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 ${\mathbb C}$.
In this paper we prove an incidence bound for points and cubic curves over prime fields. The methods generalise those used by Mohammadi, Pham, and Warren (2021).
We prove new bounds on the number of incidences between points and higher degree algebraic curves. The key ingredient is an improved initial bound, which is valid for all fields. Then we apply the polynomial method to obtain global bounds on $\mathbb{R}$ and $\mathbb{C}$.
In this note we give a shortened proof of a theorem of Rudnev, which bounds the number of incidences between points and planes over an arbitrary field. Rudnev's proof uses a map that goes via the four-dimensional Klein quadric to a three-dimensional space, where it applies a bound of Guth and Katz on intersection points of lines. We describe a simple geometric map that directly sends point-plane incidences to line-line intersections in space, allowing us to reprove Rudnev's theorem with fewer technicalities.
We study the metric dimension and optimal split-resolving sets of the point-circle incidence graph of a Möbius plane. We prove that the metric dimension of a Möbius plane of order $q$ is around $2q$, and that an optimal split-resolving set has cardinality between approximately $5q$ and $2.5q\log q$. We also prove that a smallest blocking set of a Möbius plane of order $q$ has at most $2q(1 + \log(q + 1))$ points.
We prove bounds on the number of incidences between a set of algebraic curves in $\mathbb{C}^2$ and a Cartesian product $A\times B$ with finite sets $A,B\subset \mathbb{C}$. Similar bounds are known under various conditions, but we show that the Cartesian product assumption leads to a simpler proof. This assumption holds in a number of interesting applications, and with our bound these applications can be extended from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathbb{C}$. The proof is a new application of the polynomial partitioning technique introduced by Guth and Katz.
We examine the incidence geometry of lines in the tropical plane. We prove tropical analogs of the Sylvester-Gallai and Motzkin-Rabin theorems in classical incidence geometry. This study leads naturally to a discussion of the realizability of incidence data of tropical lines. Drawing inspiration from the von Staudt constructions and Mnëv's universality theorem, we prove that determining whether a given tropical linear incidence datum is realizable by a tropical line arrangement requires solving an arbitrary linear programming problem over the integers.
We consider the structure of the plane-line incidence matrix of the projective space $\mathrm{PG}(3,q)$ with respect to the orbits of planes and lines under the stabilizer group of the twisted cubic. Structures of submatrices with incidences between a union of line orbits and an orbit of planes are investigated. For the unions consisting of two or three line orbits, the original submatrices are split into new ones, in which the incidences are also considered. For each submatrix (apart from the ones corresponding to a special type of lines), the numbers of lines in every plane and planes throug…
We use methods from spectral graph theory to obtain bounds on the number of incidences between $k$-planes and $h$-planes in $\mathbb{F}_q^d$ which generalize a recent result given by Bennett, Iosevich, and Pakianathan (2014). More precisely, we prove that the number of incidences between a set $\mathcal{P}$ of $k$-planes and a set $\mathcal{H}$ of $h$-planes with $h\ge 2k+1$, which is denoted by $I(\mathcal{P},\mathcal{H})$, satisfies \[\left\vert I(\mathcal{P},\mathcal{H})-\frac{|\mathcal{P}||\mathcal{H}|}{q^{(d-h)(k+1)}}\right\vert \lesssim q^{\frac{(d-h)h+k(2h-d-k+1)}{2}}\sqrt{|\mathcal{P}|…
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 $\varepsilon$, …
Orbits and incidence matrices for points, planes and lines regarding the twisted cubic in PG(3,q), q = 2, 3, 4
Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院信息传输问题哈尔维奇研究所）；Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Perugia（佩鲁贾大学数学与计算机科学系）
We prove an incidence theorem for points and planes in the projective space $\mathbb P^3$ over any field $\mathbb F$, whose characteristic $p\neq 2.$ An incidence is viewed as an intersection along a line of a pair of two-planes from two canonical rulings of the Klein quadric. The Klein quadric can be traversed by a generic hyperplane, yielding a line-line incidence problem in a three-quadric, the Klein image of a regular line complex. This hyperplane can be chosen so that at most two lines meet. Hence, one can apply an algebraic theorem of Guth and Katz, with a constraint involving $p$ if $p>…
Using degeneration and Schubert calculus, we consider the problem of computing the number of linear series of given degree $d$ and dimension $r$ on a general curve of genus $g$ satisfying prescribed incidence conditions at $n$ points. We determine these numbers completely for linear series of arbitrary dimension when $d$ is sufficiently large, and for all $d$ when either $r=1$ or $n=r+2$. Our formulas generalize and give new proofs of recent results of Tevelev and of Cela-Pandharipande-Schmitt.
