Optimal Spectral Bounds for Antipodal Graphs

Abstract

Suppose $\left\{x_1, \dots, x_n\right\} \subset \mathbb{R}^2$ is a set of $n$ points in the plane with diameter $\leq 1$, meaning $\|x_i - x_j\| \leq 1$ for all $1 \leq i,j \leq n$. We show that the ratio of the number of "neighbors" (pairs of points with distance $\leq \varepsilon$) to the number of "antipodes" (pairs of points with distance $\geq 1 - \varepsilon$) is $\gtrsim\varepsilon^{1/2 + o(1)}$, attaining the conjectured correct asymptotic within a polylog factor and improving the $\gtrsim\varepsilon^{3/4+o(1)}$ bound of Steinerberger (2025).