The multiplicity of the two smallest distances among points (Q1297473): Difference between revisions

The author studies distances occuring in configurations of \(n\) points in the plane, where the minimal distance between two points is assumed to be \(1=:d_1\). The multiplicity of the smallest occuring distances and \(d_1\) and \(d_2\) is smaller than \(6n\) and maximized by the triangular lattice with \(d_2= \sqrt 3\). Partially answering a question of P. Erdős and K. Vesztergombi, the author proves that \(d_2\neq\sqrt 3\) implies that the multiplicity \(d_1\) and \(d_2\) is at most \(4n\) unless \(d_2\) is \((\sqrt 5+1)/2\) or \(1/(2\sin 15)\). In the first case, the multiplicity is at most \(4,5 n\). In addition, the author presents same interesting extremal point configurations for different values of \(d_2\).