A solution of the Erdős-Ulam problem on rational distance sets assuming the Bombieri-Lang conjecture

DOI10.1007/S00454-018-0003-3MaRDI QIDQ1991086zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Jafar Shaffaf

Publication date 30 October 2018

Published in Discrete \& Computational Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1501.00159

zbMATH Keywords

Bombieri-Lang conjectureErdős problems in discrete geometryrational distancesrational pointssurfaces of general type

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Arithmetic algebraic geometry (Diophantine geometry) (11G99) Rational points (14G05) Surfaces of general type (14J29) Erd?s problems and related topics of discrete geometry (52C10)

Abstract: A rational distance set in the plane is a point set which has the property that all pairwise distances between its points are rational. ErdH os and Ulam conjectured in 1945 that there is no dense rational distance set in the plane. In this paper we associate an algebraic surface in $mathbb{P}^3$, that we call a distance surface, to any finite rational distance set in the plane. Under a mild condition, we prove that a distance surface is always a surface of general type. From this, we deduce that the Bombieri-Lang conjecture in arithmetic algebraic geometry (restricted to the classes of surfaces) implies an answer to the ErdH os-Ulam problem. Combined with the results of Solymosi and de Zeeuw, our proofs lead to the following stronger statement: for $S$ a rational distance set with infinitely many points, we have Either, all but at most four points of $S$ are on a line, Or, all but at most three points of $S$ are on a circle.

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Cited in

(9)

• The Elekes-Szabó problem and the uniformity conjecture
• On the number of perfect triangles with a fixed angle
• Definability of Frobenius orbits and a result on rational distance sets
• Hyperbolicity of varieties of log general type
• The Uniformity Conjecture in Additive Combinatorics
• The Erdős–Ulam problem, Lang's conjecture and uniformity
• On rational sets in Euclidean spaces and spheres
• Integral and rational graphs in the plane
• On a question of Erdős and Ulam

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