1,383 research outputs found
On the general position subset selection problem
Let be the maximum integer such that every set of points in
the plane with at most collinear contains a subset of points
with no three collinear. First we prove that if then
. Second we prove that if
then , which implies all previously known lower bounds on and
improves them when is not fixed. A more general problem is to consider
subsets with at most collinear points in a point set with at most
collinear. We also prove analogous results in this setting
Ramsey-type theorems for lines in 3-space
We prove geometric Ramsey-type statements on collections of lines in 3-space.
These statements give guarantees on the size of a clique or an independent set
in (hyper)graphs induced by incidence relations between lines, points, and
reguli in 3-space. Among other things, we prove that: (1) The intersection
graph of n lines in R^3 has a clique or independent set of size Omega(n^{1/3}).
(2) Every set of n lines in R^3 has a subset of n^{1/2} lines that are all
stabbed by one line, or a subset of Omega((n/log n)^{1/5}) such that no
6-subset is stabbed by one line. (3) Every set of n lines in general position
in R^3 has a subset of Omega(n^{2/3}) lines that all lie on a regulus, or a
subset of Omega(n^{1/3}) lines such that no 4-subset is contained in a regulus.
The proofs of these statements all follow from geometric incidence bounds --
such as the Guth-Katz bound on point-line incidences in R^3 -- combined with
Tur\'an-type results on independent sets in sparse graphs and hypergraphs.
Although similar Ramsey-type statements can be proved using existing generic
algebraic frameworks, the lower bounds we get are much larger than what can be
obtained with these methods. The proofs directly yield polynomial-time
algorithms for finding subsets of the claimed size.Comment: 18 pages including appendi
Which point sets admit a k-angulation?
For k >= 3, a k-angulation is a 2-connected plane graph in which every
internal face is a k-gon. We say that a point set P admits a plane graph G if
there is a straight-line drawing of G that maps V(G) onto P and has the same
facial cycles and outer face as G. We investigate the conditions under which a
point set P admits a k-angulation and find that, for sets containing at least
2k^2 points, the only obstructions are those that follow from Euler's formula.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure
On the connectivity of visibility graphs
The visibility graph of a finite set of points in the plane has the points as
vertices and an edge between two vertices if the line segment between them
contains no other points. This paper establishes bounds on the edge- and
vertex-connectivity of visibility graphs.
Unless all its vertices are collinear, a visibility graph has diameter at
most 2, and so it follows by a result of Plesn\'ik (1975) that its
edge-connectivity equals its minimum degree. We strengthen the result of
Plesn\'ik by showing that for any two vertices v and w in a graph of diameter
2, if deg(v) <= deg(w) then there exist deg(v) edge-disjoint vw-paths of length
at most 4. Furthermore, we find that in visibility graphs every minimum edge
cut is the set of edges incident to a vertex of minimum degree.
For vertex-connectivity, we prove that every visibility graph with n vertices
and at most l collinear vertices has connectivity at least (n-1)/(l-1), which
is tight. We also prove the qualitatively stronger result that the
vertex-connectivity is at least half the minimum degree. Finally, in the case
that l=4 we improve this bound to two thirds of the minimum degree.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure
Thoughts on Barnette's Conjecture
We prove a new sufficient condition for a cubic 3-connected planar graph to
be Hamiltonian. This condition is most easily described as a property of the
dual graph. Let be a planar triangulation. Then the dual is a cubic
3-connected planar graph, and is bipartite if and only if is
Eulerian. We prove that if the vertices of are (improperly) coloured blue
and red, such that the blue vertices cover the faces of , there is no blue
cycle, and every red cycle contains a vertex of degree at most 4, then is
Hamiltonian.
This result implies the following special case of Barnette's Conjecture: if
is an Eulerian planar triangulation, whose vertices are properly coloured
blue, red and green, such that every red-green cycle contains a vertex of
degree 4, then is Hamiltonian. Our final result highlights the
limitations of using a proper colouring of as a starting point for proving
Barnette's Conjecture. We also explain related results on Barnette's Conjecture
that were obtained by Kelmans and for which detailed self-contained proofs have
not been published.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
Empty pentagons in point sets with collinearities
An empty pentagon in a point set P in the plane is a set of five points in P
in strictly convex position with no other point of P in their convex hull. We
prove that every finite set of at least 328k^2 points in the plane contains an
empty pentagon or k collinear points. This is optimal up to a constant factor
since the (k-1)x(k-1) grid contains no empty pentagon and no k collinear
points. The previous best known bound was doubly exponential.Comment: 15 pages, 11 figure
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