We consider the problem of determining the number of distinct distances between two point sets in $\mathbb{R}^2$ where one point set $\mathcal{P}_1$ of size $m$ lies on a real algebraic curve of fixed degree $r$, and the other point set $\mathcal{P}_2$ of size $n$ is arbitrary. We prove that the number of distinct distances between the point sets, $D(\mathcal{P}_1,\mathcal{P}_2)$, satisfies $D(\mathcal{P}_1,\mathcal{P}_2) = Ω(m^{1/2}n^{1/2}\log^{-1/2}n)$ when $m = Ω(n^{1/2}\log^{-1/3}n)$ and $D(\mathcal{P}_1,\mathcal{P}_2) = Ω(n^{1/2} m^{1/3})$ when $m=O(n^{1/2}\log^{-1/3}n)$
This generalizes work of Pohoata and Sheffer, and complements work of Pach and de Zeeuw.
In this paper, some special distance spectral properties of graphs are considered. Concretely, we recursively construct an infinite family of trees with distance eigenvalue $-1$, and determine all $\{C_3,C_4\}$-free connected graphs with three distinct distance eigenvalues of which the smallest one is equal to $-3$, which partially answers a problem posed by Koolen, Hayat and Iqbal [Linear Algebra Appl. 505 (2016) 97--108]. Furthermore, we characterize all trees with three distinct distance eigenvalues.
We improve the current best bound for distinct distances on non-ruled algebraic surfaces in ${\mathbb R}^3$. In particular, we show that $n$ points on such a surface span $Ω\left(n^{32/39-\varepsilon}\right)$ distinct distances, for any $\varepsilon>0$. Our proof adapts the proof of Székely for the planar case, which is based on the crossing lemma. As part of our proof for distinct distances on surfaces, we also obtain new results for distinct distances between circles in ${\mathbb R}^3$. Consider point sets ${\mathcal P}_1$ and ${\mathcal P}_2$ of respective sizes $m$ and $n$, such that each …
Let $Γ$ be a distance-regular graph with diameter $d$ and Kneser graph $K=Γ_d$, the distance-$d$ graph of $Γ$. We say that $Γ$ is partially antipodal when $K$ has fewer distinct eigenvalues than $Γ$. In particular, this is the case of antipodal distance-regular graphs ($K$ with only two distinct eigenvalues), and the so-called half-antipodal distance-regular graphs ($K$ with only one negative eigenvalue). We provide a characterization of partially antipodal distance-regular graphs (among regular graphs with $d$ distinct eigenvalues) in terms of the spectrum and the mean number of vertices at m…
It is shown that given a set of $N$ points in the plane or on the sphere, there is a subset of size $\gtrsim N^{1/3}/\log N$ with all pairwise distances between points distinct.
A homogeneous set of $n$ points in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space determines at least $Ω(n^{2d/(d^2+1)} / \log^{c(d)} n)$ distinct distances for a constant $c(d)>0$. In three-space, we slightly improve our general bound and show that a homogeneous set of $n$ points determines at least $Ω(n^{.6091})$ distinct distances.
Let the Kneser graph $K$ of a distance-regular graph $Γ$ be the graph on the same vertex set as $Γ$, where two vertices are adjacent when they have maximal distance in $Γ$. We study the situation where the Bose-Mesner algebra of $Γ$ is not generated by the adjacency matrix of $K$. In particular, we obtain strong results in the so-called `half antipodal' case.
Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in the plane that determines at most $n/5$ distinct distances. We show that no line can contain more than $O(n^{43/52}{\rm polylog}(n))$ points of $P$. We also show a similar result for rectangular distances, equivalent to distances in the Minkowski plane, where the distance between a pair of points is the area of the axis-parallel rectangle that they span.
Let $p_1,p_2,p_3$ be three non-collinear points in the plane, and let $P$ be a set of $n$ other points in the plane. We show that the number of distinct distances between $p_1,p_2,p_3$ and the points of $P$ is $Ω(n^{6/11})$, improving the lower bound $Ω(n^{0.502})$ of Elekes and Szabó \cite{ESz} (and considerably simplifying the analysis).
