Robust Tverberg and colorful Carath\'eodory results via random choice

Abstract

We use the probabilistic method to obtain versions of the colorful Carath\'eodory theorem and Tverberg's theorem with tolerance. In particular, we give bounds for the smallest integer $N=N(t,d,r)$ such that for any $N$ points in $R^d$, there is a partition of them into $r$ parts for which the following condition holds: after removing any $t$ points from the set, the convex hulls of what is left in each part intersect. We prove the bound $N=rt+O(\sqrt{t})$ for fixed $r,d$ which is polynomial in each parameters. Our bounds extend to colorful versions of Tverberg's theorem, as well as Reay-type variations of this theorem.