Holes and Islands in Random Point Sets

Abstract

For d ∈ ℕ, let S be a finite set of points in ℝ^d in general position. A set H of k points from S is a k-hole in S if all points from H lie on the boundary of the convex hull conv(H) of H and the interior of conv(H) does not contain any point from S. A set I of k points from S is a k-island in S if conv(I) ∩ S = I. Note that each k-hole in S is a k-island in S. For fixed positive integers d, k and a convex body K in ℝ^d with d-dimensional Lebesgue measure 1, let S be a set of n points chosen uniformly and independently at random from K. We show that the expected number of k-islands in S is in O(n^d). In the case k=d+1, we prove that the expected number of empty simplices (that is, (d+1)-holes) in S is at most 2^(d-1) ⋅ d! ⋅ binom(n,d). Our results improve and generalize previous bounds by Barany and Furedi [I. Barany and Z. Furedi, 1987], Valtr [P. Valtr, 1995], Fabila-Monroy and Huemer [Fabila-Monroy and Huemer, 2012], and Fabila-Monroy, Huemer, and Mitsche [Fabila-Monroy et al., 2015].