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Abstract:
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A classical object of study in combinatorial geometry are sets S of points in the plane. A triangle with vertices from S is called empty if it contains no points of S in its interior. The number of empty triangles depends on the positions of points from S and a burning question is: How many empty triangles are there at least, among all sets S of n points? In order to discard degenerate point configurations, we only consider sets S without three collinear points. In this project, a software has been developed which allows to count the number of empty triangles in a set of n points in the plane. The software permits generation of point sets and their graphical visualization, as well as searching and displaying of optimal point configurations encountered. A point set of a given cardinality is said to be optimal if it contains the minimum number of empty triangles. The objective is to derive bounds on the minimum number of empty triangles by means of experiments realized with our software. The created program also allows to count empty monochromatic triangles in two-colored point sets. A triangle is called monochromatic if its three vertices have the same color. While the first problem has been studied extensively during the last decades, the two-colored version remains to be explored in depth. In this work we also expose our results on the minimum number of empty triangles in (small) two-colored point sets. Also, the treated problem is put in context with related results, such as the Erdös-Szekeres theorem, and a short outline of famous problems which contributed to the rise of combinatorial geometry is presented. |
