A remarkable eight-point planar configuration (Q1613490)

Beginning with a square \(ABCD\), erect equilateral triangles \(ABP\), \(BCQ\), \(CDR\), \(DAS\) inward on each edge. It is easily verified that the small triangles \(AQR\), \(BRS\), \(CSP\), \(DPQ\) are also equilateral. As a result, this configuration \(H_8\) has the property that every point is at exactly three different distances from other points. If we define the distance-count of a point in a configuration to be the number of distinct distances from that point to others, and the distance-count vector \( f = (f_i)\) that obtained by ordering these in increasing order, this configuration has \(f = 33333333\). Removing any point of \(H_8\) leaves one of two configurations with \(f = 23333333\). In 1997, the author and Erdős showed that the value, \(24\), for \(\Sigma f_i\) attained by this configuration is minimal for eight-point sets. Here, the author shows that each of these three properties characterizes \(H_8\) uniquely among eight-point configurations. The proofs are of considerable complexity. Some interesting related conjectures are given at the end, including a nine-point configuration with \( f = 333333444\) that is conjectured to minimize \(\Sigma fi\) for nine-point configurations.