arXiv subjects

Andreas Holmsen

Publications and source records attributed to Andreas Holmsen.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Piercing all maximum cliques in hypergraphs

Graphs whose maximum clique size exceeds half of the total number of vertices satisfy a classical property: the family of their maximum sized cliques can be pierced by a single vertex. This result dates back to a 1965 theorem by Hajnal. Motivated by this theorem, Jung, Keszegh, P\'alv\"olgyi, and Yuditsky recently conjectured that an analogous result should hold for hypergraphs of larger uniformity, with an appropriate constant replacing the threshold $1/2$. In this paper we refute this conjecture in a strong form. We show that for any constant $c<1$ and integers $k\ge 3$ and $t\ge 1$, there exist $k$-uniform hypergraphs $G$ whose maximum clique size exceeds $c|V(G)|$, yet the family of maximum size cliques of $G$ cannot be pierced by $t$ vertices. This demonstrates that no universal constant threshold guarantees bounded piercing number for maximum cliques in uniform hypergraphs. We discuss further questions concerning the relationship between clique size and piercing maximum cliques in hypergraphs, and introduce a geometric variant of the problem using Helly's Theorem.

math.CO↗

arXiv2021

Intersection theorems for triangles

Given a family of sets on the plane, we say that the family is intersecting if for any two sets from the family their interiors intersect. In this paper, we study intersecting families of triangles with vertices in a given set of points. In particular, we show that if a set $P$ of $n$ points is in convex position, then the largest intersecting family of triangles with vertices in $P$ contains at most $(\frac{1}{4}+o(1))\binom{n}{3}$ triangles.

math.CO↗

arXiv2019

A Universality Theorem for Nested Polytopes

In a nutshell, we show that polynomials and nested polytopes are topological, algebraic and algorithmically equivalent. Given two polytops $A\subseteq B$ and a number $k$, the Nested Polytope Problem (NPP) asks, if there exists a polytope $X$ on $k$ vertices such that $A\subseteq X \subseteq B$. The polytope $A$ is given by a set of vertices and the polytope $B$ is given by the defining hyperplanes. We show a universality theorem for NPP. Given an instance $I$ of the NPP, we define the solutions set of $I$ as $$ V'(I) = \{(x_1,\ldots,x_k)\in \mathbb{R}^{k\cdot n} : A\subseteq \text{conv}(x_1,\ldots,x_k) \subseteq B\}.$$ As there are many symmetries, induced by permutations of the vertices, we will consider the \emph{normalized} solution space $V(I)$. Let $F$ be a finite set of polynomials, with bounded solution space. Then there is an instance $I$ of the NPP, which has a rationally-equivalent normalized solution space $V(I)$. Two sets $V$ and $W$ are rationally equivalent if there exists a homeomorphism $f : V \rightarrow W$ such that both $f$ and $f^{-1}$ are given by rational functions. A function $f:V\rightarrow W$ is a homeomorphism, if it is continuous, invertible and its inverse is continuous as well. As a corollary, we show that NPP is $\exists \mathbb{R}$-complete. This implies that unless $\exists \mathbb{R} =$ NP, the NPP is not contained in the complexity class NP. Note that those results already follow from a recent paper by Shitov. Our proof is geometric and arguably easier.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2019

An Experimental Study of Forbidden Patterns in Geometric Permutations by Combinatorial Lifting

We study the problem of deciding if a given triple of permutations can be realized as geometric permutations of disjoint convex sets in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We show that this question, which is equivalent to deciding the emptiness of certain semi-algebraic sets bounded by cubic polynomials, can be "lifted" to a purely combinatorial problem. We propose an effective algorithm for that problem, and use it to gain new insights into the structure of geometric permutations.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2018

