Let $K$ be a convex body in $\mathbb{R}^n$ and $f : \partial K \rightarrow \mathbb{R}_+$ a continuous, strictly positive function with $\int\limits_{\partial K} f(x) d μ_{\partial K}(x) = 1$. We give an upper bound for the approximation of $K$ in the symmetric difference metric by an arbitrarily positioned polytope $P_f$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$ having a fixed number of vertices. This generalizes a result by Ludwig, Schütt and Werner $[36]$. The polytope $P_f$ is obtained by a random construction via a probability measure with density $f$. In our result, the dependence on the number of vertices is optimal. With the optimal density $f$, the dependence on $K$ in our result is also optimal.
We study approximations of smooth convex bodies by random ball-polytopes. We examine the following probability model: let $K\subset{\bf R}^d$ be a convex body such that $K$ slides freely in a ball of radius $R>0$ and has $C^2$ smooth boundary. Let $x_1,\ldots, x_n$ be i.i.d. uniform random points in $K$. For $r\geq R$, let $K^r_{(n)}$ denote the intersection of all radius $r$ closed balls that contain $x_1,\ldots, x_n$. Then $K^r_{(n)}$ is a (uniform) random ball-polytope (of radius $r$) in $K$. We study the asymptotic properties of the expectation of the number of facets of $K_{(n)}^r$ as $n\…
The deviation of a general convex body with twice differentiable boundary and an arbitrarily positioned polytope with a given number of vertices is studied. The paper considers the case where the deviation is measured in terms of the surface areas of the involved sets, more precisely, by what is called the surface area deviation. The proof uses arguments and constructions from probability, convex and integral geometry. The bound is closely related to $p$-affine surface areas.
Short and transparent proofs of central limit theorems for intrinsic volumes of random polytopes in smooth convex bodies are presented. They combine different tools such as estimates for floating bodies with Stein's method from probability theory.
We establish estimates for the asymptotic best approximation of the Euclidean unit ball by polytopes under a notion of distance induced by the intrinsic volumes. We also introduce a notion of distance between convex bodies that is induced by the Wills functional, and apply it to derive asymptotically sharp bounds for approximating the ball in high dimensions. Remarkably, it turns out that there is a polytope which is almost optimal with respect to all intrinsic volumes simultaneously, up to absolute constants. Finally, we establish asymptotic formulas for the best approximation of smooth conve…
We consider the question how well a floating body can be approximated by the polar of the illumination body of the polar. We establish precise convergence results in the case of centrally symmetric polytopes. This leads to a new affine invariant which is related to the cone measure of the polytope.
Tensorial curvature measures are tensor-valued generalizations of the curvature measures of convex bodies. We prove a complete set of kinematic formulae for such tensorial curvature measures on convex bodies and for their (nonsmooth) generalizations on convex polytopes. These formulae express the integral mean of the tensorial curvature measure of the intersection of two given convex bodies (resp.~polytopes), one of which is uniformly moved by a proper rigid motion, in terms of linear combinations of tensorial curvature measures of the given convex bodies (resp.~polytopes). We prove these resu…
A natural model for the approximation of a convex body $K$ in $\mathbb{R}^d$ by random polytopes is obtained as follows. Take a stationary Poisson hyperplane process in the space, and consider the random polytope $Z_K$ defined as the intersection of all closed halfspaces containing $K$ that are bounded by hyperplanes of the process not intersecting $K$. If $f$ is a functional on convex bodies, then for increasing intensities of the process, the expectation of the difference $f(Z_K)-f(K)$ may or may not converge to zero. If it does, then the order of convergence and possible limit relations are…
The random polytope $K_n$, defined as the convex hull of $n$ points chosen uniformly at random on the boundary of a smooth convex body, is considered. Proofs for lower and upper variance bounds, strong laws of large numbers and central limit theorems for the intrinsic volumes of $K_n$ are presented. A normal approximation bound from Stein's method and estimates for surface bodies are among the involved tools.
