Better bounds for planar sets avoiding unit distances

Abstract: A

1

-avoiding set is a subset of

m a t h b b R^{n}

that does not contain pairs of points at distance

1

. Let

m_{1} (m a t h b b R^{n})

denote the maximum fraction of

m a t h b b R^{n}

that can be covered by a measurable

1

-avoiding set. We prove two results. First, we show that any

1

-avoiding set in

m a t h b b R^{n}

(

n g e 2

) that displays block structure (i.e., is made up of blocks such that the distance between any two points from the same block is less than

1

and points from distinct blocks lie farther than

1

unit of distance apart from each other) has density strictly less than

1 / 2^{n}

. For the special case of sets with block structure this proves a conjecture of ErdH{o}s asserting that

m_{1} (m a t h b b R^{2}) < 1 / 4

. Second, we use linear programming and harmonic analysis to show that

m_{1} (m a t h b b R^{2}) l e q 0.258795

.

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