Arcs on punctured disks intersecting at most twice with endpoints on the boundary (Q2035058)

Summary: Let \(D_n\) be the \(n\)-punctured disk. We prove that a family of essential simple arcs starting and ending at the boundary and pairwise intersecting at most twice is of size at most \(\binom{n+1}{3}\). On the way, we also show that any nontrivial square complex homeomorphic to a disk whose hyperplanes are simple arcs intersecting at most twice must have a corner or a spur.