Questions tagged [incidence-geometry]
Abstract incidence geometries like projective spaces, polar spaces, generalized polygons, as well as incidence problems in the real or complex Euclidean spaces (eg. Szemerédi–Trotter theorem).
90 questions
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Is the theory of incidence geometry complete?
Consider the basic axioms of planar incidence geometry, which allow us to speak of in-betweeness, collinearity and concurrency. These axioms per se are not complete, since for example, Desargues ...
user2529
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Subplanes of Finite Projective Planes
If a finite projective plane $\pi_1$ of order $m$ contains, as a sub plane, a
finite projective plane $\pi_2$ of order $n$, then $m \geq n^2$ with equality holding only in the case of a Baer sub plane....
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Are two "perfectly dense" hypergraphs on $\mathbb{N}$ necessarily isomorphic?
We say that a hypergraph $(\mathbb{N}, E)$ where $E\subseteq {\cal P}(\mathbb N)$ is perfectly dense if
$\mathbb{N}\notin E$,
all $e\in E$ are infinite,
$e_1, e_2 \in E$ implies $|e_1\cap e_2| = 1$,...
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Can all lines in the euclidian plane be ordinary?
Is there a set $X \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ such that every straight line in the plane is ordinary in relation to it? i.e. if $r$ is any straight line then $|r \cap X|=2$.
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Very symmetric quadrangle in $\Bbb CP^2$
Is there a quadrangle $Q \subset \Bbb CP^2$, namely $Q$ is a set of four points, such that every permutation of $Q$ can be realizad by an isometric projectivity of $\Bbb CP^2$?
Clearly the analogous ...
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Can any properties of a ring other than being a field be captured by the geometry of its 2-dimensional free module?
Can any properties of a ring other than being a field be captured by the geometry of its 2-dimensional free module?
Background:
In his wonderful, wonderful book Geometric Algebra, Emil Artin describes ...
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Incidence geometry and matrices
Supposing I have a $0/1$ or $\pm1$ matrix $A$ of size $m\times n$, is there a minimum $d$ (that works for every $m\times n$ $A$) such that there exists $m$ lines $r_1,\dots,r_m$, $n$ lines $s_1,\dots,...
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Blocking sets in three dimensional finite affine spaces
What is the smallest possible size of a set of points in $\mathbb{F}_q^3$ which intersects (blocks) every line?
Clearly the union of three affine hyperplanes that intersect in a singleton, say $x = 0,...
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A geometric series equalling a power of an integer
The following problem cropped up whilst considering generalised quadrangles with a product structure, and it boils down to a simple number theoretic problem. Let $s$ be an integer greater than 2 and ...
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Does there exist a finite hyperbolic geometry in which every line contains at least 3 points, but not every line contains the same number of points?
It seems to me that the answer should be yes, but my naive attempts to come up with an example have failed.
Just to clarify, by finite hyperbolic geometry I mean a finite set of points and lines such ...
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For which finite projective planes can the incidence structure be written as a circulant matrix?
It is well known that the projective plane of order $2$ can be represented by the circulant matrix $M_2:=circ(x,x,1,x,1,1,1)= \begin{pmatrix}
x&x&1&x&1&1&1\\
1&x&x&...
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What are $(m,n)$-pseudoplanes?
An incidence geometry is a set $P$ (the "points"), a set $L$ (the "lines"), and a relation $I\subseteq P\times L$ ("incidence"). Equivalently, a bipartite graph with the halves of the partition ...
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theories where angles exist without a metric
The underlying basic question, which I'm sure I'm not the first to ask, is what are the possible exotic/nonintuitive models of Euclid's axioms/postulates, outside the one where "lines" are interpreted ...
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Lower bound on the distance set using incidences of points and circles
Suppose that $P$ is a set of $N$ points in the plane. Can we get a lower bound for the cardinality of the distance set $d(P)$ from the Szemerédi–Trotter theorem?
Here is my try.
The Szemerédi–Trotter ...
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What (if anything) is the connection between the Feit-Higman Theorem and the regular plane tilings?
Here are two facts that are superficially similar.
Tiling Theorem: The only regular tilings of $\mathbb{R}^2$ are achieved by triangles, squares, and hexagons.
Feit-Higman Theorem: The only finite ...
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Applications of small Kakeya sets over finite fields
It was proved by Dvir that a Kakeya set in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$ has size at least $q^n/n!$, a bound which was later improved to $q^n/2^n$.
For $n = 2$ and $q$ odd the exact bound is $q(q+1)/2 + (q-1)/2$ ...
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Can one axiomatize projective lines using the cross-ratio?
I known axiomatizations of projective spaces of dimension > 2 and also of projective planes (either those obeying the axiom of Pappus, which come from fields, or those obeying the axiom of Desargues, ...
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On the joints problem in finite fields
The original version of the so-called "joints problem" consists of the following:
Let $L$ be a set of lines in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$. Determine the maximum number of "joints" determined by these lines, ...
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On the determinant of incidence matrices (of graphs and other geometries)
Let $\Gamma = (P,L,I)$ be a point-line geometry (here, $P$ is the point set, $L$ the line set, and $I$ is the symmetric incidence relation). (As an example, $\Gamma$ could be a graph.) I suppose $\...
