For an isotropic Poisson line process of intensity , its pair intersections form a locally finite point process. Coincident intersections and parallel pairs have probability zero. Its intensity measure is times area. Indeed the Poisson factorial moment measure and the change of variables from signed distances to intersection location giveThe factor counts unordered line pairs. Shared lines create dependence between intersections; this process is not a Poisson point process.
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2003 iii Paper 31 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Identify a line with its unique parameter pair in , usingA Poisson line process means a Poisson point process on the Borel parameter space : for each measurable of finite mean measure, the number of its parameter points is Poisson with mean , and counts in finitely many disjoint sets are independent. Infinite-measure sets are handled by a countable finite-measure exhaustion. Here is sigma-finite and nonatomic, so there are countably many distinct lines almost surely. It is not an assertion that line counts are Poisson with respect to planar area.
Fix and let . Exactly the lines with hit this disk, apart from the zero-probability tangent case. Thus the count of disk-hitting lines isEvery intersection in uses two of these lines. Writing , we haveThis also proves local finiteness of the intersection point process. Initially it gives a non-strict bound .
To establish strictness, choose the two parameter boxesEach has positive measure, and both lie among the disk-hitting lines. If one line from each box intersected at , thenBut their distance parameters differ by more than , a contradiction. The event of exactly one line in each box and no other disk-hitting lines has probabilityOn this event but . ThereforeThe following original diagram illustrates why two disk-hitting lines need not produce an intersection inside the disk.
To decide whether is Poisson, compute its intensity measure and compare its void probability. Use the equivalent signed line coordinates with and . If this is the original pair ; if it is . The measure is , with no extra factor of two. Translation by sends to , preserving this measure. Thus both the line and intersection processes are stationary.
Almost surely no two lines are parallel and no three are concurrent. In each finite-intensity parameter region, conditional line parameters have continuous joint densities. Parallel pairs and concurrent triples satisfy lower-dimensional equations and have probability zero; a countable exhaustion proves the assertion for all lines. Hence different unordered pairs have distinct intersections almost surely. For a bounded Borel set , the second Poisson factorial moment measure identity givesFor nonparallel normals, their intersection satisfies , . The absolute Jacobian determinant of this transformation is . Consequentlysince the inner integral is for every . In particular .
If were a Poisson point process, the count would therefore be Poisson with that mean, giving . But the earlier necessary-two-lines argument givesAt this lower bound is , whereas the supposed Poisson void probability is . This contradiction proves is not a Poisson point process. Its points share parent lines, and the explicit void/mean comparison demonstrates the resulting dependence rather than merely asserting it.
