The Lenz Configuration in Four Dimensions

Two circles of radius $1/\\sqrt2$ lying in orthogonal planes of $\\mathbb{R}^4$ and centred at the origin have a striking property: every point of one is at distance exactly $1$ from every point of the other. The reason is that the two points have disjoint coordinate supports, so the squared distance is the sum of two squared radii. Splitting $n$ points evenly between the two circles therefore realises $\\lfloor n^2/4 \\rfloor$ unit distances, and the unit-distance graph contains a complete bipartite graph. This settles the order of the unit-distance problem from dimension four onward, in sharp contrast with dimensions two and three, where the exponent is still unknown.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-09-21
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22849348
Primary Topic
Computational Geometry and Mesh Generation
Type
preprint
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preprint

The Lenz Configuration in Four Dimensions

Christopher Mills
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Computational Geometry and Mesh Generation
preprint

The Lenz Configuration in Four Dimensions

Christopher Mills
preprint en

Abstract

Two circles of radius $1/\sqrt2$ lying in orthogonal planes of $\mathbb{R}^4$ and centred at the origin have a striking property: every point of one is at distance exactly $1$ from every point of the other. The reason is that the two points have disjoint coordinate supports, so the squared distance is the sum of two squared radii. Splitting $n$ points evenly between the two circles therefore realises $\lfloor n^2/4 \rfloor$ unit distances, and the unit-distance graph contains a complete bipartite graph. This settles the order of the unit-distance problem from dimension four onward, in sharp contrast with dimensions two and three, where the exponent is still unknown.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Computational Geometry and Mesh Generation
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The Lenz Configuration in Four Dimensions — Christopher Mills · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS