A Kakeya set $\mathcal{K}$ in an affine plane of order $q$ is the point set covered by a set $\mathcal{L}$ of $q+1$ pairwise non-parallel lines. Large Kakeya sets were studied by Dover and Mellinger; in [6] they showed that Kakeya sets with size at least $q^2-3q+9$ contain a large knot (a point of $\mathcal{K}$ lying on many lines of $\mathcal{L}$). In this paper, we improve on this result by showing that Kakeya set of size at least $\approx q^2-q\sqrt{q}+\frac{3}{2}q$ contain a large knot. Furthermore, we obtain a sharp result for planes of square order containing a Baer subplane.
For a finite field GF(q) a Kakeya set K is a subset of GF(q)^n that contains a line in every direction. This paper derives new upper bounds on the minimum size of Kakeya sets when q is even.
A Kakeya set in the linear representation $T^{*}_{2}(\mathcal{C})$, $\mathcal{C}$ a non-singular conic, is the point set covered by a set of $q+1$ lines, one through each point of $\mathcal{C}$. In this article we classify the small Kakeya sets in $T^{*}_{2}(\mathcal{C})$. The smallest Kakeya sets have size $\left\lfloor\frac{3q^{2}+2q}{4}\right\rfloor$, and all Kakeya sets with weight less than $\left\lfloor\frac{3(q^{2}-1)}{4}\right\rfloor+q$ are classified: there are approximately $\sqrt{\frac{q}{2}}$ types.
Let $\mathbb{F}$ be a finite field consisting of $q$ elements and let $n \geq 1$ be an integer. In this paper, we study the size of local Kakeya sets with respect to subsets of $\mathbb{F}^{n}$ and obtain upper and lower bounds for the minimum size of a (local) Kakeya set with respect to an arbitrary set ${\mathcal T} \subseteq \mathbb{F}^{n}.$
A Kakeya set contains a line in each direction. Dvir proved a lower bound on the size of any Kakeya set in a finite field using the polynomial method. We prove analogues of Dvir's result for non-degenerate conics, that is, parabolae and hyperbolae (but not ellipses which do not have a direction). We also study so-called conical Nikodym sets where a small variation of the proof provides a lower bound on their sizes. (Here ellipses are included.) Note that the bound on conical Kakeya sets has been known before, however, without an explicitly given constant which is included in our result and clo…
In a recent paper of Ellenberg, Oberlin, and Tao, the authors asked whether there are Besicovitch phenomena in F_q[[t]]^n. In this paper, we answer their question in the affirmative by explicitly constructing a Kakeya set in F_q[[t]]^n of measure 0. Furthermore, we prove that any Kakeya set in F_q[[t]]^2 or Z_p^2 is of Minkowski dimension 2.
We give improved lower bounds on the size of Kakeya and Nikodym sets over $\mathbb{F}_q^3$. We also propose a natural conjecture on the minimum number of points in the union of a not-too-flat set of lines in $\mathbb{F}_q^3$, and show that this conjecture implies an optimal bound on the size of a Nikodym set.
In a recent breakthrough, Dvir showed that every Kakeya set in $\F^n$ must be of cardinality at least $c_n |\F|^n$ where $c_n \approx 1/n!$. We improve this lower bound to $β^n |\F|^n$ for a constant $β> 0$. This pins down the growth of the leading constant to the right form as a function of $n$.
We study subsets of the $n$-dimensional vector space over the finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, for odd $q$, which contain either a sphere for each radius or a sphere for each first coordinate of the center. We call such sets radii spherical Kakeya sets and center spherical Kakeya sets, respectively. For $n\ge 4$ we prove a general lower bound on the size of any set containing $q-1$ different spheres which applies to both kinds of spherical Kakeya sets. We provide constructions which meet the main terms of this lower bound. We also give a construction showing that we cannot get a lower bound of ord…
We study Kakeya sets over local non-archimedean fields with a probabilistic point of view: we define a probability measure on the set of Kakeya sets as above and prove that, according to this measure, almost all non-archimedean Kakeya sets are neglectable according to the Haar measure. We also discuss possible relations with the non-archimedean Kakeya conjecture.
