The Katchalski-Lewis transversal problem in R-n

Abstract

Let F be a family of disjoint translates of a compact convex set in the plane. In 1980 Katchalski and Lewis showed that there exists a constant k, independent of F, such that if each three members of F are met by a line, then a "large" subfamily G subset of F, with |F\G| <= k, is met by a line. In this paper we obtain a higher-dimensional analogue containing the Katchalski-Lewis result. Also we give two constructions of families of pairwise disjoint translates of the unit ball in R-3 which answer some related questions.