Guth and Katz proved that, as conjectured by Elekes and Sharir, $m$ lines in 3-space have at most constant times $ m^{3/2}$ intersection points, aside from some obvious counter examples. We give an explicit bound for the constant, using the arithmetic genus of the union of the lines.
Let $P = A\times A \subset \mathbb{F}_p \times \mathbb{F}_p$, $p$ a prime. Assume that $P= A\times A$ has $n$ elements, $n<p$. See $P$ as a set of points in the plane over $\mathbb{F}_p$. We show that the pairs of points in $P$ determine $\geq c n^{1 + {1/267}}$ lines, where $c$ is an absolute constant. We derive from this an incidence theorem: the number of incidences between a set of $n$ points and a set of $n$ lines in the projective plane over $\F_p$ ($n<\sqrt{p}$) is bounded by $C n^{{3/2}-{1/10678}}$, where $C$ is an absolute constant.
We study the probability for a random line to intersect a given plane curve, defined over a finite field, in a given number of points defined over the same field. In particular, we focus on the limits of these probabilities under successive finite field extensions. Supposing absolute irreducibility for the curve, we show how a variant of Chebotarev density theorem for function fields can be used to prove the existence of these limits, and to compute them under a mildly stronger condition, known as simple tangency. Partial results have already appeared in the literature, and we propose this wor…
We study incidence problems involving points and curves in $R^3$. The current (and in fact only viable) approach to such problems, pioneered by Guth and Katz, requires a variety of tools from algebraic geometry, most notably (i) the polynomial partitioning technique, and (ii) the study of algebraic surfaces that are ruled by lines or, in more recent studies, by algebraic curves of some constant degree. By exploiting and refining these tools, we obtain new and improved bounds for point-curve incidence problems in $R^3$. Incidences of this kind have been considered in several previous studies, s…
We consider the structures of the plane-line and point-line incidence matrices of the projective space $\mathrm{PG}(3,q)$ connected with orbits of planes, points, and lines under the stabilizer group of the twisted cubic. In the literature, lines are partitioned into classes, each of which is a union of line orbits. In this paper, for all $q$, even and odd, we determine the incidence matrices connected with a family of orbits of the class named $\mathcal{O}_6$. This class contains lines external to the twisted cubic. The considered family include an essential part of all $\mathcal{O}_6$ orbits…
It is shown that $n$ points and $e$ lines in the complex Euclidean plane ${\mathbb C}^2$ determine $O(n^{2/3}e^{2/3}+n+e)$ point-line incidences. This bound is the best possible, and it generalizes the celebrated theorem by Szemerédi and Trotter about point-line incidences in the real Euclidean plane ${\mathbb R}^2$.
