probability one, the number of fluctuations along this sequence may grow at most polynomially with respect to (the growth of) the underlying scale. These results strengthen previous works of Lacey and Bourgain where almost surely convergence of the sequence was proved (which is equivalent to the qualitative statement that the number of fluctuations is finite at each scale). Via transference, the proof reduces to establishing new bilinear Lp bounds for variation-norms of truncated bilinear operators on R, and the main ingredient of the proof of these bounds is a variation-norm extension of maximal Bessel inequalities of Lacey and Demeter--Tao--Thiele.Comment: 37 pages, new version fixed some references not displaying correctl

Uniqueness of Optimal Point Sets Determining Two Distinct Triangles

In this paper, we show that the maximum number of points in $d\geq3$ dimensions determining exactly 2 distinct triangles is $2d$. We further show that this maximum is uniquely achieved by the vertices of the $d$-orthoplex. We build upon the work of Hirasaka and Shinohara who determined that the $d$-orthoplex is such an optimal configuration, but did not prove its uniqueness. Further, we present a more elementary argument for its optimality.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

The Inverse Gamma Distribution and Benford's Law

According to Benford's Law, many data sets have a bias towards lower leading digits (about 30% are 1's). The applications of Benford's Law vary: from detecting tax, voter and image fraud to determining the possibility of match-fixing in competitive sports. There are many common distributions that exhibit such bias, i.e. they are almost Benford. These include the exponential and the Weibull distributions. Motivated by these examples and the fact that the underlying distribution of factors in protein structure follows an inverse gamma distribution, we determine the closeness of this distribution to a Benford distribution as its parameters change

On Optimal Point Sets Determining Distinct Triangles

Erd\H{o}s and Fishburn studied the maximum number of points in the plane that span $k$ distances and classified these configurations, as an inverse problem of the Erd\H{o}s distinct distances problem. We consider the analogous problem for triangles. Past work has obtained the optimal sets for one and two distinct triangles in the plane. In this paper, we resolve a conjecture that at most six points in the plane can span three distinct triangles, and obtain the hexagon as the unique configuration that achieves this. We also provide evidence that optimal sets cannot be on the square lattice in the general case.Comment: 15 pages, 23 figure

Distinct Angles in General Position

The Erd\H{o}s distinct distance problem is a ubiquitous problem in discrete geometry. Somewhat less well known is Erd\H{o}s' distinct angle problem, the problem of finding the minimum number of distinct angles between $n$ non-collinear points in the plane. Recent work has introduced bounds on a wide array of variants of this problem, inspired by similar variants in the distance setting. In this short note, we improve the best known upper bound for the minimum number of distinct angles formed by $n$ points in general position from $O(n^{\log_2(7)})$ to $O(n^2)$. Before this work, similar bounds relied on projections onto a generic plane from higher dimensional space. In this paper, we employ the geometric properties of a logarithmic spiral, sidestepping the need for a projection. We also apply this configuration to reduce the upper bound on the largest integer such that any set of $n$ points in general position has a subset of that size with all distinct angles. This bound is decreased from $O(n^{\log_2(7)/3})$ to $O(n^{1/2})$.Comment: Former Corollary 4.1 upgraded to Theorem 1.2 with improved bound