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).
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Projective Plane of Order 12
I asked this question on the new Theoretical Computer Science "overflow" site, and commenters suggested I ask it here. That question is here, and it contains additional links, which I doubt I can ...
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How close can one get to the missing finite projective planes?
This question can be interpreted as an instance of the Zarankiewicz problem. Suppose we have an $n\times n$ matrix with entries in $\{0,1\}$ with no $\begin{pmatrix}1 & 1\\ 1& 1\end{pmatrix} $ ...
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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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The Sylvester-Gallai theorem over $p$-adic fields
The famous Sylvester-Gallai theorem states that for any finite set $X$ of points in the plane $\mathbf{R}^2$, not all on a line, there is a line passing through exactly two points of $X$.
What ...
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Why do all incidence theorems follow from Pappus' theorem?
In Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen's ``Geometry and the Imagination,"
they state in the last paragraph of Chapter 20 that "Any
theorems concerned solely with incidence relations in the
[Euclidean projective]...
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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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Fano plane drawings: embedding PG(2,2) into the real plane
By a drawing of the Fano plane I mean a system of seven simple curves and
seven points in the real plane such that
every point lies on exactly three curves, and every curve contains
exactly three ...
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Geometric interpretation of the exceptional isomorphism $PSp(4,3)=PSU(4,2^2)$
It is well-known that there is an isomorphism between $PSp(4,3)$ (the symplectic group of dimension $4$ over $\mathbb F_3$) and $PSU(4,2^2)$ (the unitary group defined by $4\times4$ unitary matrices ...
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Synthetic projective lines
The classical synthetic notion of projective plane consists of a set of points, a set of lines, and a relation of incidence between the two, such that any two distinct points lie on a unique line and ...
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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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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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Was the small Desargues Theorem known to ancient Greeks?
My question concerns the classical Desargues Theorem and its simplest version
The small Desargues Theorem: Let $A$, $B$, $C$ be three distinct parallel lines and $a,a'\in A$, $b,b'\in B$, $c,c'\in C$,...
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Does every finite affine plane have the doubling property?
Definition 1. An affine plane is a pair $(X,\mathcal L)$ consisting of a set $X$ and a family $\mathcal L$ of subsets of $X$ called lines which satisfy the following axioms:
Any distinct points $x,y\...
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About the paper by Buekenhout, Delandtsheer, Doyen, Kleidman, Liebeck and Saxl
The paper by Buekenhout, Delandtsheer, Doyen, Kleidman, Liebeck and Saxl called Linear spaces with flag transitive automorphism groups (Geom. Dedicata) from 1990 annonces a very powerful ...
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Is the group of translations of an affine plane always commutative?
$\DeclareMathOperator\Dil{Dil}\DeclareMathOperator\Trans{Trans}\DeclareMathOperator\Col{Col}$An affine plane is a set of points $X$ endowed with a family $\mathcal L$ of subsets of $X$, called lines, ...
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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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Projective planes over non-division rings
Is there a "right" notion of a projective plane over a general (unital, non-division) ring?
Let me explain what type of object I am looking for. Let $R$ be an arbitrary (not necessarily ...
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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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Does the Affine Pappus Axiom imply the Affine Desargues Axiom in affine planes?
I am interested in the affine version of the well-known Hessenberg's Theorem (saying that Pappian projective planes are Desarguesian).
First I introduce all necessary definitions.
Definition L. A ...
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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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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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A vertical line with many intersections with $n$ non-parallel lines
Pick $n\ge 3$ non-vertical lines $\mathscr{L}:=\{\ell_1,\ldots,\ell_n\}$ in the plane which are pairwise non-parallel, and they are not all concurrent in a single point.
Question. Does there exist a ...
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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 ...
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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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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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A corollary of the affine Desargues axiom
Definition 1. An affine plane is a pair $(X,\mathcal L)$ consisting of a set $X$ and a family $\mathcal L$ of subsets of $X$ called lines which satisfy the following axioms:
Any distinct points $x,y\...
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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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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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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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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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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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Point-line incidence bounds over positive characteristic fields
I am aware of work on point-line incidence bounds over $\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{C}$, and finite fields, in particular various versions of the Szemeredi-Trotter bounds. I would like to know if work along ...
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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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Does any real projective plane incidence theorem follow from axioms?
Is it known whether any projective geometry statement that holds true in the real projective plane (equivalently, can be deduced from Hilbert axioms) follows from the standard projective axiomatics?
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Geometric interpretation of $BN$-pairs
My question is relative to a geometric interpretation of the $BN$-pairs that arise in Tits' theory of buildings. Here is a definition that comes from an article by G. Stroth (Nonspherical spheres).
$[...
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Is every uniform hyperbolic linear space infinite?
I start with definitions.
Definition 1. A linear space is a pair $(X,\mathcal L)$ consisting of a set $X$ and a family $\mathcal L$ of subsets of $X$ satisfying three axioms:
(L1) for any distinct ...
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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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Which finite projective planes can have a symmetric incidence matrix?
As the title says. Which finite projective planes admit a symmetric incidence matrix?
I am not an expert in the field at all, but I consulted with one. He claimed that $PG(2, \mathbb F_q)$ can always ...
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How many squares can be formed by $n$ points in general position in the plane?
[This is much in the spirit (but different from) the questions from different posters: How many squares can be formed by using n points? and How many squares can be formed by using n points: revisited?...
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Parallel lines containing a subset with even cardinality
For each $\alpha \in \mathbf{R}\cup \{\infty\}$, let $\mathscr{L}_\alpha$ denote the collection of lines $\ell$ of $\mathbf{R}^2$ with slope $\alpha$. More explicitly: if $\alpha \in \mathbf{R}$, then ...
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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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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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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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Why should it be hard to generalize Dvir's proof of the finite field Kakeya conjecture to the Euclidean case?
Let $q$ be prime and let
$q\delta \sim 1.$ Let $K$ be any set of $C_n\delta$-separated tubes in $B(0,2)$, where $C_n$ is some constant depending on $n$. Let us consider a grid of $q^n$ points scaled ...
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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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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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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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Projective planes over algebraically closed fields
Suppose I am given a projective plane $P \cong \mathbb{P}^2(k)$ over a (commutative) field $k$.
With "projective plane," I mean the point-line geometry (and not, for instance, the scheme): $...
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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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