On Few-Distance Sets in the Plane

Abstract

Let $g(k)$ be the maximum size of a planar set that determines at most $k$ distances. We prove $$\frac{\pi}{3\,C(\Lambda_{hex})}\ k\sqrt{\log k} (1+o(1)) \le g(k) \le C k\log k,$$ so $g(k) \asymp k\sqrt{\log k}$ with an explicit constant from the hexagonal lattice. For any arithmetic lattice $\Lambda$ we show $$g_\Lambda(k)\ge (\pi/4) S^*(\Lambda) k\sqrt{\log k} (1+o(1)).$$ We also give quantitative stability: unless $X$ is line-heavy or has two popular nonparallel shifts, either almost all ordered pairs lie below a high quantile of the distance multiset (near-center localization), or a constant fraction of $X\cap W$ lies in one residue class modulo $2\Lambda$.