Comment by arutar
5 hours ago
Maybe here are the easiest ones to state:
1. One can ask the same problem but for k-gons instead of triangles.
2. Given a set of point-line pairs (x1, l1), ..., (xn, ln) [[that is, each xj lies in the line lj]], consider the smallest distance between some xi and lj where i != j. Then as in Heilbronn's problem we want configurations so that this smallest distance is as large as possible.
In 2 here we already see a key feature of 'incidence lower bounds' problems: we need to assume some initial 'trivial incidences' for the problem to make sense at all. If we didn't require them; we could put all the points at the top, and the lines at the bottom, and call it a day! The 'trivial incidences' force the points and lines to be spatially mixed; then we want to find a 'non-trivial incidence'.
Asymptotics for problem 1 are very open (seems decently harder than Heilbronn) but problem 2 was recently solved by Cosmin [1]
Actually, information about (2) immediately gives you something about the Heilbronn problem: take your n points, and use them to define n/2 lines. This gives a family of n/2 points and n/2 lines (forgetting about the 'other' point on each line). Apply the best answer you get to (2), to find a point of distance r to some line. Since that line originally came from two other points, you get a triangle of area ~ r. This is where the best known asymptotics for Heilbronn's problem come from.
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