Measurable Sets With Excluded Distances

For a set of distances D = {d ₁,..., d _k } a set A is called D-avoiding if no pair of points of A is at distance d _i for some i. We show that the density of A is exponentially small in k provided the ratios d ₁/d ₂, d ₂/d ₃, …, d _k-1/d _k are all small enough. This resolves a question of Székely, and generalizes a theorem of Furstenberg–Katznelson–Weiss, Falconer–Marstrand, and Bourgain. Several more results on D-avoiding sets are presented. Received: January 2007, Revision: February 2008, Accepted: February 2008