On the Number of Discrete Chains

Abstract

We study a generalization of Erd\H os's unit distances problem to chains of $k$ distances. Given $\mathcal P,$ a set of $n$ points, and a sequence of distances $(\delta_1,\ldots,\delta_k)$, we study the maximum possible number of tuples of distinct points $(p_1,\ldots,p_{k+1})\in \mathcal P^{k+1}$ satisfying $|p_j p_{j+1}|=\delta_j$ for every $1\leq j \leq k$. We study the problem in $\mathbb R^2$ and in $\mathbb R^3$, and derive upper and lower bounds for this family of problems.