The slimmest arrangements of hyperplanes - I: Geometric lattices and projective arrangements

We show how the results of Dowling and Wilson on Whitney numbers in 'The slimmest geometric lattices' imply minimum values for the numbers of k-dimensional flats and d-dimensional cells of a projective d-arrangement of hyperplanes and for the number of d-cells missed by an extra hyperplane. Their theorems also characterize the extremal arrangements. We extend their lattice results to doubly indexed Whitney numbers; thence we obtain minima for the number of k-dimensional cells and the number of pairs of flats with x {Mathematical expression}y and dim x=k, dim y=l. The lower bounds are in terms of the rank and number of points of the geometric lattice, or the dimension d and the number of hyperplanes of the arrangement. The minima for k-cells were conjectured by Grünbaum; R. W. Shannon proved the minima for k-dimensional flats and cells and characterized attainment for the latter by a more strictly geometric, non-latticial technique.