Strictly convex drawings of planar graphs

Every three-connected planar graph with n vertices has a drawing on an O(n^2) x O(n^2) grid in which all faces are strictly convex polygons. These drawings are obtained by perturbing (not strictly) convex drawings on O(n) x O(n) grids. More generally, a strictly convex drawing exists on a grid of size O(W) x O(n^4/W), for any choice of a parameter W in the range n<W<n^2. Tighter bounds are obtained when the faces have fewer sides. In the proof, we derive an explicit lower bound on the number of primitive vectors in a triangle.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figures. to be published in Documenta Mathematica. The revision includes numerous small additions, corrections, and improvements, in particular: - a discussion of the constants in the O-notation, after the statement of thm.1. - a different set-up and clarification of the case distinction for Lemma

Tverberg's theorem, a new proof

We give a new proof Tverberg's famous theorem: For every set $X \subset \R^d$ with $|X|=(r-1)(d+1)+1$, there is a partition of $X$ into $r$ sets $X_1,\ldots,X_r$ such that \bigcap_{p=1}^r \conv X_p\ne \emptyset. The new proof uses linear algebra, specially structured matrices, the theory of linear equations, and Tverberg's original ``moving the points" method

Positive bases, cones, Helly type theorems

Assume that $k \le d$ is a positive integer and \C is a finite collection of convex bodies in $\R^d$. We prove a Helly type theorem: If for every subfamily \C^*\subset \C of size at most $\max \{d+1,2(d-k+1)\}$ the set \bigcap \C^* contains a $k$-dimensional cone, then so does \bigcap \C. One ingredient in the proof is another Helly type theorem about the dimension of lineality spaces of convex cones

A matrix version of the Steinitz lemma

The Steinitz lemma, a classic from 1913, states that $a_1,\ldots,a_n$, a sequence of vectors in $\R^d$ with $\sum_1^n a_i=0$, can be rearranged so that every partial sum of the rearranged sequence has norm at most $2d\max \|a_i\|$. In the matrix version $A$ is a $k\times n$ matrix with entries $a_i^j \in \R^d$ with $\sum_{j=1}^k\sum_{i=1}^na_i^j=0$. It is proved in \cite{OPW} that there is a rearrangement of row $j$ of $A$ (for every $j$) such that the sum of the entries in the first $m$ columns of the rearranged matrix has norm at most $40d^5\max \|a_i^j\|$ (for every $m$). We improve this bound to $(4d-2)\max \|a_i^j\|$

Curves in R^d intersecting every hyperplane at most d+1 times

By a curve in R^d we mean a continuous map gamma:I -> R^d, where I is a closed interval. We call a curve gamma in R^d at most k crossing if it intersects every hyperplane at most k times (counted with multiplicity). The at most d crossing curves in R^d are often called convex curves and they form an important class; a primary example is the moment curve {(t,t^2,...,t^d):t\in[0,1]}. They are also closely related to Chebyshev systems, which is a notion of considerable importance, e.g., in approximation theory. We prove that for every d there is M=M(d) such that every at most d+1 crossing curve in R^d can be subdivided into at most M convex curves. As a consequence, based on the work of Elias, Roldan, Safernova, and the second author, we obtain an essentially tight lower bound for a geometric Ramsey-type problem in R^d concerning order-type homogeneous sequences of points, investigated in several previous papers.Comment: Corrected proof of Lemma 3.