Besicovitch triangles cover unit arcs

A long standing conjecture is that the Besicovitch triangle, i.e., an equilateral triangle with side is a worm-cover. We will show that indeed there exists a class of isosceles triangles, that includes the above equilateral triangle, where each triangle from the class is a worm-cover. These triangles are defined so that the shortest symmetric z-arc stretched from side to side and touching the base would have length one.      

Random Triangle Theory with Geometry and Applications

What is the probability that a random triangle is acute? We explore this old question from a modern viewpoint, taking into account linear algebra, shape theory, numerical analysis, random matrix theory, the Hopf fibration, and much more. One of the best distributions of random triangles takes all six vertex coordinates as independent standard Gaussians. Six can be reduced to four by translation of the center to \((0,0)\) or reformulation as a \(2\times 2\) random matrix problem. In this note, we develop shape theory in its historical context for a wide audience. We hope to encourage others to look again (and differently) at triangles. We provide a new constructive proof, using the geometry of parallelians, of a central result of shape theory: triangle shapes naturally fall on a hemisphere. We give several proofs of the key random result: that triangles are uniformly distributed when the normal distribution is transferred to the hemisphere. A new proof connects to the distribution of random condition numbers. Generalizing to higher dimensions, we obtain the “square root ellipticity statistic” of random matrix theory. Another proof connects the Hopf map to the SVD of \(2\times 2\) matrices. A new theorem describes three similar triangles hidden in the hemisphere. Many triangle properties are reformulated as matrix theorems, providing insight into both. This paper argues for a shift of viewpoint to the modern approaches of random matrix theory. As one example, we propose that the smallest singular value is an effective test for uniformity. New software is developed, and applications are proposed.     

On the number of hamiltonian cycles in triangulations with few separating triangles

In this article, we investigate the number of hamiltonian cycles in triangulations. We improve a lower bound of for the number of hamiltonian cycles in triangulations without separating triangles (4‐connected triangulations) by Hakimi, Schmeichel, and Thomassen to a linear lower bound and show that a linear lower bound even holds in the case of triangulations with one separating triangle. We confirm their conjecture about the number of hamiltonian cycles in triangulations without separating triangles for up to 25 vertices and give computational results and constructions for triangulations with a small number of hamiltonian cycles and 1–5 separating triangles.     

An enumeration of equilateral triangle dissections

We enumerate all dissections of an equilateral triangle into smaller equilateral triangles up to size 20, where each triangle has integer side lengths. A perfect dissection has no two triangles of the same side, counting up- and down-oriented triangles as different. We computationally prove Tutte’s conjecture that the smallest perfect dissection has size 15 and we find all perfect dissections up to size 20.     

Saddle points and overdetermined problems for the Helmholtz equation

In a seminal 1971 paper, James Serrin showed that the only open, smoothly bounded domain in ⁿ on which the positive Dirichlet eigenfunction of the Laplacian has constant (nonzero) normal derivative on the boundary, is then-dimensional ball. The positivity of the eigenfunction is crucial to his proof. To date it is an open conjecture that the same result is true for Dirichlet eigenvalues other than the least. We show that for simply connected, plane domains, the absence of saddle points is a condition sufficient to validate this conjecture. This condition is also sufficient to prove Schiffer's conjecture: the only simply connected planar domain, on the boundary of which a nonconstant Neumann eigenfunction of the Laplacian can take constant value, is the disc.     

Minimizing Neumann fundamental tones of triangles: An optimal Poincaré inequality

The first nonzero eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian is shown to be minimal for the degenerate acute isosceles triangle, among all triangles of given diameter. Hence an optimal Poincaré inequality for triangles is derived.The proof relies on symmetry of the Neumann fundamental mode for isosceles triangles with aperture less than π/3. Antisymmetry is proved for apertures greater than π/3.     

A remark on Feuerbach hyperbolas

Recently many authors have studied properties of triangles and the theory of perspective triangles in the Euclidean plane (see Kimberling et al. J Geom Graph 14:1–14, 2010; Kimberling et al. http://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/encyclopedia/ETC.html, 2012; Moses and Kimberling J Geom Graph 13:15–24, 2009; Moses and Kimberling Forum Geom 11:83–93, 2011; Odehnal Elem Math 61:74–80, 2006; Odehnal Forum Geom 10:35–40, 2010; Odehnal J Geom Graph 15: 45–67, 2011). The aim of this paper is to present a new approach to the construction of points on the Feuerbach hyperbola. Surprisingly, these points can be obtained as centers of perspectivity of a triangle ABC and a certain one-parametric set of triangles A′B′C′. The presented construction is based on partitions of the triangle’s sides and—in a way—dual to the construction of points on the Kiepert hyperbola. It can also be generalized to spherical triangles. The proofs are based on an affine property of triangles, which amazingly can also be used for the proof of the spherical theorem.     

