Sum-product theorems and incidence geometry (Q2466993)

Summary: We prove the following theorems in incidence geometry. 1. There is \(\delta > 0\) such that for any \(P_1,\dots,P_4\in\mathbb C^2\) and \(Q_1,\dots,Q_n\in \mathbb C^2\), if there are \(\leq n^{(i+\delta)/2}\) distinct lines between \(P_i\) and \(Q_j\) for all \(i, j\), then \(P_1,\dots,P_4\) are collinear. If the number of the distinct lines is \(< cn^{1/2}\), then the cross ratio of the four points is algebraic. 2. Given \(c > 0\), there is \(\delta > 0\) such that for any \(P_1, P_2, P_3\in \mathbb C^2\) noncollinear, and \(Q_1,\dots,Q_n\in\mathbb C^2\), if there are \(\leq cn^{1/2}\) distinct lines between \(P_i\) and \(Q_j\) for all \(i, j\), then for any \(P\in\mathbb C^2\setminus\{P_1,P_2,P_3\}\), we have \(\delta n\) distinct lines between \(P\) and \(Q_j\). 3. Given \(c > 0\), there is \(\varepsilon > 0\) such that for any \(P_1,P_2,P_3\in\mathbb C^2\) (respectively, \(\mathbb R^2\)) collinear, and \(Q_1,\dots,Q_n\in \mathbb C^2\) (respectively, \(\mathbb R^2\)), if there are \(\leq cn^{1/2}\) distinct lines between \(P_i\) and \(Q_j\) for all \(i, j\), then for any \(P\) not lying on the line \(L(P_1,P_2)\), we have at least \(n^{1-\varepsilon}\) (resp. \(n/\log n\)) distinct lines between \(P\) and \(Q_j\). The main ingredients used are the subspace theorem, Balog-Szemerédi-Gowers theorem, and Szemerédi-Trotter theorem. We also generalize the theorems to higher dimensions, extend Theorem 1 to \(\mathbb F^2_p\), and give the version of Theorem 2 over \(\mathbb Q\).