A superlinear lower bound on the number of 5-holes

Oswin Aichholzer, Martin Balko, Thomas Hackl, Jan Kynčl, Irene Parada, Manfred Scheucher, Pavel Valtr, Birgit Vogtenhuber

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Let P be a finite set of points in the plane in general position, that is, no three points of P are on a common line. We say that a set H of five points from P is a 5-hole in P if H is the vertex set of a convex 5-gon containing no other points of P. For a positive integer n, let h5(n) be the minimum number of 5-holes among all sets of n points in the plane in general position. Despite many efforts in the last 30 years, the best known asymptotic lower and upper bounds for h5(n) have been of order Ω(n) and O(n2), respectively. We show that h5(n) = Ω(n log4/5 n), obtaining the first superlinear lower bound on h5(n). The following structural result, which might be of independent interest, is a crucial step in the proof of this lower bound. If a finite set P of points in the plane in general position is partitioned by a line ℓ into two subsets, each of size at least 5 and not in convex position, then ℓ intersects the convex hull of some 5-hole in P. The proof of this result is computer-assisted Pavel.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication33rd International Symposium on Computational Geometry, SoCG 2017
EditorsMatthew J. Katz, Boris Aronov
PublisherSchloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing
Pages81-816
Number of pages736
ISBN (Electronic)9783959770385
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2017
Externally publishedYes
Event33rd International Symposium on Computational Geometry, SoCG 2017 - Brisbane, Australia
Duration: 4 Jul 20177 Jul 2017

Publication series

NameLeibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
Volume77
ISSN (Print)1868-8969

Conference

Conference33rd International Symposium on Computational Geometry, SoCG 2017
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityBrisbane
Period4/07/177/07/17

Keywords

  • Birgit Vogtenhuber
  • Empty k-gon
  • Empty pentagon
  • Erdos-Szekeres type problem
  • K-hole
  • Planar point set Valtr

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Software

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