On angles in Teichmüller spaces

We discuss the existence of the angle between two curves in Teichmüller spaces and show that, in any infinite dimensional Teichmüller space, there exist infinitely many geodesic triangles each of which has the same three vertices and satisfies the property that its three sides have the same and arbitrarily given length while its three angles are equal to any given three possibly different numbers from 0 to $\pi $ . This implies that the sum of three angles of a geodesic triangle may be equal to any given number from 0 to $3\pi $ in an infinite dimensional Teichmüller space.     

Height Uniformity for Algebraic Points on Curves

We recall the main result of L. Caporaso, J. Harris, and B. Mazur's 1997 paper of Uniformity of rational points. It says that the Lang conjecture on the distribution of rational points on varieties of general type implies the uniformity for the numbers of rational points on curves of genus at least 2. In this paper we will investigate its analogue for their heights under the assumption of the Vojta conjecture. Basically, we will show that the Vojta conjecture gives a naturally expected simple uniformity for their heights.     

Geometric mean and triangles inscribed in a semicircle in Banach spaces

We consider the triangles with vertices x, −x and y where x,y are points on the unit sphere of a normed space. Using the geometric means of the variable lengths of the sides of these triangles, we define two geometric constants for Banach spaces. These constants are closely related to the modulus of convexity of the space under consideration, and they seem to represent a useful tool to estimate the exact values of the James and Jordan–von Neumann constants of some Banach spaces.     

Triangles III: Complex triangle functions

Summary This paper is the third in a series of three examining Euclidean triangle geometry via complex cross ratios. In the first two papers, we looked at triangle shapes and triangle coordinates. In this paper, we look at the triangle coordinates of the special points of a triangle, and show that they are functions of its shape. We then show how these functions can be used to prove theorems about triangles, and to gain some insight into what makes a special point of a triangle a centre.     

An axiomatic look at the Erdős-Trost problem

The Erd?s-Trost problem can be formulated in the following way: “If the triangle XY Z is inscribed in the triangle ABC—with X, Y, and Z on the sides BC, CA, and AB, respectively—then one of the areas of the triangles BXZ, CXY , AY Z is less than or equal to the area of the triangle XY Z.” There are many different solutions for this problem. In this note we take up a very elementary proof (due to Szekeres) and deduce that the class of ordered translation planes is the level in the hierarchy of affine planes where the Erd?s-Trost statement still holds true. We also look at the conditions an absolute plane needs to satisfy for the validity of the Erd?s-Trost statement.     

Configurations of inscribed equilateral triangles

This paper explores equilateral triangles XYZ with vertices on sidelines of a given triangle ABC such that one side of XYZ is parallel to the corresponding side of ABC. There are six such triangles. They have many interesting properties which we investigate using trilinear coordinates. Our results improve and add to the earlier results of Blas Herrera Gómez about these configurations. We obtain new characterizations of several central points of the triangles and identify interesting pairs of triangles that are homologic (or perspective) and orthologic. The recognition of the Darboux cubic of a triangle is also accomplished in these configurations. Triples of circles intersecting in a point and six points on a conic also appear.      

Concave functions,blaschke products,and polygonal mappings

We consider the class Co(p) of all conformal maps of the unit disk onto the exterior of a bounded convex set. We prove that the triangle mappings, i.e., the functions that map the unit disk onto the exterior of a triangle, are among the extreme points of the closed convex hull of Co(p). Moreover, we prove a conjecture on the closed convex hull of Co(p) for all p ∈ (0, 1) which had partially been proved by the authors for some values of p ∈ (0, 1).     

