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Research notes on every problem, and a library of the papers behind them. Built from the open erdos repository.

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Statement. The printed theorem reads: "Consider a set P\mathcal P of mm points and a set Q\mathcal Q of nn points, with 2⩽m⩽n1/32 \leqslant m \leqslant n^{1/3}. Then there exists a point in P\mathcal P that determines Ω(mn)\Omega(\sqrt{mn}) distances with the points in Q\mathcal Q." (p. 7).

The sets lie in the plane. In the paper's notation D(p,Q)D(p,\mathcal Q) is the number of distinct distances from pp to the points of Q\mathcal Q, and the theorem says that max⁡p∈PD(p,Q)≥cmn\max_{p\in\mathcal P}D(p,\mathcal Q)\geq c\sqrt{mn} for an absolute constant c>0c>0, throughout the stated range. It implies Theorem 4, since D(P,Q)≥D(p,Q)D(\mathcal P,\mathcal Q)\geq D(p,\mathcal Q) for every p∈Pp\in\mathcal P (p. 9). Remark 18 (p. 9) notes that in Elekes's construction, Proposition 6, every point of P\mathcal P determines Θ(mn)\Theta(\sqrt{mn}) distances.

Source. Surya Mathialagan, On Bipartite Distinct Distances in the Plane, Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 28(4) (2021), P4.33, DOI 10.37236/9687: Theorem 14 on p. 7, proof on pp. 7--8, Proposition 15 on p. 8 with its proof on p. 9. The copy read is identified on the source card.

Proof sketch. This is Székely's crossing-number method adapted to two sets. Let tt be the largest number of distances from a point of P\mathcal P to Q\mathcal Q, and suppose t≤ϵmnt\leq\epsilon\sqrt{mn} for a small constant ϵ\epsilon. Around each p∈Pp\in\mathcal P draw the at most tt circles centred at pp that pass through points of Q\mathcal Q. Join consecutive points of Q\mathcal Q along each circle, and discard the circles carrying at most two points. This leaves a multigraph on the nn points with Θ(mn)\Theta(mn) edges, drawn with O(m2t2)O(m^2t^2) crossings, since the at most mtmt circles meet pairwise in at most two points. Many parallel edges between uu and vv force many centres of P\mathcal P onto the perpendicular bisector of uu and vv, and Proposition 15 bounds how many edges such rich bisectors carry. Deleting the edges of multiplicity at least a large constant KK removes at most half of them, using m3≤nm^3\leq n. Székely's crossing lemma for multigraphs (Theorem 11, p. 7) then gives m2t2≳m3nm^2t^2\gtrsim m^3n, so t≳mnt\gtrsim\sqrt{mn}.

Proposition 15 (p. 8). For an integer r≥2r\geq2, let TT be the set of pairs (ℓ,e)(\ell,e) with e=(u,v,C)e=(u,v,C) an edge of the multigraph, ℓ\ell the perpendicular bisector of uu and vv, and ℓ\ell incident to at least rr points of P\mathcal P. Then ∣T∣=O(tm2/r2+tmlog⁡m)|T|=O(tm^2/r^2+tm\log m). Its proof (p. 9) combines the bound O(m2/r3+m/r)O(m^2/r^3+m/r) on rr-rich lines (Theorem 13, p. 7, from Szemerédi--Trotter) with a dyadic decomposition over rr.

A range note. The crossing lemma for multigraphs is applied under its hypothesis e>5cne>5cn, here with multiplicity bound KK. With Θ(mn)\Theta(mn) edges this holds once mm exceeds a constant depending on KK; the proof does not treat smaller mm separately. For mm below any fixed bound the conclusion follows from two points of P\mathcal P alone. The points of Q\mathcal Q lie on at most tt circles about each of two distinct centres, and two circles with distinct centres share at most two points, so n≤2t2n\leq2t^2 and t≥n/2t\geq\sqrt{n/2}. This note is this page's observation, not the paper's.

Dependencies. Theorem 11 (Székely's crossing lemma for multigraphs, p. 7) and Theorem 13 (the bound on rr-rich lines, p. 7) are cited by the paper and not proved there. Remark 16 (p. 8) records that the restriction m=O(n1/3)m=O(n^{1/3}) is used in the multiplicity step and that the same argument gives only Ω(m3/5n1/5)\Omega(m^{3/5}n^{1/5}) for larger mm. Remark 17 (p. 9) treats the case where P\mathcal P lies on a line, for every 2≤m≤n2\leq m\leq n.

Read depth. Claims checked: the statement and Proposition 15 were read clause by clause on the published PDF, and the proof of the theorem was followed step by step; the proof of Proposition 15 and the cited Theorems 11 and 13 were not re-derived. Nothing here is independently reviewed, and this page is outside the reviewed Theorem 3 record on this card.

Bears on. Problem 652: the claim page Mathialagan's point with many bipartite distances deduces the problem's answer from this theorem, applied to the kk points with fewest distances and the remaining points; that deduction and its standing are recorded there, not here.