We investigate metric projections and distance functions referring to convex bodies in finite-dimensional normed spaces. For this purpose we identify the vector space with its dual space by using, instead of the usual identification via the standard inner product, the Legendre transform associated with the given norm. This approach yields re-interpretations of various properties of convex functions, and new relations between such functions and geometric properties of the studied norm are also derived.
In this paper we state a one-to-one connection between the maximal ratio of the circumradius and the diameter of a body (the Jung constant) in an arbitrary Minkowski space and the maximal Minkowski asymmetry of the complete bodies within that space. This allows to generalize and unify recent results on complete bodies and to derive a necessary condition on the unit ball of the space, assuming a given body to be complete. Finally, we state several corollaries, i.e. concerning the Helly dimension or the Banach-Mazur distance.
A translation body of a convex body is the convex hull of two of its translates intersecting each other. In the 1950s, Rogers and Shephard found the extremal values, over the family of $n$-dimensional convex bodies, of the maximal volume of the translation bodies of a given convex body. In our paper, we introduce a normed version of this problem, and for the planar case, determine the corresponding quantities, with one exception, for the four types of volumes regularly used in the literature: Busemann, Holmes-Thompson, and Gromov's mass and mass*. We examine the problem also for higher dimensi…
We aim to study the classical Rosenthal-Szasz inequality for a plane whose geometry is given by a norm. This inequality states that the bodies of constant width have the largest perimeter among all planar convex bodies of given diameter. In the case where the unit circle of the norm is given by a Radon curve, we obtain an inequality which is completely analogous to the Euclidean case. For arbitrary norms we obtain an upper bound for the perimeter calculated in the anti-norm, yielding an analogous characterization of all curves of constant width. To derive these results, we use methods from the…
The notion of ball convexity, considered in finite dimensional real Banach spaces, is a natural and useful extension of usual convexity; one replaces intersections of half-spaces by suitable intersections of balls. A subset $S$ of a normed space is called ball convex if it coincides with its ball hull, which is obtained as intersection of all balls (of fixed radius) containing $S$. Ball convex sets are closely related to notions like ball polytopes, complete sets, bodies of constant width, and spindle convexity. We will study geometric properties of ball convex bodies in normed spaces, for exa…
In this note we prove two results on the quantitative illumination parameter f(d) of the unit ball of a d-dimensional normed space introduced by K. Bezdek (1992). The first is that f(d) = O(2^d d^2 log d). The second involves Steiner minimal trees. Let v(d) be the maximum degree of a vertex, and s(d) of a Steiner point, in a Steiner minimal tree in a d-dimensional normed space, where both maxima are over all norms. F. Morgan (1992) conjectured that s(d) <= 2^d, and D. Cieslik (1990) conjectured v(d) <= 2(2^d-1). We prove that s(d) <= v(d) <= f(d) which, combined with the above estimate of f(d)…
We apply the technique of Károly Bezdek and Daniel Bezdek to study billiard trajectories in convex bodies, when the length is measured with a (possibly asymmetric) norm. We prove a lower bound for the length of the shortest closed billiard trajectory, related to the non-symmetric Mahler problem. With this technique we are able to give short and elementary proofs to some known results.
We survey problems and results from combinatorial geometry in normed spaces, concentrating on problems that involve distances. These include various properties of unit-distance graphs, minimum-distance graphs, diameter graphs, as well as minimum spanning trees and Steiner minimum trees. In particular, we discuss translative kissing (or Hadwiger) numbers, equilateral sets, and the Borsuk problem in normed spaces. We show how to use the angular measure of Peter Brass to prove various statements about Hadwiger and blocking numbers of convex bodies in the plane, including some new results. We also…
We establish Marstrand-type as well as Besicovich-Federer-type projection theorems for closest-point projections onto hyperplanes in the normed space $\mathbb{R}^{n}$. In particular, we prove that if a norm on $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ is $C^{1,1}$-regular, then the analogues of the well-known statements from the Euclidean setting hold. On the other hand, we construct an example of a $C^{1}$-regular norm in $\mathbb{R}^2$ for which Marstrand-type theorems fail.
