Polychromatic Coloring for Half-Planes

Abstract

We prove that for every integer $k$, every finite set of points in the plane can be $k$-colored so that every half-plane that contains at least $2k-1$ points, also contains at least one point from every color class. We also show that the bound $2k-1$ is best possible. This improves the best previously known lower and upper bounds of $\frac{4}{3}k$ and $4k-1$ respectively. We also show that every finite set of half-planes can be $k$ colored so that if a point $p$ belongs to a subset $H_p$ of at least $3k-2$ of the half-planes then $H_p$ contains a half-plane from every color class. This improves the best previously known upper bound of $8k-3$. Another corollary of our first result is a new proof of the existence of small size $\eps$-nets for points in the plane with respect to half-planes.