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On Erdos-Szekeres-type problems for k-convex point sets

Publication at Faculty of Mathematics and Physics |
2020

Abstract

We study Erdos-Szekeres-type problems for k-convex point sets, a recently introduced notion that naturally extends the concept of convex position. A finite set S of n points is k-convex if there exists a spanning simple polygonization of S such that the intersection of any straight line with its interior consists of at most k connected components.

We address several open problems about k-convex point sets. In particular, we extend the well-known Erdos-Szekeres Theorem by showing that, for every fixed k is an element of N, every set of n points in the plane in general position (with no three collinear points) contains a k-convex subset of size at least Omega(log(k) n).

We also show that there are arbitrarily large 3-convex sets of n points in the plane in general position whose largest 1-convex subset has size O(logn). This gives a solution to a problem posed by Aichholzer et al. (2014).

We prove that there is a constant c > 0 such that, for every n is an element of N, there is a set S of n points in the plane in general position such that every 2-convex polygon spanned by at least c . logn points from S contains a point of S in its interior. This matches an earlier upper bound by Aichholzer et al. (2014) up to a multiplicative constant and answers another of their open problems. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd.

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