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Adam Sheffer

Publications and source records attributed to Adam Sheffer.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2018

Local Properties in Colored Graphs, Distinct Distances, and Difference Sets

We study Extremal Combinatorics problems where local properties are used to derive global properties. That is, we consider a given configuration where every small piece of the configuration satisfies some restriction, and use this local property to derive global properties of the entire configuration. We study one such Ramsey problem of Erdős and Shelah, where the configurations are complete graphs with colored edges and every small induced subgraph contains many distinct colors. Our bounds for this Ramsey problem show that the known probabilistic construction is tight in various cases. We study one Discrete Geometry variant, also by Erdős, where we have a set of points in the plane such that every small subset spans many distinct distances. Finally, we consider an Additive Combinatorics problem, where we are given sets of real numbers such that every small subset has a large difference set. We derive new bounds for all of the above problems. Our proof technique is based on introducing an non-algebraic variant of additive energies. This abstract energy variant is based on edge colors in graphs.

math.CO↗
arXiv2017

Higher Distance Energies and Expanders with Structure

We adapt the idea of higher moment energies, originally used in Additive Combinatorics, so that it would apply to problems in Discrete Geometry. This new approach leads to a variety of new results, such as (i) Improved bounds for the problem of distinct distances with local properties. (ii) Improved bounds for problems involving expanding polynomials in ${\mathbb R}[x,y]$ (Elekes-Ronyai type bounds) when one or two of the sets have structure. Higher moment energies seem to be related to additional problems in Discrete Geometry, to lead to new elegant theory, and to raise new questions.

math.CO↗
arXiv2017

Point-curve incidences in the complex plane

We prove an incidence theorem for points and curves in the complex plane. Given a set of $m$ points in ${\mathbb R}^2$ and a set of $n$ curves with $k$ degrees of freedom, Pach and Sharir proved that the number of point-curve incidences is $O\big(m^{\frac{k}{2k-1}}n^{\frac{2k-2}{2k-1}}+m+n\big)$. We establish the slightly weaker bound $O_\varepsilon\big(m^{\frac{k}{2k-1}+\varepsilon}n^{\frac{2k-2}{2k-1}}+m+n\big)$ on the number of incidences between $m$ points and $n$ (complex) algebraic curves in ${\mathbb C}^2$ with $k$ degrees of freedom. We combine tools from algebraic geometry and differential geometry to prove a key technical lemma that controls the number of complex curves that can be contained inside a real hypersurface. This lemma may be of independent interest to other researchers proving incidence theorems over ${\mathbb C}$.

math.CO↗
arXiv2016

Fast domino tileability

Domino tileability is a classical problem in Discrete Geometry, famously solved by Thurston for simply connected regions in nearly linear time in the area. In this paper, we improve upon Thurston's height function approach to a nearly linear time in the perimeter.

math.CO↗
arXiv2016

Lower bounds for incidences with hypersurfaces

We present a technique for deriving lower bounds for incidences with hypersurfaces in ${\mathbb R}^d$ with $d\ge 4$. These bounds apply to a large variety of hypersurfaces, such as hyperplanes, hyperspheres, paraboloids, and hypersurfaces of any degree. Beyond being the first non-trivial lower bounds for various incidence problems, our bounds show that some of the known upper bounds for incidence problems in ${\mathbb R}^d$ are tight up to an extra $\varepsilon$ in the exponent. Specifically, for every $m$, $d\ge 4$, and $\varepsilon>0$ there exist $m$ points and $n$ hypersurfaces in ${\mathbb R}^d$ (where $n$ depends on $m$) with no $K_{2,\frac{d-1}{\varepsilon}}$ in the incidence graph and $Ω\left(m^{(2d-2)/(2d-1)}n^{d/(2d-1)-\varepsilon} \right)$ incidences. Moreover, we provide improved lower bounds for the case of no $K_{s,s}$ in the incidence graph, for large constants $s$. Our analysis builds upon ideas from a recent work of Bourgain and Demeter on discrete Fourier restriction to the four- and five-dimensional spheres. Specifically, it is based on studying the additive energy of the integer points in a truncated paraboloid.

