A Sylvester-Gallai theorem for cubic curves

DOI10.1016/J.EJC.2022.103509MaRDI QIDQ2136190zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Alex Cohen, Frank de Zeeuw

Publication date 10 May 2022

Published in European Journal of Combinatorics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2010.01513

zbMATH Keywords

conicgeneralizations of the Sylvester-Gallai theoremincidenceparameter space of cubic curves

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Other designs, configurations (05B30) Families, moduli of curves (algebraic) (14H10)

Abstract: We prove a variant of the Sylvester-Gallai theorem for cubics (algebraic curves of degree three): If a finite set of sufficiently many points in $mathbb{R}^2$ is not contained in a cubic, then there is a cubic that contains exactly nine of the points. This resolves the first unknown case of a conjecture of Wiseman and Wilson from 1988, who proved a variant of Sylvester-Gallai for conics and conjectured that similar statements hold for curves of any degree.

Review text

The theorem of Sylvester-Gallai, a classic result of combinatorial geometry, states that for any finite set \(A\) of points in \(\mathbb{R}^2\), not contained in a line, there exists a straight line that intersects \(A\) in exactly two points. It is conjectured that for any finite point set \(A \subset \mathbb{R}^2\) that is not contained in an algebraic curve of degree \(d\) there exist a -- not necessarily irreducible -- algebraic curve of degree \(d\) that intersects \(\mathbb{P}\) in precisely \(d(d+3)/2\) points (the number of points that typically determine a curve of degree \(d\)). This conjecture was shown to be true for \(d = 2\) by \textit{J. A. Wiseman} and \textit{P. R. Wilson} in [Discrete Comput. Geom. 3, No. 4, 295--305 (1988; Zbl 0643.51009)]. Since then, several other proofs for the case \(d = 2\) have appeared. This article adds a new proof that allows for a generalization to cubic curves and sufficiently large point sets. While details of their proof are a bit involved and complicated, the basic idea is straightforward and elegant: In the projective space of cubic curves a plane is determined by requiring the cubics to pass through seven suitably chosen points. The dual version of the original Sylvester-Gallai theorem then guarantees existence of a point in that space that leads to a solution cubic. The authors write quite openly about the caveats of their approach and also explain reasons for some of its weak points: \begin{itemize} \item The point set \(A\) is required to have a cardinality of at least \(250\). This number is certainly not optimal and could be reduced. However, by using only ideas from this article, it seems impossible to get entirely rid of a restriction on the cardinality of \(A\). \item Unlike the line and conic versions of the Sylvester-Gallai theorem, the authors cannot guarantee that the nine points determine a \emph{unique} cubic. \item Generalization to higher degrees seem difficult. The authors outline a possible approach based on Sylvester-Gallai theorems for points and hyperplanes in higher dimensions. However, nothing seems to be known in that regard and it is entirely possible that these theorems fail to be true. \end{itemize}

Recommendations

• On the Sylvester-Gallai theorem for conics
• A resolution of the Sylvester-Gallai problem of J.-P. Serre
• Two proofs for Sylvester's problem using an allowable sequence of permutations

Cites work

• A Sylvester theorem for conic sections
• Cayley-Bacharach theorems and conjectures
• On sets defining few ordinary lines
• On the number of circles determined byn points
• On the number of ordinary conics
• On the Sylvester-Gallai theorem for conics
• Research Problems in Discrete Geometry

Cited in

(3)

• Algebraic curves, rich points, and doubly-ruled surfaces
• On the Sylvester-Gallai theorem for conics
• Uniqueness of Steiner laws on cubic curves

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