Incidence estimates for well spaced tubes (Q2009029)

Let \(\mathfrak{L}\) be a finite set of lines in the plane. The Szemerédi-Trotter theorem gives sharp bounds for the number of points that lie on at least \(r \ge 2\) points of \(\mathfrak{L}\). The authors prove analogues of this theorem using \(\delta\)-tubes instead of straight lines. In this case, the estimates do not hold in general, and so the authors make some assumptions about how the tubes are spaced. Under very strong spacing conditions they obtain nearly sharp incidence estimates. The authors' methods can be generalized to three dimensions, and they prove a special case of the Kakeya conjecture in \(\mathbb{R}^3\).