math.CO↗
arXiv2015

Incidences with curves in R^d

We prove that the number of incidences between $m$ points and $n$ bounded-degree curves with $k$ degrees of freedom in ${\mathbb R}^d$ is \[ I(m,n) =O\left(m^{\frac{k}{dk-d+1}+\varepsilon}n^{\frac{dk-d}{dk-d+1}}+ \sum_{j=2}^{d-1} m^{\frac{k}{jk-j+1}+\varepsilon}n^{\frac{d(j-1)(k-1)}{(d-1)(jk-j+1)}}q_j^{\frac{(d-j)(k-1)}{(d-1)(jk-j+1)}}+m+n\right), \] for any $\varepsilon>0$, where the constant of proportionality depends on $k, \varepsilon$ and $d$, provided that no $j$-dimensional surface of degree $\le c_j(k,d,\varepsilon)$, a constant parameter depending on $k$, $d$, $j$, and $\varepsilon$, contains more than $q_j$ input curves, and that the $q_j$'s satisfy certain mild conditions. This bound generalizes a recent result of Sharir and Solomon concerning point-line incidences in four dimensions (where $d=4$ and $k=2$), and partly generalizes a recent result of Guth (as well as the earlier bound of Guth and Katz) in three dimensions (Guth's three-dimensional bound has a better dependency on $q_2$). It also improves a recent $d$-dimensional general incidence bound by Fox, Pach, Sheffer, Suk, and Zahl, in the special case of incidences with algebraic curves. Our results are also related to recent works by Dvir and Gopi and by Hablicsek and Scherr concerning rich lines in high-dimensional spaces.

math.CO↗
arXiv2015

A semi-algebraic version of Zarankiewicz's problem

A bipartite graph $G$ is semi-algebraic in $\mathbb{R}^d$ if its vertices are represented by point sets $P,Q \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ and its edges are defined as pairs of points $(p,q) \in P\times Q$ that satisfy a Boolean combination of a fixed number of polynomial equations and inequalities in $2d$ coordinates. We show that for fixed $k$, the maximum number of edges in a $K_{k,k}$-free semi-algebraic bipartite graph $G = (P,Q,E)$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with $|P| = m$ and $|Q| = n$ is at most $O((mn)^{2/3} + m + n)$, and this bound is tight. In dimensions $d \geq 3$, we show that all such semi-algebraic graphs have at most $C\left((mn)^{ \frac{d}{d+1} + \varepsilon} + m + n\right)$ edges, where here $\varepsilon$ is an arbitrarily small constant and $C = C(d,k,t,\varepsilon)$. This result is a far-reaching generalization of the classical Szemerédi-Trotter incidence theorem. The proof combines tools from several fields: VC-dimension and shatter functions, polynomial partitioning, and Hilbert polynomials. We also present various applications of our theorem. For example, a general point-variety incidence bound in $\mathbb{R}^d$, an improved bound for a $d$-dimensional variant of the Erdős unit distances problem, and more.

math.CO↗
arXiv2014

Bisector energy and few distinct distances

We introduce the bisector energy of an $n$-point set $P$ in $\mathbb{R}^2$, defined as the number of quadruples $(a,b,c,d)$ from $P$ such that $a$ and $b$ determine the same perpendicular bisector as $c$ and $d$. If no line or circle contains $M(n)$ points of $P$, then we prove that the bisector energy is $O(M(n)^{\frac{2}{5}}n^{\frac{12}{5}+ε} + M(n)n^2).$. We also prove the lower bound $Ω(M(n)n^2)$, which matches our upper bound when $M(n)$ is large. We use our upper bound on the bisector energy to obtain two rather different results: (i) If $P$ determines $O(n/\sqrt{\log n})$ distinct distances, then for any $0<α\le 1/4$, either there exists a line or circle that contains $n^α$ points of $P$, or there exist $Ω(n^{8/5-12α/5-ε})$ distinct lines that contain $Ω(\sqrt{\log n})$ points of $P$. This result provides new information on a conjecture of Erdős regarding the structure of point sets with few distinct distances. (ii) If no line or circle contains $M(n)$ points of $P$, then the number of distinct perpendicular bisectors determined by $P$ is $Ω(\min\{M(n)^{-2/5}n^{8/5-ε}, M(n)^{-1} n^2\})$. This appears to be the first higher-dimensional example in a framework for studying the expansion properties of polynomials and rational functions over $\mathbb{R}$, initiated by Elekes and Rónyai.