Smoothed Analysis of the Art Gallery Problem

In the Art Gallery Problem we are given a polygon $P\subset [0,L]^2$ on $n$ vertices and a number $k$. We want to find a guard set $G$ of size $k$, such that each point in $P$ is seen by a guard in $G$. Formally, a guard $g$ sees a point $p \in P$ if the line segment $pg$ is fully contained inside the polygon $P$. The history and practical findings indicate that irrational coordinates are a "very rare" phenomenon. We give a theoretical explanation. Next to worst case analysis, Smoothed Analysis gained popularity to explain the practical performance of algorithms, even if they perform badly in the worst case. The idea is to study the expected performance on small perturbations of the worst input. The performance is measured in terms of the magnitude $δ$ of the perturbation and the input size. We consider four different models of perturbation. We show that the expected number of bits to describe optimal guard positions per guard is logarithmic in the input and the magnitude of the perturbation. This shows from a theoretical perspective that rational guards with small bit-complexity are typical. Note that describing the guard position is the bottleneck to show NP-membership. The significance of our results is that algebraic methods are not needed to solve the Art Gallery Problem in typical instances. This is the first time an $\exists\mathbb{R}$-complete problem was analyzed by Smoothed Analysis.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2015

Realization spaces of arrangements of convex bodies

We introduce combinatorial types of arrangements of convex bodies, extending order types of point sets to arrangements of convex bodies, and study their realization spaces. Our main results witness a trade-off between the combinatorial complexity of the bodies and the topological complexity of their realization space. First, we show that every combinatorial type is realizable and its realization space is contractible under mild assumptions. Second, we prove a universality theorem that says the restriction of the realization space to arrangements polygons with a bounded number of vertices can have the homotopy type of any primary semialgebraic set.

math.MG↗

arXiv2015

A geometric Hall-type theorem

We introduce a geometric generalization of Hall's marriage theorem. For any family $F = \{X_1, \dots, X_m\}$ of finite sets in $\mathbb{R}^d$, we give conditions under which it is possible to choose a point $x_i\in X_i$ for every $1\leq i \leq m$ in such a way that the points $\{x_1,...,x_m\}\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ are in general position. We give two proofs, one elementary proof requiring slightly stronger conditions, and one proof using topological techniques in the spirit of Aharoni and Haxell's celebrated generalization of Hall's theorem.

math.CO↗

arXiv2013

A combinatorial version of the colorful Caratheodory theorem

We give the following extension of Barany's colorful Caratheodory theorem: Let M be an oriented matroid and N a matroid with rank function r, both defined on the same ground set V and satisfying rank(M) < rank(N). If every subset A of V with r(V - A) < rank (M) contains a positive circuit of M, then some independent set of N contains a positive circuit of M.

math.CO↗

arXiv2009

Lower Bounds for Pinning Lines by Balls

A line L is a transversal to a family F of convex objects in R^d if it intersects every member of F. In this paper we show that for every integer d>2 there exists a family of 2d-1 pairwise disjoint unit balls in R^d with the property that every subfamily of size 2d-2 admits a transversal, yet any line misses at least one member of the family. This answers a question of Danzer from 1957.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2007

Hadwiger and Helly-type theorems for disjoint unit spheres

We prove Helly-type theorems for line transversals to disjoint unit balls in $\R^{d}$. In particular, we show that a family of $n \geq 2d$ disjoint unit balls in $\R^d$ has a line transversal if, for some ordering $\prec$ of the balls, any subfamily of 2d balls admits a line transversal consistent with $\prec$. We also prove that a family of $n \geq 4d-1$ disjoint unit balls in $\R^d$ admits a line transversal if any subfamily of size $4d-1$ admits a transversal.

cs.CG↗

arXiv2004

Cremona Convexity, Frame Convexity, and a Theorem of Santaló

In 1940, Luis Santaló proved a Helly-type theorem for line transversals to boxes in R^d. An analysis of his proof reveals a convexity structure for ascending lines in R^d that is isomorphic to the ordinary notion of convexity in a convex subset of R^{2d-2}. This isomorphism is through a Cremona transformation on the Grassmannian of lines in P^d, which enables a precise description of the convex hull and affine span of up to d ascending lines: the lines in such an affine span turn out to be the rulings of certain classical determinantal varieties. Finally, we relate Cremona convexity to a new convexity structure that we call frame convexity, which extends to arbitrary-dimensional flats.

math.MG↗