A new intrinsic volume metric is introduced for the class of convex bodies in $\mathbb{R}^n$. As an application, an inequality is proved for the asymptotic best approximation of the Euclidean unit ball by arbitrarily positioned polytopes with a restricted number of vertices under this metric. This result improves the best known estimate, and shows that dropping the restriction that the polytope is contained in the ball or vice versa improves the estimate by at least a factor of dimension. The same phenomenon has already been observed in the special cases of volume, surface area and mean width …
We investigate weighted floating bodies of polytopes. We show that the weighted volume depends on the complete flags of the polytope. This connection is obtained by introducing flag simplices, which translate between the metric and combinatorial structure. Our results are applied in spherical and hyperbolic space. This leads to new asymptotic results for polytopes in these spaces. We also provide explicit examples of spherical and hyperbolic convex bodies whose floating bodies behave completely different from any convex body in Euclidean space.
A complete classification is established of Minkowski valuations on lattice polytopes that intertwine the special linear group over the integers and are translation invariant. In the contravariant case, the only such valuations are multiples of projection bodies. In the equivariant case, the only such valuations are generalized difference bodies combined with multiples of the newly defined discrete Steiner point.
Suppose we choose $N$ points uniformly randomly from a convex body in $d$ dimensions. How large must $N$ be, asymptotically with respect to $d$, so that the convex hull of the points is nearly as large as the convex body itself? It was shown by Dyer-Füredi-McDiarmid that exponentially many samples suffice when the convex body is the hypercube, and by Pivovarov that the Euclidean ball demands roughly $d^{d/2}$ samples. We show that when the convex body is the simplex, exponentially many samples suffice; this then implies the same result for any convex simplicial polytope with at most exponentia…
In this paper, we give an overview of some results concerning best and random approximation of convex bodies by polytopes. We explain how both are linked and see that random approximation is almost as good as best approximation.
Denote by ${\mathcal K}^d$ the family of convex bodies in $E^d$ and by $w(C)$ the minimal width of $C \in {\mathcal K}^d$. We ask for the greatest number $Λ_n ({\mathcal K}^d)$ such that every $C \in {\mathcal K}^d$ contains a polytope $P$ with at most $n$ vertices for which $Λ_n ({\mathcal K}^d) \leq \frac{w(P)}{w(C)}$. We give a lower estimate of $Λ_n ({\mathcal K}^d)$ for $n \geq 2d$ based on estimates of the smallest radius of $\big\lfloor {\frac{n}{2}} \big\rfloor$ antipodal pairs of spherical caps that cover the unit sphere of $E^d$. We show that $Λ_3 ({\mathcal K}^2) \geq {\frac 1 2}(3-…
In this paper we introduce and study a topological abelian group of convex bodies, analogous to the scissors congruence group and McMullen's polytope algebra, with the universal property that continuous valuations on convex bodies correspond to continuous homomorphisms on the group of convex bodies. To study this group, we first obtain a version of McMullen polynomiality for valuations that take values not in fields or vector spaces, but in abelian groups. Using this, we are able to equip the group of convex bodies with a grading that consists of real vector spaces in all positive degrees, mir…
We prove that universal second-order rigidity implies universal prestress stability and that triangulated convex polytopes in three-space (with holes appropriately positioned) are prestress stable.
By using elementary yet interesting observations and refining techniques used in a recent work by Fei Xue et al., we present new upper bounds for covering functionals of convex polytopes in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with few vertices. In these estimations, no information other than the number of vertices of the convex polytope is used.
In this paper we study the fiber body, that is the extension of the notion of fiber polytopes for more general convex bodies. After giving an overview of the properties of the fiber body, we focus on three particular classes of convex bodies. First we describe the strict convexity of the fiber body of the so called puffed polytopes. Then we provide an explicit equation for the support function of the fiber body of some smooth convex bodies. Finally we give a formula that allows to compute the fiber body of a zonoid with a particular focus on the so called discotopes. Throughout the paper we il…
We introduce the flag-approximability of a convex body to measure how easy it is to approximate by polytopes. We show that the flag-approximability is exactly half the volume entropy of the Hilbert geometry on the body, and that both quantities are maximized when the convex body is a Euclidean ball. We also compute explicitly the asymptotic volume of a convex polytope, which allows us to prove that simplices have the least asymptotic volume.
