Tverberg's theorem for unions of convex sets: Sharp bounds and colored extensions

Abstract

Let $f_{r}(d,s_{1},\ldots,s_{r})$ be the least $N$ such that every $N$-point set $P\subseteq\mathbb{R}^{d}$ has an $r$-partition $P=P_{1}\sqcup\cdots\sqcup P_{r}$ with the following property: whenever $C_{i}\supseteq P_{i}$ is a union of at most $s_{i}$ convex sets, one has $\bigcap_{i=1}^{r}C_{i}\ne\emptyset$. A recent breakthrough of Alon and Smorodinsky proved that $f_{r}(d,s,\ldots,s)\le cdr^{2}s^{r}\log r\log(es^{r})$ for an absolute constant $c>0$. In this paper, we determine the asymptotic order in two principal ranges: $f_{2}(2,s,s)=\Theta(s^{2})$, and $f_{r}(d,s,\ldots,s)=\Theta_{d,r}(s^{r}\log{s})$ for every fixed $d,r$ with $d\ge r+2$. The first one determines the order of the extremal function proposed by Kalai from the 1970s. Together, the two results show a sharp dependence on the dimension: for two parts, the logarithmic factor disappears in the plane but is necessary in every fixed dimension $d\ge4$. Beyond these sharp results, when $r\ge d+1$ we improve the upper bound of Alon and Smorodinsky by proving both $f_{r}(d,s,\ldots,s)\le c_{d}rs^{r}\log(ers^{r})$ and $f_{r}(d,s,\ldots,s)\le c_{d}r^{d+2}s^{d+1}\log(ers)$ through a local Helly-type argument. We also prove $f_{r}(d,s,\ldots,s)>s^{\min\{r,d\}}$ for every $d\ge2$. Finally, we study two colored analogues. The direct B\'{a}r\'{a}ny--Larman-type extension, in which one seeks $r$ disjoint rainbow sets chosen from $d+1$ color classes, fails as soon as two convex pieces are allowed. Nevertheless, a different extension does hold: given sufficiently many prescribed $r$-point classes, one can split every class completely among the $r$ final parts while retaining the required intersection property.