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Distinct distances between points and lines

We show that for $m$ points and $n$ lines in the real plane, the number of distinct distances between the points and the lines is $Ω(m^{1/5}n^{3/5})$, as long as $m^{1/2}\le n\le m^2$. We also prove that for any $m$ points in the plane, not all on a line, the number of distances between these points and the lines that they span is $Ω(m^{4/3})$. The problem of bounding the number of distinct point-line distances can be reduced to the problem of bounding the number of tangent pairs among a finite set of lines and a finite set of circles in the plane, and we believe that this latter question is of independent interest. In the same vein, we show that $n$ circles in the plane determine at most $O(n^{3/2})$ points where two or more circles are tangent, improving the previously best known bound of $O(n^{3/2}\log n)$. Finally, we study three-dimensional versions of the distinct point-line distances problem, namely, distinct point-line distances and distinct point-plane distances. The problems studied in this paper are all new, and the bounds that we derive for them, albeit most likely not tight, are non-trivial to prove. We hope that our work will motivate further studies of these and related problems.