We give a shorter proof of a slightly weaker version of a theorem of Nets Katz and the author. We prove that if a set of $L$ lines in $\mathbb{R}^3$ contains at most $L^{1/2}$ lines in any low degree algebraic surface, then the number of $r$-rich points is at most $C_εL^{(3/2) + ε} r^{-2}$. Nets and I used this estimate to prove a distinct distance estimate for points in the plane. With the slightly weaker theorem in this paper, we get a slightly weaker distinct distance estimate: any set of $N$ points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ determines at least $c_εN^{1 - ε}$ distinct distances.
The \emph{distance-number} of a graph $G$ is the minimum number of distinct edge-lengths over all straight-line drawings of $G$ in the plane. This definition generalises many well-known concepts in combinatorial geometry. We consider the distance-number of trees, graphs with no $K^-_4$-minor, complete bipartite graphs, complete graphs, and cartesian products. Our main results concern the distance-number of graphs with bounded degree. We prove that $n$-vertex graphs with bounded maximum degree and bounded treewidth have distance-number in $\mathcal{O}(\log n)$. To conclude such a logarithmic up…
The reciprocal sum of Zhang sequence is not equal to the Distinct Distance Constant. This note introduces a $B_2$-sequence with larger reciprocal sum, and provides a more precise estimation of the reciprocal sums of Mian-Chowla sequence and Zhang sequence.
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 dista…
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 stu…
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.
Let $S$ be a set of points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ contained in a circle and $P$ an unrestricted point set in $\mathbb{R}^2$. We prove the number of distinct distances between points in $S$ and points in $P$ is at least $\min(|S||P|^{1/4-\varepsilon},|S|^{2/3}|P|^{2/3},|S|^2,|P|^2)$. This builds on work of Pach and De Zeeuw, Bruner and Sharir, McLaughlin and Omar and Mathialagan on distances between pairs of sets.
We consider the number of distinct distances between two finite sets of points in ${\bf R}^k$, for any constant dimension $k\ge 2$, where one set $P_1$ consists of $n$ points on a line $l$, and the other set $P_2$ consists of $m$ arbitrary points, such that no hyperplane orthogonal to $l$ and no hypercylinder having $l$ as its axis contains more than $O(1)$ points of $P_2$. The number of distinct distances between $P_1$ and $P_2$ is then $$ Ω\left(\min\left\{ n^{2/3}m^{2/3},\; \frac{n^{10/11}m^{4/11}}{\log^{2/11}m},\; n^2,\; m^2\right\}\right) . $$ Without the assumption on $P_2$, there exist …
In this paper, we introduce the notion of "geodesic cover" for Fuchsian groups, which summons copies of fundamental polygons in the hyperbolic plane to cover pairs of representatives realizing distances in the corresponding hyperbolic surface. Then we use estimates of geodesic-covering numbers to study the distinct distances problem in hyperbolic surfaces. Especially, for $Y$ from a large class of hyperbolic surfaces, we establish the nearly optimal bound $\geq c(Y)N/\log N$ for distinct distances determined by any $N$ points in $Y$, where $c(Y)>0$ is some constant depending only on $Y$. In pa…
We show that for $m$ points and $n$ lines in the real plane, the number of distinct distances between the points and the lines is $Ω(m^{1/5}n^{3/5})$, as long as $m^{1/2}\le n\le m^2$. We also prove that for any $m$ points in the plane, not all on a line, the number of distances between these points and the lines that they span is $Ω(m^{4/3})$. The problem of bounding the number of distinct point-line distances can be reduced to the problem of bounding the number of tangent pairs among a finite set of lines and a finite set of circles in the plane, and we believe that this latter question is o…
It is widely believed that point sets in the plane which determine few distinct distances must have some special structure. In particular, such sets are believed to be similar to a lattice. This note considers two different ways to quantify this idea. Firstly, improving on a result of Hanson (see arXiv:1607.03442), it is proven that if $P= A \times A$ with $A \subset \mathbb R$ and $P$ determines $O(|A|^2)$ distinct distances, then $|A-A|=O\left(|A|^{2-\frac{2}{11}}\right)$. This result gives further evidence that cartesian products which determine few distinct distances have some additive str…
For a graph $G$, and two distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$, let $n_G(u,v)$ be the number of vertices of $G$ that are closer in $G$ to $u$ than to $v$. Miklavič and Šparl (arXiv:2011.01635v1) define the distance-unbalancedness of $G$ as the sum of $|n_G(u,v)-n_G(v,u)|$ over all unordered pairs of distinct vertices $u$ and $v$ of $G$. Confirming one of their conjectures, we show that the stars minimize the distance-unbalancedness among all trees of a fixed order.
