arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Sam Zbarsky.
Let $D$ be an integral domain. Two players, Nora and Wanda, alternately choose coefficients from $D$ for a polynomial of degree $d$. When they are done, if the polynomial has a root in the field of fractions of $D$, then Wanda wins. If not, then Nora wins. We determine, for many $D$, who wins this game.
Let P be a set of n points in R^d. How big is the largest subset X of P such that all of the distances determined between pairs are different? We show that X is at at least Omega(n^{1/6d}) This is not the best known; however the technique is new. Assume that no three of the original points are collinear. How big is the largest subset X of P such that all of the areas determined by elements of all triples are different? We show that, if d=2 then X is at least Omega((log log n)^{1/186}) and if d=3 then X is at least Omega((log log n)^{1/396}). We also obtain results for countable sets of points in R^d. All of our proofs use variants of the canonical Ramsey theorem and some geometric lemmas.