We study relations of some classes of $k$-convex, $k$-visible bodies in Euclidean spaces. We introduce and study \textrm{circular projections} in normed linear spaces and classes of bodies related with families of such maps, in particular, \textrm{$k$-circular convex} and \textrm{$k$-circular visible} ones. Investigation of these bodies more general than $k$-convex and $k$-visible ones allows us to generalize some classical results of geometric tomography and find their new applications.
In the chasing convex bodies problem, an online player receives a request sequence of $N$ convex sets $K_1,\dots, K_N$ contained in a normed space $\mathbb R^d$. The player starts at $x_0\in \mathbb R^d$, and after observing each $K_n$ picks a new point $x_n\in K_n$. At each step the player pays a movement cost of $||x_n-x_{n-1}||$. The player aims to maintain a constant competitive ratio against the minimum cost possible in hindsight, i.e. knowing all requests in advance. The existence of a finite competitive ratio for convex body chasing was first conjectured in 1991 by Friedman and Linial. …
The convex body chasing problem, introduced by Friedman and Linial, is a competitive analysis problem on any normed vector space. In convex body chasing, for each timestep $t\in\mathbb N$, a convex body $K_t\subseteq \mathbb R^d$ is given as a request, and the player picks a point $x_t\in K_t$. The player aims to ensure that the total distance $\sum_{t=0}^{T-1}||x_t-x_{t+1}||$ is within a bounded ratio of the smallest possible offline solution. In this work, we consider the nested version of the problem, in which the sequence $(K_t)$ must be decreasing. For Euclidean spaces, we consider a memo…
The Hahn-Banach theorem states that onto each line in every normed space, there is a unitary projection, and Kadec and Snobar proved (using John's ellipsoid) that onto each $n$-dimensional subspace of any real normed space, there is a projection with norm at most $λ_n \leq \sqrt{n}$. Grunbaum conjectured that $λ_2=4/3<\sqrt{2}$ and several attempts have been made to prove this conjecture: Konig and Tomczak-Jaegermann published a proof that was shown incomplete by Chalmers and Lewicki, who gave their own (a bit intricate) proof. Here is a simpler proof, mostly based on their works, and partiall…
Suppose that we have the unit Euclidean ball in $\R^n$ and construct new bodies using three operations - linear transformations, closure in the radial metric and multiplicative summation defined by $\|x\|_{K+_0L} = \sqrt{\|x\|_K\|x\|_L}.$ We prove that in dimension 3 this procedure gives all origin symmetric convex bodies, while this is no longer true in dimensions 4 and higher. We introduce the concept of embedding of a normed space in $L_0$ that naturally extends the corresponding properties of $L_p$-spaces with $p\ne0$, and show that the procedure described above gives exactly the unit ball…
We prove a pointwise version of the multi-dimensional central limit theorem for convex bodies. Namely, let X be an isotropic random vector in R^n with a log-concave density. For a typical subspace E in R^n of dimension n^c, consider the probability density of the projection of X onto E. We show that the ratio between this probability density and the standard gaussian density in E is very close to 1 in large parts of E. Here c > 0 is a universal constant. This complements a recent result by the second named author, where the total-variation metric between the densities was considered.
Let $K$ and $L$ be two convex bodies in ${\mathbb R^5}$ with countably many diameters, such that their projections onto all $4$ dimensional subspaces containing one fixed diameter are directly congruent. We show that if these projections have no rotational symmetries, and the projections of $K,L$ on certain 3 dimensional subspaces have no symmetries, then $K=\pm L$ up to a translation. We also prove the corresponding result for sections of star bodies.
We prove that if two convex bodies $ K, L \subset \mathbb{R}^3$ satisfy the property that the orthogonal projections of $K$ and $L$ onto every plane containing the origin are roations of each other, then either $K$ and $L$ coincide or $L$ is the image of $K$ under a reflection about the origin
We construct examples of two convex bodies $K,L$ in $\mathbb{R}^n$, such that every projection of $K$ onto a $(n-1)$-dimensional subspace can be rotated to be contained in the corresponding projection of $L$, but $K$ itself cannot be rotated to be contained in $L$. We also find necessary conditions on $K$ and $L$ to ensure that $K$ can be rotated to be contained in $L$ if all the $(n-1)$-dimensional projections have this property.
