Favourite distances in \(3\)-space (Q2185206): Difference between revisions

Let \(S\) be a configuration of \(n\) points in the \(d\)-dimensional Euclidean space \(\mathbb{R}^d\). Let \(d(x,y)\) denote the Euclidean distance between points \(x\) and \(y\). Let us be given a function \(r: S\rightarrow (0,\infty)\), which assigns a ``preferred distance'' to every point of \(S\). The number of preferred distances in the configuration \(S\) is \(|\{(x,y): x,y\in S \text{ and } d(x,y)=r(x)\}|\). Let \(f_d(n)\) denote the maximum number of preferred distances over all choices of \(n\)-element point configurations in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) and all choices of the function \(r\). \textit{D. Avis} et al. [Graphs Combin. 4, 207--217 (1988; Zbl 0656.05039)] introduced this concept and showed the foillowing bounds for \(d=3\): \(\frac{n^2}{4}+ \frac{3n}{2} \leq f_3(n) \leq \frac{n^2}{4}+a n^{2-b} \), for some \(a,b>0\). The paper under review shows that \( f_3(n)= \frac{n^2}{4}+\frac{5n}{2}+O(1) \) as \(n\rightarrow \infty\) through forcing an almost circular structure and using extremal graph theory.