Extremal problems in discrete geometry (Q794651)

The main result obtained by the authors of the paper under review is the following theorem: There exists a constant \(c_ 1\) so that if P is a set of n points and L is a family of t lines in the Euclidean plane, then the number of incidences between points in P and lines in L is at most \(c_ 1n^{2/3}t^{2/3}\) whenever \(\sqrt{n}\leq t\leq\left( \begin{matrix} n\\ 2\end{matrix} \right)\). Using this result the authors settle in the affirmative a conjecture of Erdős and Purdy by proving that there exists an absolute constant \(c_ 2\) such that if \(k\leq \sqrt{n}\), then the number of lines containing at least k points is less than \(c_ 2n^ 2/k^ 3\). The authors give also a partial solution to a conjecture of G. Dirac by proving the following result: There exists a constant \(c_ 3>0\) such that if P is a set of n points, not all on the same line, and L is the family of all lines determined by P, then there exists at least one point in P which belongs to more than \(c_ 3n\) lines from L. This last result was also obtained by \textit{J. Beck} [Combinatorica 3, 281-297 (1983; Zbl 0533.52004)].