A problem of Zarankiewicz

Zarankiewicz, in problem P 101, Colloq. Math., 2 (1951), p. 301, and others have posed the following problem: Determine the least positive integer k_α,β(m, n) so that if a 0,1-matrix of size m by n contains k_α,β(m, n) ones then it must have an α by β submatrix consisting entirely of ones. This paper improves upon previously known upper bounds for k_α,β(m, n) by proving that $\text{k}{}_{\mathrm{\alpha \beta }}\text{(m,n)?}\text{1+((β?1)}\text{(}\text{p}\text{α?1}\text{))(}\text{m}\text{α}\text{)}\text{+}\text{((p+1)(α?1)}\text{α}\text{)n}$ for each integer p greater than or equal to α ? 1. Each of these inequalities is better than the others for a specific range of values of n. Equality is shown to hold infinitely often for each value of p. Finally some applications of this result are made to arrangements of lines in the projective plane.