Families of planar sets having starlike union

Let be a finite family of compact sets in the plane, and letk be a fixed natural number. If every three (not necessarily distinct) members of have a union which is simply connected and starshaped viak-paths, then and is starshaped viak-paths. Analogous results hold for paths of length at most , > 0, and for staircase paths, although not for staircasek-paths.Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-9504249     

Finite unions of shore sets

Adendroid is an arcwise connected hereditarily unicoherent continuum. Ashore set in a dendroidX is a subsetA ofX such that, for each ε>0, there exists a subdendroidB ofX such that the Hausdorff distance fromB toX is less then ε andB∩A=θ. Answering a question by I. Puga, in this paper we prove that the finite union of pairwise disjoint shore subdendroids of a dendroidX is a shore set. We also show that the hypothesis that the shore subdendroids are disjoint is necessary. It is still unknown if the union of two closed disjoint shore subsets of a dendroidX is also shore set.     

Finitely starlike sets whose F-stars have positive measure

Let and assume that there is a countable collection of lines {L _i : 1 i} such that (int cl S) and ((int cl S) S) L _i has one-dimensional Lebesgue measure zero, 1 i. Then every 4 point subset ofS sees viaS a set of positive two-dimensional Lebesgue measure if and only if every finite subset ofS sees viaS such a set. Furthermore, a parallel result holds with two-dimensional replaced by one-dimensional. Finally, setS is finitely starlike if and only if every 5 points ofS see viaS a common point. In each case, the number 4 or 5 is best possible.Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-8705336.     

Krasnosel'skii numbers for bounded finitely starlike sets inR d

For eachk andd, 1kd, definef(d, d)=d+1 andf(d, k)=2d if 1kd–1. The following results are established:Let be a uniformly bounded collection of compact, convex sets inR ^d . For a fixedk, 1kd, dim {MM in }k if and only if for some > 0, everyf(d, k) members of contain a commonk-dimensional set of measure (volume) at least.LetS be a bounded subset ofR ^d . Assume that for some fixedk, 1kd, there exists a countable family of (k–l)-flats {H _i :i1} inR ^d such that clS S {H_i i 1 } and for eachi1, (clS S) H _i has (k–1) dimensional measure zero. Every finite subset ofS sees viaS a set of positivek-dimensional measure if and only if for some>0, everyf(d,k) points ofS see viaS a set ofk-dimensional measure at least .The numbers off(d,d) andf(d, 1) above are best possible.Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-8705336.     

Determining starshaped sets and unions of starshaped sets by their sections

Let S be a compact set in R^d. Let p be a fixed point of S and let k be a fixed integer, 1 k <d. Then S is starshaped with p ker S if and only if for every k-dimensional flat F through p, F S is starshaped. Moreover, an analogue of this result holds for unions of starshaped sets as well.     

Some Krasnosel'skii numbers for finitely starlike sets in the plane

Let S be a subset of the plane. In case (int cl S) S = , then S is finitely starlike if and only if every 4 points of S see via S a common point. In case (int cl S) S has at most countably many components, each a singleton set, then S is finitely starlike if and only if every 5 points of S see via S a common point. Each of the numbers 4 and 5 is best possible. Examples show that these results fail without suitable restrictions on (int cl S) S. Moreover, a final example shows that if a general Krasnosel'skii number . exists to characterize finitely starlike sets in the plane, then > 9.     

A Krasnosel'skii theorem for open finitely starlike sets in R 3

Let S be an open set in R ³ such that: (1) whenever three points x, y, z in S see each other via S, then conv{x, y, z} S, and (2) every seven points in S see via S a common point. Then S is finitely starlike. The proof uses the topological version of Helly's theorem.     

A note on equal unions in families of sets

A family of sets has the equal union property if and only if there exist two nonempty disjoint subfamilies having the same union. We prove that any n nonempty subsets of an n-element set have the equal union property if the sum of their cardinalities exceeds n(n+1)/2. This bound is tight. Among families in which the sum of the cardinalities equals n(n+1)/2, we characterize those having the equal union property.     