We prove a new upper bound for the number of incidences between points and lines in a plane over an arbitrary field $\mathbb{F}$, a problem first considered by Bourgain, Katz and Tao. Specifically, we show that $m$ points and $n$ lines in $\mathbb{F}^2$, with $m^{7/8}<n<m^{8/7}$, determine at most $O(m^{11/15}n^{11/15})$ incidences (where, if $\mathbb{F}$ has positive characteristic $p$, we assume $m^{-2}n^{13}\ll p^{15}$). This improves on the previous best known bound, due to Jones. To obtain our bound, we first prove an optimal point-line incidence bound on Cartesian products, using a reduc…
We study incidences between points and algebraic curves in three dimensions, taken from a family $C$ of curves that have almost two degrees of freedom, meaning that every pair of curves intersect in $O(1)$ points, for any pair of points $p$, $q$, there are only $O(1)$ curves of $C$ that pass through both points, and a pair $p$, $q$ of points admit a curve of $C$ that passes through both of them iff $F(p,q)=0$ for some polynomial $F$. We study two specific instances, one involving unit circles in $R^3$ that pass through some fixed point (so called anchored unit circles), and the other involving…
We study a wide spectrum of incidence problems involving points and curves or points and surfaces in $\mathbb R^3$. The current (and in fact the only viable) approach to such problems, pioneered by Guth and Katz [2010,2015], requires a variety of tools from algebraic geometry, most notably (i) the polynomial partitioning technique, and (ii) the study of algebraic surfaces that are ruled by lines or, in more recent studies [Guth-Zahl 2016], by algebraic curves of some constant degree. By exploiting and refining these tools, we obtain new and improved bounds for numerous incidence problems in $\…
In this article we consider structures on a Fano plane ${\cal F}$ which allow a generalisation of Freudenthal's construction of a norm and a bilinear multiplication law on an eight-dimensional vector space ${\mathbb O_{\cal F}}$ canonically associated to ${\cal F}$. We first determine necessary and sufficient conditions in terms of the incidence geometry of ${\cal F}$ for these structures to give rise to division composition algebras, and classify the corresponding structures using a logarithmic version of the multiplication. We then show how these results can be used to deduce analogous resul…
The famous Szemerédi-Trotter theorem states that any arrangement of $n$ points and $n$ lines in the plane determines $O(n^{4/3})$ incidences, and this bound is tight. In this paper, we prove the following Turán-type result for point-line incidence. Let $\mathcal{L}_1$ and $\mathcal{L}_2$ be two sets of $t$ lines in the plane and let $P=\{\ell_1 \cap \ell_2 : \ell_1 \in \mathcal{L}_1, \ell_2 \in \mathcal{L}_2\}$ be the set of intersection points between $\mathcal{L}_1$ and $\mathcal{L}_2$. We say that $(P, \mathcal{L}_1 \cup \mathcal{L}_2)$ forms a \emph{natural $t\times t$ grid} if $|P| =t^2$,…
In this paper we consider binary linear codes spanned by incidence matrices of Steiner 2-designs associated with maximal arcs in projective planes of even order, and their dual codes. Upper and lower bounds on the 2-rank of the incidence matrices are derived. A lower bound on the minimum distance of the dual codes is proved, and it is shown that the bound is achieved if and only if the related maximal arc contains a hyperoval of the plane. The binary linear codes of length 52 spanned by the incidence matrices of 2-$(52,4,1)$ designs associated with previously known and some newly found maximal…
In this paper we establish an improved bound for the number of incidences between a set $P$ of $m$ points and a set $H$ of $n$ planes in $\mathbb R^3$, provided that the points lie on a two-dimensional nonlinear irreducible algebraic variety $V$ of constant degree. Specifically, the bound is $$ O\left( m^{2/3}n^{2/3} + m^{6/11}n^{9/11}\log^β(m^3/n) + m + n + \sum_\ell |P_\ell|\cdot |H_\ell| \right) , $$ where the constant of proportionality and the constant exponent $β$ depend on the degree of $V$, and where the sum ranges over all lines $\ell$ that are fully contained in $V$ and contain at le…
