Density of Range Capturing Hypergraphs

For a finite set $X$ of points in the plane, a set $S$ in the plane, and a positive integer $k$, we say that a $k$-element subset $Y$ of $X$ is captured by $S$ if there is a homothetic copy $S'$ of $S$ such that $X\cap S' = Y$, i.e., $S'$ contains exactly $k$ elements from $X$. A $k$-uniform $S$-capturing hypergraph $H = H(X,S,k)$ has a vertex set $X$ and a hyperedge set consisting of all $k$-element subsets of $X$ captured by $S$. In case when $k=2$ and $S$ is convex these graphs are planar graphs, known as convex distance function Delaunay graphs. In this paper we prove that for any $k\geq 2$, any $X$, and any convex compact set $S$, the number of hyperedges in $H(X,S,k)$ is at most $(2k-1)|X| - k^2 + 1 - \sum_{i=1}^{k-1}a_i$, where $a_i$ is the number of $i$-element subsets of $X$ that can be separated from the rest of $X$ with a straight line. In particular, this bound is independent of $S$ and indeed the bound is tight for all "round" sets $S$ and point sets $X$ in general position with respect to $S$. This refines a general result of Buzaglo, Pinchasi and Rote stating that every pseudodisc topological hypergraph with vertex set $X$ has $O(k^2|X|)$ hyperedges of size $k$ or less.Comment: new version with a tight result and shorter proo

Spectrum of mixed bi-uniform hypergraphs

A mixed hypergraph is a triple $H=(V,\mathcal{C},\mathcal{D})$, where $V$ is a set of vertices, $\mathcal{C}$ and $\mathcal{D}$ are sets of hyperedges. A vertex-coloring of $H$ is proper if $C$-edges are not totally multicolored and $D$-edges are not monochromatic. The feasible set $S(H)$ of $H$ is the set of all integers, $s$, such that $H$ has a proper coloring with $s$ colors. Bujt\'as and Tuza [Graphs and Combinatorics 24 (2008), 1--12] gave a characterization of feasible sets for mixed hypergraphs with all $C$- and $D$-edges of the same size $r$, $r\geq 3$. In this note, we give a short proof of a complete characterization of all possible feasible sets for mixed hypergraphs with all $C$-edges of size $\ell$ and all $D$-edges of size $m$, where $\ell, m \geq 2$. Moreover, we show that for every sequence $(r(s))_{s=\ell}^n$, $n \geq \ell$, of natural numbers there exists such a hypergraph with exactly $r(s)$ proper colorings using $s$ colors, $s = \ell,\ldots,n$, and no proper coloring with more than $n$ colors. Choosing $\ell = m=r$ this answers a question of Bujt\'as and Tuza, and generalizes their result with a shorter proof.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure