math.CO — Combinatorics

The maximum cardinality of a planar seven-distance set

Contributed by Alon Amit

We give a computer-assisted proof that the maximum cardinality of a planar set determining at most seven distinct positive distances is sixteen. A diameter-graph argument reduces a hypothetical seventeen-point example to an eleven-point set with at most six distances, except for a thirteen-cycle obstruction. We exclude the cycle by an exact interval certificate. Using a published exhaustive count of sixty-two candidate distance patterns, we classify the eleven-point cores by exact Gröbner-basis calculations and prove that none can have the required seventeen- point extension. All extension calculations use rational or algebraic arithmetic. An explicit sixteen-point triangular-lattice set attains the bound.