The point-plane incidence theorem states that the number of incidences between $n$ points and $m\geq n$ planes in the projective three-space over a field $F$, is $$O\left(m\sqrt{n}+ m k\right),$$ where $k$ is the maximum number of collinear points, with the extra condition $n< p^2$ if $F$ has characteristic $p>0$. This theorem also underlies a state-of-the-art Szemerédi-Trotter type bound for point-line incidences in $F^2$, due to Stevens and de Zeeuw. This review focuses on some recent, as well as new, applications of these bounds that lead to progress in several open geometric questions in $…
In this article, new regular incidence structures are presented. They arise from sets of conics in the affine plane blown-up at its rational points. The LDPC codes given by these incidence matrices are studied. These sparse incidence matrices turn out to be redundant, which means that their number of rows exceeds their rank. Such a feature is absent from random LDPC codes and is in general interesting for the efficiency of iterative decoding. The performance of some codes under iterative decoding is tested. Some of them turn out to perform better than regular Gallager codes having similar rate…
We prove three theorems giving extremal bounds on the incidence structures determined by subsets of the points and blocks of a balanced incomplete block design (BIBD). These results generalize and strengthen known bounds on the number of incidences between points and $m$-flats in affine geometries over finite fields. First, we show an upper bound on the number of incidences between sufficiently large subsets of the points and blocks of a BIBD. Second, we show that a sufficiently large subset of the points of a BIBD determines many t-rich blocks. Third, we show that a sufficiently large subset …
A classical result by Erdős, and later on by Bondy and Simonivits, states that every $n$-vertex graph with no cycle of length $2k$ has at most $O(n^{1+1 /k})$ edges. This bound is known to be tight when $k \in \{2,3,5\},$ but it is a major open problem in extremal graph theory to decide if this bound is tight for all $k$. In this paper, we study the effect of forbidding short even cycles in incidence graphs of point-line arrangements in the plane. It is not known if the Erdős upper bound stated above can be improved to $o(n^{1+1/k})$ in this geometric setting, and in this note, we establish no…
We show that the number of incidences between $m$ distinct points and $n$ distinct lines in ${\mathbb R}^4$ is $O\left(2^{c\sqrt{\log m}} (m^{2/5}n^{4/5}+m) + m^{1/2}n^{1/2}q^{1/4} + m^{2/3}n^{1/3}s^{1/3} + n\right)$, for a suitable absolute constant $c$, provided that no 2-plane contains more than $s$ input lines, and no hyperplane or quadric contains more than $q$ lines. The bound holds without the factor $2^{c\sqrt{\log m}}$ when $m \le n^{6/7}$ or $m \ge n^{5/3}$. Except for this factor, the bound is tight in the worst case.
We determine the partition dimension of the incidence graph $G(Π_q)$ of the projective plane $Π_q$ up to a constant factor $2$ as $(2+o(1))\log_2{q}\leq \mathrm{pd}(G(Π_q))\leq (4+o(1))\log_2{q}.$
We prove a new, tight upper bound on the number of incidences between points and hyperplanes in Euclidean d-space. Given n points, of which k are colored red, there are O_d(m^{2/3}k^{2/3}n^{(d-2)/3} + kn^{d-2} + m) incidences between the k red points and m hyperplanes spanned by all n points provided that m = Ω(n^{d-2}). For the monochromatic case k = n, this was proved by Agarwal and Aronov. We use this incidence bound to prove that a set of n points, no more than n-k of which lie on any plane or two lines, spans Ω(nk^2) planes. We also provide an infinite family of counterexamples to a conje…
We generalize the Szemerédi-Trotter incidence theorem, to bound the number of complete \emph{flags} in higher dimensions. Specifically, for each $i=0,1,\ldots,d-1$, we are given a finite set $S_i$ of $i$-flats in $\R^d$ or in $\C^d$, and a (complete) flag is a tuple $(f_0,f_1,\ldots,f_{d-1})$, where $f_i\in S_i$ for each $i$ and $f_i\subset f_{i+1}$ for each $i=0,1,\ldots,d-2$. Our main result is an upper bound on the number of flags which is tight in the worst case. We also study several other kinds of incidence problems, including (i) incidences between points and lines in $\R^3$ such that a…
