On the Helly number for hyperplane transversals to unit balls (Q1580738): Difference between revisions

The paper concerns the smallest number \(k\) such that for every family of at least \(k\) pairwise disjoint unit balls in the Euclidean \(d\)-space \(\mathbb{R}^d\) the following implication is true: if every \(k\) from the balls are met by a hyperplane, then there is a hyperplane which meets all the balls from the family. This number is called Helly number for hyperplane transversals to disjoint unit balls. The authors consider arbitrary family of \(d+3\) or more unit balls in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) such that no \(d\) of the balls have a transversal of dimension less than \(d-1\). They prove that the Helly number for hyperplane transversals to this family is at least \(d+3\). Moreover, it is proved that for each \(n\geq 6\) there exist \(n\) pairwise disjoint unit disks in the plane such that every 4 are met by a straight line but some 5 are not.