Monochromatic triangles in two-colored plane (Q624214)

\textit{P. Erdős, R. L. Graham, P. Montgomery, B. L. Rotschild, J. Spencer and E. G. Straus} [Colloq. Math. Soc. János Bolyai 10, 559--583 (1975; Zbl 0313.05002)] conjectured that, if a \(2\)-colouring of the points of the plane is such that the vertex set of no unit equilateral triangle is monochromatic, then the colouring consits of alternating strips of width \(\sqrt{3}/2\) with the points on the boundary lines coloured in a suitable way. This paper disproves this conjecture by constructing so-called zebra-like \(2\)-colourings of the plane that avoid unit equilateral triangles. In fact, in a certain class of polygonal \(2\)-colourings, it is shown that these are the only \(2\)-colourings of the plane that avoid unit equilateral triangles. It is also shown that, in a \(2\)-colouring of the points of the plane with one colour forming an open set, any \(3\)-point configuration \(T\) has a translated and rotated monochromatic copy thus providing evidence for another conjecture of Erdős et al. [loc. cit.].