This thesis establishes new quantitative records in several problems of incidence geometry and growth. After the necessary background in Chapters 1, 2 and 3, the following results are proven. Chapter 4 gives new results in the incidence geometry of a plane determined by a finite field of prime order. These comprise a new upper bound on the total number of incidences determined by finitely many points and lines, and a new estimate for the number of distinct lines determined by a finite set of non-collinear points. Chapter 5 gives new results on expander functions. First, a new bound is establis…
We study the theory $T_{m,n}$ of existentially closed incidence structures omitting the complete incidence structure $K_{m,n}$, which can also be viewed as existentially closed $K_{m,n}$-free bipartite graphs. In the case $m = n = 2$, this is the theory of existentially closed projective planes. We give an $\forall\exists$-axiomatization of $T_{m,n}$, show that $T_{m,n}$ does not have a countable saturated model when $m,n\geq 2$, and show that the existence of a prime model for $T_{2,2}$ is equivalent to a longstanding open question about finite projective planes. Finally, we analyze model the…
We continue our study and classification of structures on the Fano plane ${\cal F}$ and its dual ${\cal F}^\ast$ involved in the construction of octonions and the Lie algebra $\mathfrak g_2 (\mathbb F)$ over a field $\mathbb F$. These are a "composition factor": ${\cal F}\times {\cal F} \to\{-1, 1\}$, inducing an octonion multiplication, and a function $δ^\ast : Aut({\cal F}) \times {\cal F}^\ast \to \{-1, 1\}$ such that $g \in Aut({\cal F})$ can be lifted to an automorphism of the octonions iff $δ^\ast(g, \cdot)$ is the Radon transform of a function on ${\cal F}$. We lift the action of $Aut({…
We give a fairly elementary and simple proof that shows that the number of incidences between $m$ points and $n$ lines in ${\mathbb R}^3$, so that no plane contains more than $s$ lines, is $$ O\left(m^{1/2}n^{3/4}+ m^{2/3}n^{1/3}s^{1/3} + m + n\right) $$ (in the precise statement, the constant of proportionality of the first and third terms depends, in a rather weak manner, on the relation between $m$ and $n$). This bound, originally obtained by Guth and Katz~\cite{GK2} as a major step in their solution of Erd{\H o}s's distinct distances problem, is also a major new result in incidence geometr…
It is shown that the number of distinct types of three-point hinges, defined by a real plane set of $n$ points is $\gg n^2\log^{-3} n$, where a hinge is identified by fixing two pair-wise distances in a point triple. This is achieved via strengthening (modulo a $\log n$ factor) of the Guth-Katz estimate for the number of pair-wise intersections of lines in $\mathbb R^3$, arising in the context of the plane Erd\H os distinct distance problem, to a second moment incidence estimate. This relies, in particular, on the generalisation of the Guth-Katz incidence bound by Solomon and Sharir.
An incidence of a graph $G$ is a vertex-edge pair $(v,e)$ such that $v$ is incidence with $e$. A conflict-free incidence coloring of a graph is a coloring of the incidences in such a way that two incidences $(u,e)$ and $(v,f)$ get distinct colors if and only if they conflict each other, i.e.,(i) $u=v$, (ii) $uv$ is $e$ or $f$, or (iii) there is a vertex $w$ such that $uw=e$ and $vw=f$. The minimum number of colors used among all conflict-free incidence colorings of a graph is the conflict-free incidence chromatic number. A graph is outer-1-planar if it can be drawn in the plane so that vertice…
This article is concerned with the rigidity properties of geometric realizations of incidence geometries of rank two as points and lines in the Euclidean plane; we care about the distance being preserved among collinear points. We discuss the rigidity properties of geometric realizations of incidence geometries in relation to the rigidity of geometric realizations of other well-known structures, such as graphs and hypergraphs.The $2$-plane matroid is also discussed. Further, we extend a result of Whiteley to determine necessary conditions for an incidence geometry of points and lines with exac…
