  Given a projective algebraic set X, its dual graph G(X) is the graph whose
vertices are the irreducible components of X and whose edges connect components
that intersect in codimension one. Hartshorne's connectedness theorem says that
if (the coordinate ring of) X is Cohen-Macaulay, then G(X) is connected. We
present two quantitative variants of Hartshorne's result:
  1) If X is a Gorenstein subspace arrangement, then G(X) is r-connected, where
r is the Castelnuovo-Mumford regularity of X. (The bound is best possible; for
coordinate arrangements, it yields an algebraic extension of Balinski's theorem
for simplicial polytopes.)
  2) If X is a canonically embedded arrangement of lines no three of which meet
in the same point, then the diameter of the graph G(X) is not larger than the
codimension of X. (The bound is sharp; for coordinate arrangements, it yields
an algebraic expansion on the recent combinatorial result that the Hirsch
conjecture holds for flag normal simplicial complexes.)
