Stronger Bounds for Weak Epsilon-Nets in Higher Dimensions

Abstract

Given a finite point set $P$ in ${\mathbb R}^d$, and $\epsilon>0$ we say that $N\subseteq{ \mathbb R}^d$ is a weak $\epsilon$-net if it pierces every convex set $K$ with $|K\cap P|\geq \epsilon |P|$. We show that for any finite point set in dimension $d\geq 3$, and any $\epsilon>0$, one can construct a weak $\epsilon$-net whose cardinality is $\displaystyle O^*\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon^{2.558}}\right)$ in dimension $d=3$, and $\displaystyle o\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon^{d-1/2}}\right)$ in all dimensions $d\geq 4$. To be precise, our weak $\epsilon$-net has cardinality $\displaystyle O\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon^{\alpha_d+\gamma}}\right)$ for any $\gamma>0$, with $$ \alpha_d= \left\{ \begin{array}{l} 2.558 & \text{if} \ d=3 \\3.48 & \text{if} \ d=4 \\\left(d+\sqrt{d^2-2d}\right)/2 & \text{if} \ d\geq 5. \end{array}\right\} $$ This is the first significant improvement of the bound of $\displaystyle \tilde{O}\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon^d}\right)$ that was obtained in 1993 by Chazelle, Edelsbrunner, Grigni, Guibas, Sharir, and Welzl for general point sets in dimension $d\geq 3$.