An improvement of the lower bound on the maximum number of halving lines in planar sets with 32 points (Q1792119)

The search of upper and lower bounds for the maximum number of halving lines for sets of \(n\) points of the Euclidean plane is a challenging task in the literature due to a conjecture on the rectilinear crossing number problem. This conjecture was posed by \textit{O. Aichholzer} et al. [Discrete Comput. Geom. 38, No. 1, 1--14 (2007; Zbl 1126.52015)] and states that every set attaining the rectilinear crossing number maximizes the number of halving lines. \textit{P. Erdős} et al. proved in [Survey Combin. Theor. Sympos. Colorado State Univ. Colorado 1971, 139--149 (1973; Zbl 0258.05112)] that \(h_{n}\) the maximum number of halving lines for sets of \(n\) points of the plane satisfies \(h_{n}\geq\frac{ n}{4} \log_{2}(\frac{n}{3})\). The up-to-date best asymptotic lower bound is \(h_{n}\geq Cn \frac{e^{0.744\sqrt{\log(4)\log(n)}}}{\sqrt{\log(n)}}\) for some fixed constant \(C\). This was proved by \textit{G. Nivasch} [Contemp. Math. 453, 299--305 (2008; Zbl 1148.68552)]. The exact values of \(h_{n}\) are known for \(n\leq 27\). For \(28\leq n \leq32\) there are small gaps between the best lower bound and the best upper bound of \(h_{n}\). In this article it is proved that \(h_{32}\geq74\). The authors give examples of sets that shift the known lower bound of \(h_{32}\). They added two points to a set \(Q\) that gives the current best lower bound of \(h_{30}\) constructed in \textit{O. Aichholzer}'s article [``On the rectilinear crossing number'', \url{http://www.ist.turgraz.at/staff/aichholzer/crossings.html}]. Assuming that Aichholzer's conjecture is true the authors reduced by one unit the current best upper bound of the rectilinear crossing number for set of 32 points. More precisely, they proved that the number \(Cr(32)\) satisfies \(Cr(32)\leq12835\). For the entire collection see [Zbl 1392.05001].