math.CO↗
arXiv2014

Improved bounds for incidences between points and circles

We establish an improved upper bound for the number of incidences between m points and n circles in three dimensions. The previous best known bound, originally established for the planar case and later extended to any dimension $\ge 2$, is $O*(m^{2/3}n^{2/3} + m^{6/11}n^{9/11}+m+n)$, where the $O*(\cdot)$ notation hides sub-polynomial factors. Since all the points and circles may lie on a common plane (or sphere), it is impossible to improve the bound in R^3 without first improving it in the plane. Nevertheless, we show that if the set of circles is required to be "truly three-dimensional" in the sense that no sphere or plane contains more than $q$ of the circles, for some $q << n$, then the bound can be improved to \[O*(m^{3/7}n^{6/7} + m^{2/3}n^{1/2}q^{1/6} + m^{6/11}n^{15/22}q^{3/22} + m + n). \] For various ranges of parameters (e.g., when $m=Θ(n)$ and $q = o(n^{7/9})$), this bound is smaller than the lower bound $Ω*(m^{2/3}n^{2/3}+m+n)$, which holds in two dimensions. We present several extensions and applications of the new bound: (i) For the special case where all the circles have the same radius, we obtain the improved bound $O*(m^{5/11}n^{9/11} + m^{2/3}n^{1/2}q^{1/6} + m + n$. (ii) We present an improved analysis that removes the subpolynomial factors from the bound when $m=O(n^{3/2-\eps})$ for any fixed $\varepsilon >0$. (iii) We use our results to obtain the improved bound $O(m^{15/7})$ for the number of mutually similar triangles determined by any set of $m$ points in R^3. Our result is obtained by applying the polynomial partitioning technique of Guth and Katz using a constant-degree partitioning polynomial (as was also recently used by Solymosi and Tao). We also rely on various additional tools from analytic, algebraic, and combinatorial geometry.

math.CO↗
arXiv2013

Few distinct distances implies no heavy lines or circles

We study the structure of planar point sets that determine a small number of distinct distances. Specifically, we show that if a set P of n points determines o(n) distinct distances, then no line contains Ω(n^{7/8}) points of P and no circle contains Ω(n^{5/6}) points of P. We rely on the bipartite and partial variant of the Elekes-Sharir framework that was presented by Sharir, Sheffer, and Solymosi in \cite{SSS13}. For the case of lines we combine this framework with a theorem from additive combinatorics, and for the case of circles we combine it with some basic algebraic geometry and a recent incidence bound for plane algebraic curves by Wang, Yang, and Zhang \cite{WYZ13}. A significant difference between our approach and that of \cite{SSS13} (and other recent extensions) is that, instead of dealing with distances between two point sets that are restricted to one-dimensional curves, we consider distances between one set that is restricted to a curve and one set with no restrictions on it.

math.CO↗
arXiv2013

On lattices, distinct distances, and the Elekes-Sharir framework

In this note we consider distinct distances determined by points in an integer lattice. We first consider Erdos's lower bound for the square lattice, recast in the setup of the so-called Elekes-Sharir framework \cite{ES11,GK11}, and show that, without a major change, this framework \emph{cannot} lead to Erdos's conjectured lower bound. This shows that the upper bound of Guth and Katz \cite{GK11} for the related 3-dimensional line-intersection problem is tight for this instance. The gap between this bound and the actual bound of Erdos arises from an application of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality (which is an integral part of the Elekes-Sharir framework). Our analysis relies on two number-theoretic results by Ramanujan. We also consider distinct distances in rectangular lattices of the form $\{(i,j) \mid 0\le i\le n^{1-α},\ 0\le j\le n^α\}$, for some $0<α<1/2$, and show that the number of distinct distances in such a lattice is $Θ(n)$. In a sense, our proof "bypasses" a deep conjecture in number theory, posed by Cilleruelo and Granville \cite{CG07}. A positive resolution of this conjecture would also have implied our bound.

math.CO↗
arXiv2013

Distinct distances on two lines

Let P_1 and P_2 be two sets of points in the plane, so that P_1 is contained in a line L_1, P_2 is contained in a line L_2, and L_1 and L_2 are neither parallel nor orthogonal. Then the number of distinct distances determined by the pairs of P_1xP_2 is Ω(\min{|P_1|^{2/3}|P_2|^{2/3},|P_1|^2, |P_2|^2}). In particular, if |P_1|=|P_2|=m, then the number of these distinct distances is Ω(m^{4/3}), improving upon the previous bound Ω(m^{5/4}) of Elekes.

math.CO↗
arXiv2013

Crossings in Grid Drawings

We prove crossing number inequalities for geometric graphs whose vertex sets are taken from a d-dimensional grid of volume N and give applications of these inequalities to counting the number of non-crossing geometric graphs that can be drawn on such grids. In particular, we show that any geometric graph with m >= 8N edges and with vertices on a 3D integer grid of volume N, has Ω((m^2/n)\log(m/n)) crossings. In d-dimensions, with d >= 4, this bound becomes Ω(m^2/n). We provide matching upper bounds for all d. Finally, for d >= 4 the upper bound implies that the maximum number of crossing-free geometric graphs with vertices on some d-dimensional grid of volume N is n^Θ(n). In 3 dimensions it remains open to improve the trivial bounds, namely, the 2^Ω(n) lower bound and the n^O(n) upper bound.