Let $P$ be a set of $n$ points in the real plane contained in an algebraic curve $C$ of degree $d$. We prove that the number of distinct distances determined by $P$ is at least $c_d n^{4/3}$, unless $C$ contains a line or a circle. We also prove the lower bound $c_d' \min(m^{2/3}n^{2/3}, m^2, n^2)$ for the number of distinct distances between $m$ points on one irreducible plane algebraic curve and $n$ points on another, unless the two curves are parallel lines, orthogonal lines, or concentric circles. This generalizes a result on distances between lines of Sharir, Sheffer, and Solymosi in arXi…
Given sets $\mathcal{P}, \mathcal{Q} \subseteq \mathbb{R}^2$ of sizes $m$ and $n$ respectively, we are interested in the number of distinct distances spanned by $\mathcal{P} \times \mathcal{Q}$. Let $D(m, n)$ denote the minimum number of distances determined by sets in $\mathbb{R}^2$ of sizes $m$ and $n$ respectively, where $m \leq n$. Elekes \cite{CircleGrids} showed that $D(m, n) = O(\sqrt{mn})$ when $m \leq n^{1/3}$. For $m \geq n^{1/3}$, we have the upper bound $D(m, n) = O(n/\sqrt{\log n})$ as in the classical distinct distances problem. In this work, we show that Elekes' construction is …
Given a set of points $P \subset \mathbb F_q^2$ such that $|P|\geq q^{3/2}$ it is established that $|P|$ determines $Ω(q^2)$ distinct perpendicular bisectors. It is also proven that, if $|P| \geq q^{4/3}$, then for a positive proportion of points $a \in P$, we have $$|\{\| a- b\|: b \in P\}|=Ω(q),$$ where $\|a- b\|$ is the distance between points $a$ and $b$. The latter result represents an improvement on a result of Chapman et al. (arxiv:0903.4218).
Every set of points $\mathcal{P}$ determines $Ω(|\mathcal{P}| / \log |\mathcal{P}|)$ distances. A close version of this was initially conjectured by Erdős in 1946 and rather recently proved by Guth and Katz. We show that when near this lower bound, a point set $\mathcal{P}$ of the form $A \times A$ must satisfy $|A - A| \ll |A|^{2-\frac{2}{7}} \log^{\frac{1}{7}} |A|$. This improves recent results of Hanson and Roche-Newton.
In this paper we obtain a new lower bound on the Erdős distinct distances problem in the plane over prime fields. More precisely, we show that for any set $A\subset \mathbb{F}_p^2$ with $|A|\le p^{7/6}$, the number of distinct distances determined by pairs of points in $A$ satisfies $$ |Δ(A)| \gg |A|^{\frac{1}{2}+\frac{149}{4214}}.$$ Our result gives a new lower bound of $|Δ{(A)}|$ in the range $|A|\le p^{1+\frac{149}{4065}}$. The main tools we employ are the energy of a set on a paraboloid due to Rudnev and Shkredov, a point-line incidence bound given by Stevens and de Zeeuw, and a lower boun…
Guth and Katz proved that any point set $\mathcal P$ in the plane determines $Ω(|\mathcal P|/\log|\mathcal P|)$ distinct distances. We show that when near to this lower bound, a point set $\mathcal P$ of the form $A\times A$ must satisfy $|A-A|\ll |A|^{2-1/8}$.
We introduce a reduction from the distinct distances problem in ${\mathbb R}^d$ to an incidence problem with $(d-1)$-flats in ${\mathbb R}^{2d-1}$. Deriving the conjectured bound for this incidence problem (the bound predicted by the polynomial partitioning technique) would lead to a tight bound for the distinct distances problem in ${\mathbb R}^d$. The reduction provides a large amount of information about the $(d-1)$-flats, and a framework for deriving more restrictions that these satisfy. Our reduction is based on introducing a Lie group that is a double cover of the special Euclidean group…
We study the minimum number of distinct distances between point sets on two curves in $R^3$. Assume that one curve contains $m$ points and the other $n$ points. Our main results: (a) When the curves are conic sections, we characterize all cases where the number of distances is $O(m+n)$. This includes new constructions for points on two parabolas, two ellipses, and one ellipse and one hyperbola. In all other cases, the number of distances is $Ω(\min\{m^{2/3}n^{2/3},m^2,n^2\})$. (b) When the curves are not necessarily algebraic but smooth and contained in perpendicular planes, we characterize al…
An ordinal-valued metric taking its values in the set of all countable ordinals can be assigned to a metrizable set of nodes in a transfinite graph. Then, a variety of results concerning nodal eccentricities, radii, diameters, centers, peripheries, and blocks can be extended to transfinite graphs.
