Triangle areas in line arrangements

Abstract

A widely investigated subject in combinatorial geometry, originated from Erdős, is the following. Given a point set $P$ of cardinality $n$ in the plane, how can we describe the distribution of the determined distances? This has been generalized in many directions. In this paper we propose the following variants. Consider planar arrangements of $n$ lines. Determine the maximum number of triangles of unit area, maximum area or minimum area, determined by these lines. Determine the minimum size of a subset of these $n$ lines so that all triples determine distinct area triangles. We prove that the order of magnitude for the maximum occurrence of unit areas lies between $\Omega (n^2)$ and $O(n^{9/4})$. This result is strongly connected to both additive combinatorial results and Szemerédi--Trotter type incidence theorems. Next we show a tight bound for the maximum number of minimum area triangles. Finally we present lower and upper bounds for the maximum area and distinct area problems by combining algebraic, geometric and combinatorial techniques.

Title is shortened. Some typos and small errors were corrected