Extremal problems on triangle areas in two and three dimensions

The study of extremal problems on triangle areas was initiated in a series of papers by Erd?s and Purdy in the early 1970s. In this paper we present new results on such problems, concerning the number of triangles of the same area that are spanned by finite point sets in the plane and in 3-space, and the number of distinct areas determined by the triangles.In the plane, our main result is an O(n44/19)=O(n^2.3158) upper bound on the number of unit-area triangles spanned by n points, which is the first breakthrough improving the classical bound of O(n7/3) from 1992. We also make progress in a number of important special cases. We show that: (i) For points in convex position, there exist n-element point sets that span Ω(nlogn) triangles of unit area. (ii) The number of triangles of minimum (nonzero) area determined by n points is at most ; there exist n-element point sets (for arbitrarily large n) that span (6/π²−o(1))n² minimum-area triangles. (iii) The number of acute triangles of minimum area determined by n points is O(n); this is asymptotically tight. (iv) For n points in convex position, the number of triangles of minimum area is O(n); this is asymptotically tight. (v) If no three points are allowed to be collinear, there are n-element point sets that span Ω(nlogn) minimum-area triangles (in contrast to (ii), where collinearities are allowed and a quadratic lower bound holds).In 3-space we prove an O(n17/7β(n))=O(n^2.4286) upper bound on the number of unit-area triangles spanned by n points, where β(n) is an extremely slowly growing function related to the inverse Ackermann function. The best previous bound, O(n8/3), is an old result of Erd?s and Purdy from 1971. We further show, for point sets in 3-space: (i) The number of minimum nonzero area triangles is at most n²+O(n), and this is worst-case optimal, up to a constant factor. (ii) There are n-element point sets that span Ω(n4/3) triangles of maximum area, all incident to a common point. In any n-element point set, the maximum number of maximum-area triangles incident to a common point is O(n4/3+ε), for any ε>0. (iii) Every set of n points, not all on a line, determines at least Ω(n2/3/β(n)) triangles of distinct areas, which share a common side.     

Small Edge Sets Meeting all Triangles of a Graph

It was conjectured in 1981 by the third author that if a graph G does not contain more than t pairwise edge-disjoint triangles, then there exists a set of at most 2t edges that shares an edge with each triangle of G. In this paper, we prove this conjecture for odd-wheel-free graphs and for ‘triangle-3-colorable’ graphs, where the latter property means that the edges of the graph can be colored with three colors in such a way that each triangle receives three distinct colors on its edges. Among the consequences we obtain that the conjecture holds for every graph with chromatic number at most four. Also, two subclasses of K ₄-free graphs are identified, in which the maximum number of pairwise edge-disjoint triangles is equal to the minimum number of edges covering all triangles. In addition, we prove that the recognition problem of triangle-3-colorable graphs is intractable.     

Two row mixed-integer cuts via lifting

Recently Andersen et al. [1], Borozan and Cornuéjols [6] and Cornuéjols and Margot [9] have characterized the extreme valid inequalities of a mixed integer set consisting of two equations with two free integer variables and non-negative continuous variables. These inequalities are either split cuts or intersection cuts derived using maximal lattice-free convex sets. In order to use these inequalities to obtain cuts from two rows of a general simplex tableau, one approach is to extend the system to include all possible non-negative integer variables (giving the two row mixed-integer infinite-group problem), and to develop lifting functions giving the coefficients of the integer variables in the corresponding inequalities. In this paper, we study the characteristics of these lifting functions. We show that there exists a unique lifting function that yields extreme inequalities when starting from a maximal lattice-free triangle with multiple integer points in the relative interior of one of its sides, or a maximal lattice-free triangle with integral vertices and one integer point in the relative interior of each side. In the other cases (maximal lattice-free triangles with one integer point in the relative interior of each side and non-integral vertices, and maximal lattice-free quadrilaterals), non-unique lifting functions may yield distinct extreme inequalities. For the latter family of triangles, we present sufficient conditions to yield an extreme inequality for the two row mixed-integer infinite-group problem.     

Average dimension of fixed point spaces with applications

Let G be a finite group, F a field, and V a finite dimensional FG-module such that G has no trivial composition factor on V. Then the arithmetic average dimension of the fixed point spaces of elements of G on V is at most where p is the smallest prime divisor of the order of G. This answers and generalizes a 1966 conjecture of Neumann which also appeared in a paper of Neumann and Vaughan-Lee and also as a problem in The Kourovka Notebook posted by Vaughan-Lee. Our result also generalizes a recent theorem of Isaacs, Keller, Meierfrankenfeld, and Moretó. We also classify precisely when equality can occur. Various applications are given. For example, another conjecture of Neumann and Vaughan-Lee is proven and some results of Segal and Shalev are improved and/or generalized concerning BFC groups.     

On the non-degeneracy property of the longest-edge trisection of triangles

The longest-edge (LE) trisection of a triangle t is obtained by joining the two equally spaced points of the longest-edge of t with the opposite vertex. In this paper we prove that for any given triangle t with smallest interior angle τ>0, if the minimum interior angle of the three triangles obtained by the LE-trisection of t into three new triangles is denoted by τ₁, then τ₁?τ/c₁, where . Moreover, we show empirical evidence on the non-degeneracy property of the triangular meshes obtained by iterative application of the LE-trisection of triangles. If τ_n denotes the minimum angle of the triangles obtained after n iterative applications of the LE-trisection, then τ_n>τ/c where c is a positive constant independent of n. An experimental estimate of c≈6.7052025350 is provided.