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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.9

Intersection Patterns of Set Systems on Manifolds with Slowly Growing Homological Shatter Functions

Authors: Sergey Avvakumov, Marguerite Bin, and Xavier Goaoc

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 367, 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)

Abstract

A theorem of Matoušek asserts that for any k ≥ 2, any set system whose shatter function is o(n^k) enjoys a fractional Helly theorem of order k: in the k-wise intersection hypergraph, positive density implies a linear-size clique. Kalai and Meshulam conjectured a generalization of that phenomenon to homological shatter functions. It was verified for set systems with bounded homological shatter functions and whose ground set has a forbidden homological minor (which includes ℝ^d by a homological analogue of the van Kampen-Flores theorem). We present two contributions to this line of research: - We study homological minors in certain manifolds (possibly with boundary), for which we prove analogues of the van Kampen-Flores theorem and of the Hanani-Tutte theorem. - We introduce graded analogues of the Radon and Helly numbers of set systems and relate their growth rate to the original parameters. This allows to extend the verification of the Kalai-Meshulam conjecture to sufficiently slowly growing homological shatter functions.

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Sergey Avvakumov, Marguerite Bin, and Xavier Goaoc. Intersection Patterns of Set Systems on Manifolds with Slowly Growing Homological Shatter Functions. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 9:1-9:16, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)

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@InProceedings{avvakumov_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.9,
  author =	{Avvakumov, Sergey and Bin, Marguerite and Goaoc, Xavier},
  title =	{{Intersection Patterns of Set Systems on Manifolds with Slowly Growing Homological Shatter Functions}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:16},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-418-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{367},
  editor =	{Ahn, Hee-Kap and Hoffmann, Michael and Nayyeri, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258152},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fractional Helly theorem, homological minor, combinatorial convexity}
}

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DOI: 10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2020.12

Homotopic Curve Shortening and the Affine Curve-Shortening Flow

Authors: Sergey Avvakumov and Gabriel Nivasch

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 164, 36th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2020)

Abstract

We define and study a discrete process that generalizes the convex-layer decomposition of a planar point set. Our process, which we call homotopic curve shortening (HCS), starts with a closed curve (which might self-intersect) in the presence of a set P⊂ ℝ² of point obstacles, and evolves in discrete steps, where each step consists of (1) taking shortcuts around the obstacles, and (2) reducing the curve to its shortest homotopic equivalent. We find experimentally that, if the initial curve is held fixed and P is chosen to be either a very fine regular grid or a uniformly random point set, then HCS behaves at the limit like the affine curve-shortening flow (ACSF). This connection between HCS and ACSF generalizes the link between "grid peeling" and the ACSF observed by Eppstein et al. (2017), which applied only to convex curves, and which was studied only for regular grids. We prove that HCS satisfies some properties analogous to those of ACSF: HCS is invariant under affine transformations, preserves convexity, and does not increase the total absolute curvature. Furthermore, the number of self-intersections of a curve, or intersections between two curves (appropriately defined), does not increase. Finally, if the initial curve is simple, then the number of inflection points (appropriately defined) does not increase.

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Sergey Avvakumov and Gabriel Nivasch. Homotopic Curve Shortening and the Affine Curve-Shortening Flow. In 36th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 164, pp. 12:1-12:15, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)

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@InProceedings{avvakumov_et_al:LIPIcs.SoCG.2020.12,
  author =	{Avvakumov, Sergey and Nivasch, Gabriel},
  title =	{{Homotopic Curve Shortening and the Affine Curve-Shortening Flow}},
  booktitle =	{36th International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2020)},
  pages =	{12:1--12:15},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-143-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{164},
  editor =	{Cabello, Sergio and Chen, Danny Z.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2020.12},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-121708},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2020.12},
  annote =	{Keywords: affine curve-shortening flow, shortest homotopic path, integer grid, convex-layer decomposition}
}

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Documents authored by Avvakumov, Sergey

Intersection Patterns of Set Systems on Manifolds with Slowly Growing Homological Shatter Functions

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Homotopic Curve Shortening and the Affine Curve-Shortening Flow

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