Lines pinning lines (Q629835)

If a line transversal \(l\) to a family \(\mathcal{F}\) of disjoint compact convex sets in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) cannot move without missing some \(f\in \mathcal{F}\) then is said that \(\mathcal{F}\) is a pinning of the line \(l\). A minimal pinning is a family \(\mathcal{F}\) pinning a line \(l\) such that no proper subfamily of \(\mathcal{F}\) pins \(l\). The authors prove first the following theorem: Any minimal pinning of a line by possible intersecting convex polytopes in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), no facet of which is coplanar with the line, has size at most eight. The number reduces to six if the polytopes are pairwise disjoint. Last, the authors give a constuction of arbitrary large minimal pinning of a line by polytopes in \(\mathbb{R}^3\), thus proving that no pinning theorem holds for families of polytopes when they are allowed both to intersect each other and to touch in more than just a single point.