Transversals to line segments in three-dimensional space (Q2572590)

Two line transversals to a family of line segments in \(E^ 3\) are called to be in the same connected component provided one of the transversals can be continuously moved into the other while remaining a transversal to the family. The authors describe the structure of the connected components to arbitrary family of \(n\) line segments in \(E^ 3\). They show that every family of \(n \geq 3\) line segments in \(E^ 3\) admits at most \(n\) connected components of line transversals. This bound is achieved for some families of line segments.