On k-gons and k-holes in point sets

Abstract

We consider a variation of the classical Erdos-Szekeres problems on the existence and number of convex k-gons and k-holes (empty k-gons) in a set of n points in the plane. Allowing the k-gons to be non-convex, we show bounds and structural results on maximizing and minimizing their numbers. Most noteworthy, for any k and sufficiently large n, we give a quadratic lower bound for the number of k-holes, and show that this number is maximized by sets in convex position. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.