Title
Sylvester–Gallai for Arrangements of Subspaces
Abstract
In this work we study arrangements of k-dimensional subspaces $$V_1,ldots ,V_n subset mathbb {C}^ell $$V1,�,Vn�Cl. Our main result shows that, if every pair $$V_{a},V_b$$Va,Vb of subspaces is contained in a dependent triple (a triple $$V_{a},V_b,V_c$$Va,Vb,Vc contained in a 2k-dimensional space), then the entire arrangement must be contained in a subspace whose dimension depends only on k (and not on n). The theorem holds under the assumption that $$V_a cap V_b = {0}$$Va�Vb={0} for every pair (otherwise it is false). This generalizes the Sylvester---Gallai theorem (or Kellyu0027s theorem for complex numbers), which proves the $$k=1$$k=1 case. Our proof also handles arrangements in which we have many pairs (instead of all) appearing in dependent triples, generalizing the quantitative results of Barak et. al. (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(48):19213---19219, 2013). One of the main ingredients in the proof is a strengthening of a theorem of Barthe (Invent Math 134(2):335---361, 1998) (from the $$k=1$$k=1 to $$ku003e1$$ku003e1 case) proving the existence of a linear map that makes the angles between pairs of subspaces large on average. Such a mapping can be found, unless there is an obstruction in the form of a low dimensional subspace intersecting many of the spaces in the arrangement (in which case one can use a different argument to prove the main theorem).
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00454-016-9781-7
Symposium on Computational Geometry
Keywords
Field
DocType
Sylvester–Gallai,Locally correctable codes,Incidence geometry
Topology,Discrete mathematics,Combinatorics,Monad (category theory),Complex number,Subspace topology,Generalization,Linear subspace,Incidence geometry,Linear map,Mathematics
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
56
4
0179-5376
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.35
5
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Zeev Dvir143730.85
Guang-da Hu213318.39