We present a construction of a measure-zero Kakeya-type set in a finite-dimensional space $K^d$ over a local field with finite residue field. The construction is an adaptation of the ideas appearing in [12] and [13]. The existence of measure-zero Kakeya-type sets over discrete valuation rings is also discussed, giving an alternative construction to the one presented in [4] over $\mathbb{F}_q[[t]]$.
We completely characterize the boundedness of planar directional maximal operators on L^p. More precisely, if Omega is a set of directions, we show that M_Omega, the maximal operator associated to line segments in the directions Omega, is unbounded on L^p, for all p < infinity, precisely when Omega admits Kakeya-type sets. In fact, we show that if Omega does not admit Kakeya sets, then Omega is a generalized lacunary set, and hence M_Omega is bounded on L^p, for p>1.
A Kakeya set is a subset of F^n, where F is a finite field of q elements, that contains a line in every direction. In this paper we show that the size of every Kakeya set is at least C_n * q^n, where C_n depends only on n. This improves the previously best lower bound for general n of ~q^{4n/7}.
Let $A, B$, be finite subsets of an abelian group, and let $G \subset A \times B$ be such that $# A, # B, # \{a+b: (a,b) \in G \} \leq N$. We consider the question of estimating the quantity $# \{a-b: (a,b) \in G \}$. Recently Bourgain improved the trivial upper bound of $N^2$ to $N^{2-1/13}$, and applied this to the Kakeya conjecture. We improve Bourgain's estimate further to $N^{2-1/6}$, and obtain the further improvement of $N^{2-1/4}$ if we also know that $# \{a+2b: (a,b) \in G\} \leq N$. We conclude that Besicovitch sets in $\R^n$ have Hausdorff dimension at least 6n/11+5/11 and Minkowski…
We consider unions of $SL(2)$ lines in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. These are lines of the form $$L = (a,b,0) + \mathrm{span}(c,d,1),$$ where $ad - bc = 1$. We show that if $\mathcal{L}$ is a Kakeya set of $SL(2)$ lines, then the union $\cup \mathcal{L}$ has Hausdorff dimension $3$. This answers a question of Wang and Zahl. The $SL(2)$ lines can be identified with horizontal lines in the first Heisenberg group, and we obtain the main result as a corollary of a more general statement concerning unions of horizontal lines. This statement is established via a point-line duality principle between horizontal …
We construct a union of N parallelograms of dimensions approximately 1/N x 1 in the plane, with the slope of their long sides in the standard Cantor set. The union has area 1/log N but the union of the doubles has area log log N/ log N. In particular, this implies unbounded of the associated maximal operator in L^p for any p different from infinity. The construction is by randomizing an earlier construction of the second author for the L^2 case. The proof that the construction satisfies the desired conditions is by elementary estimates in the theory of percolation on trees as developed by R. L…
A planar set that contains a unit segment in every direction is called a Kakeya set. We relate these sets to a game of pursuit on a cycle $\Z_n$. A hunter and a rabbit move on the nodes of $\Z_n$ without seeing each other. At each step, the hunter moves to a neighbouring vertex or stays in place, while the rabbit is free to jump to any node. Adler et al (2003) provide strategies for hunter and rabbit that are optimal up to constant factors and achieve probability of capture in the first $n$ steps of order $1/\log n$. We show these strategies yield a Kakeya set consisting of $4n$ triangles with…
A subset U of a group G is called k-universal if U contains a translate of every k-element subset of G. We give several nearly optimal constructions of small k-universal sets, and use them to resolve an old question of Erdos and Newman on bases for sets of integers, and to obtain several extensions for other groups.
