# Sylvester-Gallai for arrangements of subspaces

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Guangda Hu, Princeton University
Fine Hall 224

In this work we study arrangements of k-dimensional subspaces V_1,...,V_n over the complex numbers. Our main result shows that, if every pair V_a,V_b of subspaces is contained in a dependent triple (a triple V_a,V_b,V_c contained in a 2k-dimensional space), then the entire arrangement must be contained in a subspace whose dimension depends only on k (and not on n). The theorem holds under the assumption that any pair of subspaces intersect only at zero  (otherwise it is false). This generalizes the Sylvester-Gallai theorem (or Kelly's theorem for complex numbers), which proves the k=1 case.  One of the main ingredients in the proof is a strengthening of a Theorem of Barthe  (from the k=1 to k>1 case) proving the existence of a linear map that makes the angles between pairs of subspaces large on average. Such a mapping can be found, unless there is an obstruction in the form of a low dimensional subspace intersecting many of the spaces in the arrangement  Joint work with Zeev Dvir.