How many maxima can there be?

Let C be a planar region. Choose n points p₁,,p_nI.I.D. from the uniform distribution over C. Let M^C_n be the number of these points that are maximal. If C is convex it is known that either E(M^C_n)=Θ(√n)> or E(M^C_n)=O(log n). In this paper we will show that, for general C, there is very little that can be said, a-priori, about E(M^C_n). More specifically we will show that if g is a member of a large class of functions then there is always a region C such that E(M^C_n)=Θ(g(n)). This class contains, for example, all monotically increasing functions of the form g(n)= nln^βn, where 0<<1 and β0. This class also contains nondecreasing functions like g(n)=ln^*n. The results in this paper remain valid in higher dimensions.