Any convex polytope whose combinatorial automorphism group has two orbits on the flags is isomorphic to one whose group of Euclidean symmetries has two orbits on the flags (equivalently, to one whose automorphism group and symmetry group coincide.) Hence, a combinatorially two-orbit convex polytope is isomorphic to one of a known finite list, all of which are 3-dimensional: the cuboctahedron, icosidodecahedron, rhombic dodecahedron, or rhombic triacontahedron. The same is true of combinatorially two-orbit normal face-to-face tilings by convex polytopes.
We describe the canonical correspondence between set of all finite metric spaces and set of special symmetric convex polytopes, and formulate the problem about classification of the metric spaces in terms of combinatorial structure of those polytopes.
We resolve a conjecture of Kalai relating approximation theory of convex bodies by simplicial polytopes to the face numbers and primitive Betti numbers of these polytopes and their toric varieties. The proof uses higher notions of chordality. Further, for C^2-convex bodies, asymptotically tight lower bounds on the g-numbers of the approximating polytopes are given, in terms of their Hausdorff distance from the convex body.
This note provides a simple proof for the equality between the normalized volume of a convex polytope with $m$ vertices and the mixed volume of $m$ simplices and thus shows the seemingly restrictive problem of computing mixed volume of simplices is still at least as hard as computing volumes of convex polytopes.
A classical theorem of Alon and Milman states that any $d$ dimensional centrally symmetric convex body has a projection of dimension $m\geq e^{c\sqrt{\ln{d}}}$ which is either close to the $m$-dimensional Euclidean ball or to the $m$-dimensional cross-polytope. We extended this result to non-symmetric convex bodies.
We prove several stability and volume difference inequalities for projections of convex bodies and apply them to prove a hyperplane inequality for surface area of projection bodies.
The Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality, a far-reaching generalization of the classical isoperimetric inequality to arbitrary mixed volumes, lies at the heart of convex geometry. The characterization of its extremal bodies is a long-standing open problem that dates back to Alexandrov's original 1937 paper. The known extremals already form a very rich family, and even the fundamental conjectures on their general structure, due to Schneider, are incomplete. In this paper, we completely settle the extremals of the Alexandrov-Fenchel inequality for convex polytopes. In particular, we show that the extre…
The semigroup of convex bodies in ${\mathbb R}^n$ with Minkowski addition has a canonical embedding into an abelian group; its elements have been called virtual convex bodies. Geometric interpretations of such virtual convex bodies have been particularly fruitful under the restriction to polytopes. For general convex bodies, mainly the planar case has been studied, as a part of the more general investigation of hedgehogs. Here we restrict ourselves to strictly convex bodies in ${\mathbb R}^n$. A particularly natural geometric interpretation of virtual convex bodies can then be seen in the set …
Abstract In this paper, we study affine bodies of revolution. This will allow us to prove that a convex body all whose orthogonal $n$-projections are affinely equivalent is an ellipsoid, provided $n\equiv 0,1, 2$ mod $4$, $n>1$ with the possible exemption of $n=133$. Our proof uses convex geometry and topology of compact Lie groups. AMS classification subject: 22E10, 52A05
Giving a joint generalization of a result of Brazitikos, Chasapis and Hioni and results of Giannopoulos and Milman, we prove that roughly $\left\lceil \frac{d}{(1-\vartheta)^d}\ln\frac{1}{(1-\vartheta)^d} \right\rceil$ points chosen uniformly and independently from a centered convex body $K$ in ${\mathbb R}^d$ yield a polytope $P$ for which $\vartheta K\subseteq P\subseteq K$ holds with large probability. The proof is simple, and relies on a combinatorial tool, the $\varepsilon$-net theorem.
We study finite groups that occur as combinatorial automorphism groups or geometric symmetry groups of convex polytopes. When $Γ$ is a subgroup of the combinatorial automorphism group of a convex $d$-polytope, $d\geq 3$, then there exists a convex $d$-polytope related to the original polytope with combinatorial automorphism group exactly $Γ$. When $Γ$ is a subgroup of the geometric symmetry group of a convex $d$-polytope, $d\geq 3$, then there exists a convex $d$-polytope related to the original polytope with both geometric symmetry group and combinatorial automorphism group exactly $Γ$. These…