Let $K$ be a convex body (a compact convex set) in $\mathbb{R}^d$, that contains a copy of another body $S$ in every possible orientation. Is it always possible to continuously move any one copy of $S$ into another, inside $K$? As a stronger question, is it always possible to continuously select, for each orientation, one copy of $S$ in that orientation? These questions were asked by Croft. We show that, in two dimensions, the stronger question always has an affirmative answer. We also show that in three dimensions the answer is negative, even for the case when $S$ is a line segment -- but tha…
We prove the discrete analogue of Kakeya conjecture over $\mathbb{R}^n$. This result suggests that a (hypothetically) low dimensional Kakeya set cannot be constructed directly from discrete configurations. We also prove a generalization which completely solves the discrete analogue of the Furstenberg set problem in all dimensions. The difference between our theorems and the (true) problems is only the (still difficult) issue of continuity since no transversality-at-incidences assumptions are imposed. The main tool of the proof is a theorem of Wongkew \cite{wongkew2003volumes} which states that…
We extend the "method of multiplicities" to get the following results, of interest in combinatorics and randomness extraction. (A) We show that every Kakeya set (a set of points that contains a line in every direction) in $\F_q^n$ must be of size at least $q^n/2^n$. This bound is tight to within a $2 + o(1)$ factor for every $n$ as $q \to \infty$, compared to previous bounds that were off by exponential factors in $n$. (B) We give improved randomness extractors and "randomness mergers". Mergers are seeded functions that take as input $Λ$ (possibly correlated) random variables in $\{0,1\}^N$ an…
Using the polynomial method of Dvir \cite{dvir}, we establish optimal estimates for Kakeya sets and Kakeya maximal functions associated to algebraic varieties $W$ over finite fields $F$. For instance, given an $n-1$-dimensional projective variety $W \subset ¶^n(F)$, we establish the Kakeya maximal estimate $$ \| \sup_{γ\ni w} \sum_{v \in γ(F)} |f(v)| \|_{\ell^n(W)} \leq C_{n,W,d} |F|^{(n-1)/n} \|f\|_{\ell^n(F^n)}$$ for all functions $f: F^n \to \R$ and $d \geq 1$, where for each $w \in W$, the supremum is over all irreducible algebraic curves in $F^n$ of degree at most $d$ that pass through $w…
We propose the concepts of intersection distribution and non-hitting index, which can be viewed from two related perspectives. The first one concerns a point set $S$ of size $q+1$ in the classical projective plane $PG(2,q)$, where the intersection distribution of $S$ indicates the intersection pattern between $S$ and the lines in $PG(2,q)$. The second one relates to a polynomial $f$ over a finite field $\mathbb{F}_q$, where the intersection distribution of $f$ records an overall distribution property of a collection of polynomials $\{f(x)+cx \mid c \in \mathbb{F}_q\}$. These two perspectives a…
A $(k,m)$-Furstenberg set $S \subset \mathbb{F}_q^n$ over a finite field is a set that has at least $m$ points in common with a $k$-flat in every direction. The question of determining the smallest size of such sets is a natural generalization of the finite field Kakeya problem. The only previously known bound for these sets is due to Ellenberg-Erman and requires sophisticated machinery from algebraic geometry. In this work we give new, completely elementary and simple, proofs which significantly improve the known bounds. Our main result relies on an equivalent formulation of the problem using…
In this note, we give a new construction of divisible difference sets in ${\Bbb Z}_{9}^n$ using Galois ring $GR(3^2,n)$ under the assumption of the existence of skew Hadamard difference sets in ${\Bbb F}_{3^n}$.
We prove in this note that, for an alphabet with three letters, the set of first return to a given word in a set satisfying the tree condition is a basis of the free group.
Ramras conjectured that the maximum size of an independent set in the discrete cube containing equal numbers of sets of even and odd size is 2^(n-1) - (n-1 choose (n-1)/2) when n is odd. We prove this conjecture, and find the analogous bound when n is even. The result follows from an isoperimetric inequality in the cube.
The size of the largest Erd\H os-Ko-Rado set of generators in the finite classical polar space is known for all polar spaces except for $H(2d-1,q^2)$ when $d\ge 5$ is odd. We improve the known upper bound in this remaining case by using a variant of the famous Hoffman's bound.
We modify an argument of Hablicsek and Scherr to show that if a collection of points in $\mathbb{C}^d$ spans many $r$--rich lines, then many of these lines must lie in a common $(d-1)$--flat. This is closely related to a previous result of Dvir and Gopi.
