New results on lower bounds for the number of (at most k)-facets

TL;DR

This paper investigates lower bounds for the number of (at most k)-facets in point sets, providing structural insights, optimal constructions, and extending results to higher dimensions with tight bounds.

Contribution

It introduces new structural properties, optimal constructions, and extends lower bound results for (at most k)-facets to higher dimensions, establishing tight bounds.

Findings

Structural properties of extremal planar point sets.

Optimality of a specific lower bound in certain k ranges.

Extension of lower bounds to higher dimensions with tight bounds.

Abstract

In this paper we present three different results dealing with the number of $(\leq k)$-facets of a set of points: 1. We give structural properties of sets in the plane that achieve the optimal lower bound $3\binom{k+2}{2}$ of $(\leq k)$-edges for a fixed $0\leq k\leq \lfloor n/3 \rfloor -1$; 2. We give a simple construction showing that the lower bound $3\binom{k+2}{2}+3\binom{k-\lfloor \frac{n}{3} \rfloor+2}{2}$ for the number of $(\leq k)$-edges of a planar point set appeared in [Aichholzer et al. New lower bounds for the number of ($\leq k$)-edges and the rectilinear crossing number of $K_n$. {\em Disc. Comput. Geom.} 38:1 (2007), 1--14] is optimal in the range $\lfloor n/3 \rfloor \leq k \leq \lfloor 5n/12 \rfloor -1$; 3. We show that for $k < \lfloor n/(d+1) \rfloor$ the number of $(\leq k)$-facets of a set of $n$ points in general position in $\mathbb{R}^d$ is at least $(d+1)\binom{k+d}{d}$, and that this bound is tight in the given range of $k$.