Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 July 2019
Let $\mathbf{p}$ be a configuration of
$n$ points in
$\mathbb{R}^{d}$ for some
$n$ and some
$d\geqslant 2$. Each pair of points has a Euclidean distance in the configuration. Given some graph
$G$ on
$n$ vertices, we measure the point-pair distances corresponding to the edges of
$G$. In this paper, we study the question of when a generic
$\mathbf{p}$ in
$d$ dimensions will be uniquely determined (up to an unknowable Euclidean transformation) from a given set of point-pair distances together with knowledge of
$d$ and
$n$. In this setting the distances are given simply as a set of real numbers; they are not labeled with the combinatorial data that describes which point pair gave rise to which distance, nor is data about
$G$ given. We show, perhaps surprisingly, that in terms of generic uniqueness, labels have no effect. A generic configuration is determined by an unlabeled set of point-pair distances (together with
$d$ and
$n$) if and only if it is determined by the labeled distances.