From weighted paraboloid restriction to $k$-stars and distance graphs

In this paper, we study pinned $k$-star distance sets associated to compact subsets of $\mathbb{R}^n$, $n\geq 2$. For pins $x_1,\dots,x_k\in E$, the pinned $k$-star distance set is \[ \Delta_{x_1,\dots,x_k}^{k\text{-star}}(E) = \{(|x_1-x|,\dots,|x_k-x|):x\in E\}\subset\mathbb{R}^k. \] We obtain improved Hausdorff-dimension thresholds on $E$ guaranteeing that pinned $k$-star distance sets have positive $k$-dimensional Lebesgue measure. The main analytic input is a reformulation of the connection, first observed in \cite{IPPS22}, between $k$-stars in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and pinned dot products on the paraboloid in $\mathbb{R}^{n+1}$. In our framework, $L^2(\mathbb{R}^k)$ estimates for the densities of pinned $k$-star distance measures are reduced to a weighted Fourier extension estimate for the paraboloid whose weight is defined explicitly in terms of Frostman measures on $E$. For $1\leq k<n$, this yields the threshold \[\dim(E)>\alpha_{+}(n,k):=\frac{n^2+nk+k}{2n+1}=\frac{n+k-1}{2}+\frac14 +\frac{2k+1}{4(2n+1)}.\] Using the graph-building machinery of \cite{BFOPR2026}, our positive-measure results for $k$-stars can be used as building blocks for finite distance graph configurations with prescribed pins. As a consequence, we improve the best-known positive-measure thresholds for pinned $k$-simplices in every dimension $n\geq 3$ and for necklace graphs (cycles) in every dimension $n\geq 3$. We further prove nonempty interior results for $k$-stars. In the special case $k=1$, corresponding to the pinned nonempty interior of the distance set $\Delta_{x}(E)=\{|x-y|\colon y\in E\}$, we use a sharper argument to improve the pinned nonempty-interior thresholds of \cite{BFOP2026} in all dimensions $n\geq 4$.