Crossing patterns of semi-algebraic sets

Noga Alon*, János Pach, Rom Pinchasi, Radoš Radoičić, Micha Sharir

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

We prove that, for every family F of n semi-algebraic sets in ℝd of constant description complexity, there exist a positive constant ε that depends on the maximum complexity of the elements of F, and two subfamilies F1, F2 ⊆ F with at least εn elements each, such that either every element of F1 intersects all elements of F2 or no element of F1 intersects any element of F2. This implies the existence of another constant δ such that F has a subset F′ ⊆ F with nδ elements, so that either every pair of elements of F′ intersect each other or the elements of F′ are pairwise disjoint. The same results hold when the intersection relation is replaced by any other semi-algebraic relation. We apply these results to settle several problems in discrete geometry and in Ramsey theory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)310-326
Number of pages17
JournalJournal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A
Volume111
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2005

Funding

FundersFunder number
Hermann Minkowski Minerva Center for Geometry
Israel Science Fund
Israeli Academy of Sciences
PSC-CUNY63352-0036
National Science FoundationCCR-00-98246
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation
Hungarian Scientific Research FundT-032458
Israel Science Foundation
Tel Aviv University

    Keywords

    • Borsuk-Ulam theorem
    • Crossing patterns
    • Ramsey theory
    • Range searching
    • Real algebraic geometry

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