Let $Q_d$ be the $d$-dimensional Hamming cube and $N=|V(Q_d)|=2^d$. An independent set $I$ in $Q_d$ is called balanced if $I$ contains the same number of even and odd vertices. We show that the logarithm of the number of balanced independent sets in $Q_d$ is \[(1-Θ(1/\sqrt d))N/2.\] The key ingredient of the proof is an improved version of "Sapozhenko's graph container lemma."
The union-closed sets conjecture states that if a family of sets $\mathcal{A} \neq \{\emptyset\}$ is union-closed, then there is an element which belongs to at least half the sets in $\mathcal{A}$. In 2001, D. Reimer showed that the average set size of a union-closed family, $\mathcal{A}$, is at least $\frac{1}{2} \log_2 |\mathcal{A}|$. In order to do so, he showed that all union-closed families satisfy a particular condition, which in turn implies the preceding bound. Here, answering a question raised in the context of T. Gowers' polymath project on the union-closed sets conjecture, we show t…
Given an infinite group $G$ and a subset $A$ of $G$ we let $Δ(A) = \{g \in G \,:\, |gA \cap A| =\infty\}$ (this is sometimes called the \emph{combinatorial derivation} of $A$). A subset $A$ of $G$ is called: \emph{large} if there exists a finite subset $F$ of $G$ such that $FA=G$; \emph{$Δ$-large} if $Δ(A)$ is large and \emph{small} if for every large subset $L$ of $G$, $(G \setminus A) \cap L$ is large. In this note we show that every non-small set is $Δ$-large, answering a question of Protasov.
Bourgain, Konyagin and Shparlinski obtained a lower bound for the size of the product set AB when A and B are sets of positive rational numbers with numerator and denominator less or equal than Q. We extend and slightly improve that lower bound using a different approach.
This article gives an overview of toric Fano and toric weak Fano varieties associated to graphs and building sets. We also study some properties of such toric Fano varieties and discuss related topics.
The present note is a strengthening of a recent paper by K. Takazawa and Y. Yokoi (A generalized-polymatroid approach to disjoint common independent sets in two matroids, Discrete Mathematics (2019)). For given two matroids on $E$, under the same assumption in their paper to guarantee the existence of a partition of $E$ into $k$ common independent sets of the two matroids, we show that there exists a nearly uniform partition $\mathcal{P}$ of $E$ into $k$ common independent sets, where the difference of the cardinalities of any two sets in $\mathcal{P}$ is at most one.
After surveying some known properties of compact convex sets in the plane, we give a two rigorous proofs of the general feeling that supporting lines can be slide-turned slowly and continuously. Targeting a wide readership, our treatment is elementary on purpose.
We prove constructively that the maximum possible number of minimal connected dominating sets in a connected undirected graph of order $n$ is in $Ω(1.489^n)$. This improves the previously known lower bound of $Ω(1.4422^n)$ and reduces the gap between lower and upper bounds for input-sensitive enumeration of minimal connected dominating sets in general graphs as well as some special graph classes.
Given two sets of natural numbers $\mathcal{A}$ and $\mathcal{B}$ of natural density $1$ we prove that their product set $\mathcal{A}\cdot \mathcal{B}:=\{ab:a\in\mathcal{A},\,b\in\mathcal{B}\}$ also has natural density $1$. On the other hand, for any $\varepsilon>0$, we show there are sets $\mathcal{A}$ of density $>1-\varepsilon$ for which the product set $\mathcal{A}\cdot\mathcal{A}$ has density $<\varepsilon$. This answers two questions of Hegyvári, Hennecart and Pach.
Cao & Yuan obtained a Blichfeldt-type result for the vertex set of the edge-to-edge tiling of the plane by regular hexagons. Observing that every Archimedean tiling is the union of translates of a fixed lattice, we take a more general viewpoint and investigate basic questions for such point sets about the homogeneous and inhomogeneous problem in the Geometry of Numbers. The Archimedean tilings nicely exemplify our results.