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Incidence matrices of generalized quadrangles
Is there somewhere a database of incidence matrices of generalized quadrangles that one can download?
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Minimal number of intersections in a convex $n$-gon?
For a convex polygon $P$, draw all the diagonals of $P$ and consider the intersection points made by those diagonals. Let $f(n)$ be the minimal number of such intersections where $P$ ranges over all ...
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Bounds on k-tuple points for intersections of hyperplanes
Suppose that $H_1$,...,$H_d$ are hyperplanes in $\mathbb P^n$ (over some field -- you can pick). For $k \geq n$, let $t_k$ denote the number of points through which there pass exactly $k$ hyperplanes....
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A rank 3 geometry for the sporadic simple group of Suzuki
I am actually studying coset geometries (in the sense of Tits and Buekenhout) for the sporadic simple group of Suzuki. I came aware that Buekenhout found in 1979 a geometry over the following diagram
...
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Generalized geometries
Let $S$ be a non-empty set. A geometry of type $n$ for $n\geq 1$
on $S$ (consisting of at least $n$ elements) is a set ${\mathfrak P}\subseteq
{\mathcal P}(S)$ such that
all members of $\mathfrak P$ ...
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Reference on the Veblen-Young characterization of projective spaces
Can someone point me to a modern treatment of the Veblen-Young characterization of projective spaces of dimension greater than $2$ as $P(V)$ for some vector space $V$?
[Added: see here for a ...
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Lines meeting a given set in a unique point
Let $p$ be a fixed prime, and suppose that $S$ is a subset of the affine plane $\mathbb F_p^2$. If $|S|\le p+1$, then by the pigeonhole principle, through any given point $s\in S$ there is a line $L=L(...
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Planar sets closed under intersection of circles
Let $P$ be the plane with a point at infinity. By plane, I mean the Euclidian plane, and therefore it has circles. A line is also a circle, though its center is at infinity. If $A\subset P$ has ...
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Covering all, but $k$ points with affine subspaces
For non-negative integer $d\le n$ and $k\le 2^n$, how many affine subspaces of co-dimension $d$ are needed to cover all, but exactly $k$ elements of the vector space ${\mathbb F}_2^n$, and what are ...
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When is a 0-1 matrix a one-intersection incidence matrix?
The following problem is what motivated my previous MO question.
It is easily seen that for any given 0-1 matrix $M$, one can always find
a set $\mathcal P$ of points, and a set $\mathcal C$ of simple ...
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What is the automorphism group of this geometry?
Define the following incidence structure of rank three. The points are the elements of $\mathbb{Z}_7=$ {$0,\ldots,6$}. The lines of type 1 are the triples $(x,x+1,x+3)$ modulo $7$. The lines of type 2 ...
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Who conjectured that a transitive projective plane is Desarguesian?
The only known finite projective plane with a transitive automorphism group is the Desarguesian plane $PG(2,q)$ and it seems likely that there are no others, although this is not (quite) proved.
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Is there a "Bipartite" Szemeredi-Trotter theorem?
One version of the Szemeredi-Trotter theorem states the following:
Given a set of $L$ lines in the plane, the number of points incident to at least $k$ lines is bounded above by a constant times $L/k ...
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Is any $G$-set a coset geometry (in the sense of Tits-Buekenhout)?
Hi there!
Let $X$ be a left $G$-set, and $\Delta=${$x_1,\ldots,x_n$} a fundamental domain of $G$ in $X$. In other words, $G$ acts on $X$ from the left, and {$Gx_1,\ldots,Gx_n$} is the orbit space $X/...
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Points on $k$ Circles
Let $k$ be a fixed positive integer. We want to find the minimum number $f(k)$, such that for a set of finite points in the plane, if any $f(k)$ of them are on $k$ circles, then all of them are on $k$ ...
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A question about the number of intersections of lines in $R^{3}$
Suppose I have n lines in $R^{3}$ with the conditions that: no 3 lines in one plane, no 3 lines intersect at one point, for fixed 2 lines, no 3 lines intersect these 2 lines at the same time.
what is ...
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About a graph embedding from R^3 to...
I was working on something and stumbled upon the following situation. I have in front of me a configuration $L$ of lines in $\mathbb{R}^{3}$ and say I consider the graph $G$ having as vertex set $L$ ...
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Axiomatization of the incidence geometry of the Euclidean plane
There are several well-known axiomatizations of Euclidean plane geometry, the language of which is usually considered to include at least the relations of
incidence (point-line, point-segment, or ...
user1448
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Intersection of pencils in $\mathcal{R}^2$
Consider $9n$ pencils through non-collinear points $p_1, \ldots , p_{9n}$ in $R^2$ each consisting of at most $n$ concurrent lines. Define the intersection $S$ of these pencils to be the set of points ...
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Point sets with tangents through every point
Let $D=(P,L)$ be either a $(v,k,\lambda)$-design or a near-linear space (or, more generally, any incidence structure with "points" and sets of points which are called "blocks" or "lines") and let $S \...
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A relation on triplets of points in the plane
This question is a follow up of my previous one (Planar sets closed under intersection of circles, Planar sets closed under intersection of circles) and is motivated by G. Zaimi's answer https://...
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