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 recen…
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 …
For a vertex $v$ of a graph $G$, a spanning tree $T$ of $G$ is distance-preserving from $v$ if, for any vertex $w$, the distance from $v$ to $w$ on $T$ is the same as the distance from $v$ to $w$ on $G$. If two vertices $u$ and $v$ are distinct, then two distance-preserving spanning trees $T_{u}$ from $u$ and $T_{v}$ from $v$ are distinct in general. A purpose of this paper is to give a characterization for a given weighted graph $G$ to have a spanning tree $T$ such that $T$ is a distance-preserving spanning tree from distinct two vertices.
A finite set of distinct vectors $\mathcal{X}$ in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$ is called a $2$-distance set, if the set of mutual distances between distinct elements of $\mathcal{X}$ has cardinality exactly $2$. In this note we classify the $2$-distance sets in $\mathbb{R}^4$ up to isometry with computer-aided methods.
We study the dual linear code of points and generators on a non-singular Hermitian variety $\mathcal{H}(2n+1,q^2)$. We improve the earlier results for $n=2$, we solve the minimum distance problem for general $n$, we classify the $n$ smallest types of code words and we characterize the small weight code words as being a linear combination of these $n$ types.
A subset $X$ in the $d$-dimensional Euclidean space is called a $k$-distance set if there are exactly $k$ distinct distances between two distinct points in $X$ and a subset $X$ is called a locally $k$-distance set if for any point $x$ in $X$, there are at most $k$ distinct distances between $x$ and other points in $X$. Delsarte, Goethals, and Seidel gave the Fisher type upper bound for the cardinalities of $k$-distance sets on a sphere in 1977. In the same way, we are able to give the same bound for locally $k$-distance sets on a sphere. In the first part of this paper, we prove that if $X$ is…
Let G be a simple graph. A coloring of vertices of G is called (i) a 2-proper coloring if vertices at distance 2 receive distinct colors; (ii) an injective coloring if vertices possessing a common neighbor receive distinct colors; (iii) a square coloring if vertices at distance at most 2 receive distinct colors. In this paper, we study inequalities of Nordhaus-Guddam type for the 2-proper chromatic number, the injective chromatic number, and the square chromatic number.
We show that, for a constant-degree algebraic curve $γ$ in $\mathbb{R}^D$, every set of $n$ points on $γ$ spans at least $Ω(n^{4/3})$ distinct distances, unless $γ$ is an {\it algebraic helix} (see Definition 1.1). This improves the earlier bound $Ω(n^{5/4})$ of Charalambides [Discrete Comput. Geom. (2014)]. We also show that, for every set $P$ of $n$ points that lie on a $d$-dimensional constant-degree algebraic variety $V$ in $\mathbb{R}^D$, there exists a subset $S\subset P$ of size at least $Ω(n^{\frac{4}{9+12(d-1)}})$, such that $S$ spans $\binom{|S|}{2}$ distinct distances. This improves…
A graph $G$ with $d+1$ distinct eigenvalues is called strongly distance-regular if $G$ itself is distance-regular, and its distance-$d$ graph $G_d$ is strongly-regular. In this note we provide a spectral characterization of those distance-regular graphs with diameter $d=4$ which are strongly distance-regular. As a byproduct, it is shown that all bipartite strongly distance-regular graphs with such a diameter are antipodal.
We determine which quadratic polynomials in three variables are expanders over an arbitrary field $\mathbb{F}$. More precisely, we prove that for a quadratic polynomial $f\in \mathbb{F}[x,y,z]$, which is not of the form $g(h(x)+k(y)+l(z))$, we have $|f(A\times B\times C)|\gg N^{3/2}$ for any sets $A,B,C\subset \mathbb{F}$ with $|A|=|B|=|C|=N$, with $N$ not too large compared to the characteristic of $\mathbb{F}$. We give several applications. We use this result for $f=(x-y)^2+z$ to obtain new lower bounds on $|A+A^2|$ and $\max\{|A+A|,|A^2+A^2|\}$, and to prove that a Cartesian product $A\time…