Two theorems on finite unions of regressive immune sets

It is proved that the set of all natural numbers cannot be represented as the union of a finite number of regressive immune sets. This answers a question of Appel and McLaughlin. Incidentally, we obtain the following two results: 1. If A₁, ..., A_n are regressive immune sets, then there exists a general recursive function f such that D_f(0), ..., D_f(n), ... is a sequence of pairwise disjoint sets and $$\forall ^x (|D_{f(x)} |) \leqslant n + 1\& D_{f(x)} \cap \overline {A_1 \cup ... \cup A_n } \ne \emptyset )$$ .2. If A₁, ..., A_n are regressive and B is an infinite subset of \(\bigcup\limits_{t = 1}^n {A_1 } \) , then there exists an i that A_i?_eB.     

Characterizing compact unions of two starshaped sets inR d

SetS inR ^d has propertyK ₂ if and only ifS is a finite union ofd-polytopes and for every finite setF in bdryS there exist points c₁,c₂ (depending onF) such that each point ofF is clearly visible viaS from at least one c_i,i = 1,2. The following characterization theorem is established: Let , d2. SetS is a compact union of two starshaped sets if and only if there is a sequence {S _j } converging toS (relative to the Hausdorff metric) such that each setS _j satisfies propertyK ₂. For , the sufficiency of the condition above still holds, although the necessity fails.     

On the Euler characteristic of finite unions of convex sets

The Euler characteristic plays an important role in many subjects of discrete and continuous mathematics. For noncompact spaces, its homological definition, being a homotopy invariant, seems not as important as its role for compact spaces. However, its combinatorial definition, as a finitely additive measure, proves to be more applicable in the study of singular spaces such as semialgebraic sets, finitely subanalytic sets, etc. We introduce an interesting integral by means of which the combinatorial Euler characteristic can be defined without the necessity of decomposition and extension as in the traditional treatment for polyhedra and finite unions of compact convex sets. Since finite unions of closed convex sets cannot be obtained by cutting convex sets as in the polyhedral case, a separate treatment of the Euler characteristic for functions generated by indicator functions of closed convex sets and relatively open convex sets is necessary, and this forms the content of this paper.     

Curvatures and currents for unions of sets with positive reach

For locally finite unions of sets with positive reach in R ^d, generalized unit normal bundles are introduced in support of a certain set additive index function. Given an appropriate orientation to the normal bundle, signed curvature measures may be defined by means of associated locally rectifiable currents (with index function as multiplicity) and specially chosen differential forms. In the case of regular sets this is shown to be equivalent to well-known classical concepts via former results. The present approach leads to unified methods in proving integral-geometric relations. Some of them are stated in this paper.     

Remainders in extensions and finite unions of locally compact sets

We discuss the relationship between properties of spaces and their remainders in extensions from the class P _fin of all finite unions of locally compact spaces. In particular, we show that a space X ∈ P _fin iff the remainder in each (some) compactification of X is in P _fin. Then we study the class P _fin and the relationship between the remainders of a space from this class in compact extensions and give a generalization of the theorem of Henriksen-Isbell.     

Traces of bounded analytic functions on finite unions of Carleson sets

The traces of functions from H on the union HT of n Carleson subsets of the unit circle form a space of functions on HT for which the first n — 1 divided differences (with respect to the hyperbolic metric) are uniformly bounded.Translated from Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov Leningradskogo Otdeleniya Matematicheskogo Instituta im. V. A. Steklova AN SSSR, Vol. 126, pp. 31–34, 1983.     

Simply connected orthogonal polygons as unions of two orthogonally starshaped sets

Let S be a simply connected orthogonal polygon in the plane. The set S is a union of two sets which are starshaped via staircase paths (i.e., orthogonally starshaped) if and only if for every three points of S, at least two of these points see (via staircase paths) a common point of S. Moreover, the simple connectedness condition cannot be deleted.     

Exceptional sets of projections,unions of k-planes and associated transforms

We prove a generalization of a result of Peres and Schlag on the dimensions of certain exceptional sets of projections and apply it to a geometric problem.     

An example concerning unions of two starshaped sets in the plane

LetS be a closed, simply connected subset of the plane,J a line segment (or a one-pointed set),J⊂S. If for every three points ofS there is a point ofJ seeing at least two of these points viaS, thenS is a union of two starshaped sets. IfJ⊈S or ifS is not simply connected, the result fails.     

A parametrization of matrix conjugacy orbit sets as unions of affine planes

The problem of finding a canonical form of complex matrices up to conjugacy with the set of canonical matrices being a union of affine planes in the matrix space is considered. A solution of the problem is given.