math.CO↗
arXiv2012

On Numbers of Pseudo-Triangulations

We study the maximum numbers of pseudo-triangulations and pointed pseudo-triangulations that can be embedded over a specific set of points in the plane or contained in a specific triangulation. We derive the bounds $O(5.45^N)$ and $Ω(2.41^N)$ for the maximum number of pointed pseudo-triangulations that can be contained in a specific triangulation over a set of $N$ points. For the number of all pseudo-triangulations contained in a triangulation we derive the bounds $O^*(6.54^N)$ and $Ω(3.30^N)$. We also prove that $O^*(89.1^N)$ pointed pseudo-triangulations can be embedded over any specific set of $N$ points in the plane, and at most $120^N$ general pseudo-triangulations.

cs.CG↗
arXiv2012

Counting Plane Graphs: Cross-Graph Charging Schemes

We study cross-graph charging schemes for graphs drawn in the plane. These are charging schemes where charge is moved across vertices of different graphs. Such methods have been recently applied to obtain various properties of triangulations that are embedded over a fixed set of points in the plane. We show how this method can be generalized to obtain results for various other types of graphs that are embedded in the plane. Specifically, we obtain a new bound of $O^*(187.53^N)$ (where the $O^*()$ notation hides polynomial factors) for the maximum number of crossing-free straight-edge graphs that can be embedded over any specific set of $N$ points in the plane (improving upon the previous best upper bound $207.85^N$ in Hoffmann et al.). We also derive upper bounds for numbers of several other types of plane graphs (such as connected and bi-connected plane graphs), and obtain various bounds on expected vertex-degrees in graphs that are uniformly chosen from the set of all crossing-free straight-edge graphs that can be embedded over a specific point set. We then show how to apply the cross-graph charging-scheme method for graphs that allow certain types of crossings. Specifically, we consider graphs with no set of $k$ pairwise-crossing edges (more commonly known as $k$-quasi-planar graphs). For $k=3$ and $k=4$, we prove that, for any set $S$ of $N$ points in the plane, the number of graphs that have a straight-edge $k$-quasi-planar embedding over $S$ is only exponential in $N$.

cs.CG↗
arXiv2011

Counting Plane Graphs: Flippability and its Applications

We generalize the notions of flippable and simultaneously flippable edges in a triangulation of a set S of points in the plane to so-called \emph{pseudo-simultaneously flippable edges}. Such edges are related to the notion of convex decompositions spanned by S. We prove a worst-case tight lower bound for the number of pseudo-simultaneously flippable edges in a triangulation in terms of the number of vertices. We use this bound for deriving new upper bounds for the maximal number of crossing-free straight-edge graphs that can be embedded on any fixed set of N points in the plane. We obtain new upper bounds for the number of spanning trees and forests as well. Specifically, let tr(N) denote the maximum number of triangulations on a set of N points in the plane. Then we show (using the known bound tr(N) < 30^N) that any N-element point set admits at most 6.9283^N * tr(N) < 207.85^N crossing-free straight-edge graphs, O(4.7022^N) * tr(N) = O(141.07^N) spanning trees, and O(5.3514^N) * tr(N) = O(160.55^N) forests. We also obtain upper bounds for the number of crossing-free straight-edge graphs that have cN, fewer than cN, or more than cN edges, for any constant parameter c, in terms of c and N.

cs.DM↗
arXiv2011

Bounds on the maximum multiplicity of some common geometric graphs

We obtain new lower and upper bounds for the maximum multiplicity of some weighted and, respectively, non-weighted common geometric graphs drawn on n points in the plane in general position (with no three points collinear): perfect matchings, spanning trees, spanning cycles (tours), and triangulations. (i) We present a new lower bound construction for the maximum number of triangulations a set of n points in general position can have. In particular, we show that a generalized double chain formed by two almost convex chains admits Ω(8.65^n) different triangulations. This improves the bound Ω(8.48^n) achieved by the double zig-zag chain configuration studied by Aichholzer et al. (ii) We present a new lower bound of Ω(12.00^n) for the number of non-crossing spanning trees of the double chain composed of two convex chains. The previous bound, Ω(10.42^n), stood unchanged for more than 10 years. (iii) Using a recent upper bound of 30^n for the number of triangulations, due to Sharir and Sheffer, we show that n points in the plane in general position admit at most O(68.62^n) non-crossing spanning cycles. (iv) We derive lower bounds for the number of maximum and minimum weighted geometric graphs (matchings, spanning trees, and tours). We show that the number of shortest non-crossing tours can be exponential in n. Likewise, we show that both the number of longest non-crossing tours and the number of longest non-crossing perfect matchings can be exponential in n. Moreover, we show that there are sets of n points in convex position with an exponential number of longest non-crossing spanning trees. For points in convex position we obtain tight bounds for the number of longest and shortest tours. We give a combinatorial characterization of the longest tours, which leads to an O(nlog n) time algorithm for computing them.

cs.DM↗