Let $K$ and $L$ be two convex bodies in ${\mathbb R^4}$, such that their projections onto all $3$-dimensional subspaces are directly congruent. We prove that if the set of diameters of the bodies satisfy an additional condition and some projections do not have certain symmetries, then $K$ and $L$ coincide up to translation and an orthogonal transformation. We also show that an analogous statement holds for sections of star bodies, and prove the $n$-dimensional versions of these results.
The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: If all hyperplane sections through the origin of a convex body are "equal", is the convex body "equal" to the ball? The meaning of the notion "equal" will change in the course of this paper. Similarly, we are interested in the following problem: If all orthogonal projections of a convex body onto hyperplanes are "equal", is the convex body "equal" to the ball? Topology and convex geometry are deeply interrelated in the solution and understanding of these problems.
We study the topology of the space $\d\K^n$ of complete convex hypersurfaces of $\R^n$ which are homeomorphic to $\R^{n-1}$. In particular, using Minkowski sums, we construct a deformation retraction of $\d\K^n$ onto the Grassmannian space of hyperplanes. So every hypersurface in $\d \K^n$ may be flattened in a canonical way. Further, the total curvature of each hypersurface evolves continuously and monotonically under this deformation. We also show that, modulo proper rotations, the subspaces of $\d\K^n$ consisting of smooth, strictly convex, or positively curved hypersurfaces are each contra…
Extending the celebrated results of Alexandrov (1958) and Korevaar-Ros (1988) for smooth sets, as well as the results of Schneider (1979) and the first author (1999) for arbitrary convex bodies, we obtain for the first time the characterization of the isoperimetric sets of a uniformly convex smooth finite-dimensional normed space (i.e. Wulff shapes) in the non-smooth and non-convex setting, based on the natural geometric condition involving the curvature measures. More specifically we show, under a natural mean-convexity assumption, that finite unions of disjoint Wulff shapes are the only sets…
We study the slicing inequality for the surface area instead of volume. This is the question whether there exists a constant $α_n$ depending (or not) on the dimension $n$ so that $$S(K)\leqα_n|K|^{\frac{1}{n}}\max_{ξ\in S^{n-1}}S(K\capξ^{\perp })$$ where $S$ denotes surface area and $|\cdot |$ denotes volume. For any fixed dimension we provide a negative answer to this question, as well as to a weaker version in which sections are replaced by projections onto hyperplanes. We also study the same problem for sections and projections of lower dimension and for all the quermassintegrals of a conve…
Case Western Reserve University（凯斯西储大学）；Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu-PRG, Sorbonne Université（索邦大学数学研究所Jussieu-PRG）；Institut de Mathématiques de Toulouse, Université de Toulouse & CNRS（图卢兹数学研究所，图卢兹大学与法国国家科学研究中心）；ECMWF（欧洲中期天气预报中心）
Hedgehogs are geometrical objects that describe the Minkowski differences of arbitrary convex bodies in the Euclidean space $\mathbb{E}^n$. We prove that two hedgehogs in $\mathbb{E}^n, n \geq 3$, coincide up to a translation and a reflection in the origin, provided that their projections onto any two-dimensional plane are directly congruent and have no direct rigid motion symmetries. Our result is a consequence of a more general analytic statement about the solutions of a functional equation in which the support functions of hedgehogs are replaced with two arbitrary twice continuously differe…
The intrinsic volumes of a convex body are fundamental invariants that capture information about the average volume of the projection of the convex body onto a random subspace of fixed dimension. The intrinsic volumes also play a central role in integral geometry formulas that describe how moving convex bodies interact. Recent work has demonstrated that the sequence of intrinsic volumes concentrates sharply around its centroid, which is called the central intrinsic volume. The purpose of this paper is to derive finer concentration inequalities for the intrinsic volumes and related sequences. T…
