The two points theorem of Mazurkiewicz

DOI10.1006/JCTA.2002.3278MaRDI QIDQ696919zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors James H. Schmerl, Péter Komjáth

Publication date 12 September 2002

Published in Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://doi.org/10.1006/jcta.2002.3278

zbMATH Keywords

partitions of vector spaces

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Other combinatorial set theory (03E05) Vector spaces, linear dependence, rank, lineability (15A03) Linear incidence geometry (51A99)

Review text

In this nicely written paper, the authors prove the following vast generalization of a theorem of Mazurkiewicz (1914): In any vector space \(V\) of arbitrary dimension over an infinite field \(F\) there exists a subset \(X \subseteq V\) which intersects each line in exactly \(2\) points. (Mazurkiewicz had only considered the real plane.) The assumption \(\text{card } F \geq \aleph_0\) is essential: If \(F\) is finite, \(\dim V > 1\), and if \(X\) meets each line in the same number \(n>0\) of points, then \(X=V\) (by an easy counting argument). As is to be expected, the proof of the theorem relies on the axiom of choice. It is different from the one given by Mazurkiewicz, which does not seem to work for spaces of dimension greater than \(\text{card} F\). The authors mention further results which can be proved in a similar way as the theorem above: (1) \(V\) can even be partitioned into subsets each of which has the same property as \(X\). (2) For each finite number \(n \geq 2\) there exists a subset \(X_n \subseteq V\) such that \(|X_n \cap L|= n\) for each line \(L\) of \(V\).

Recommendations

• To the question of realizability of the Crofton function on sets in \(\mathbb{R}^ 2\)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2155320
• On some coverings of the Euclidean plane with pairwise congruent circles
• A Two-Point Set Must be Zero-Dimensional
• On Sets which Meet each Line in Exactly Two Points

Cited in

(9)

• Two theorems of Efremovič in pointfree context
• To the question of realizability of the Crofton function on sets in \(\mathbb{R}^ 2\)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7498920 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 2155320 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1356626 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 3184078 (Why is no real title available?)
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7819460 (Why is no real title available?)
• A Mazurkiewicz set containing the graph of an absolutely nonmeasurable function
• A Mazurkiewicz set containing the graph of a Sierpiński-Zygmund function

This page was built for publication: The two points theorem of Mazurkiewicz

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q696919)