Given a finite set $A \subseteq \mathbb{R}^d$, points $a_1,a_2,\dotsc,a_{\ell} \in A$ form an $\ell$-hole in $A$ if they are the vertices of a convex polytope which contains no points of $A$ in its interior. We construct arbitrarily large point sets in general position in $\mathbb{R}^d$ having no holes of size $O(4^dd\log d)$ or more. This improves the previously known upper bound of order $d^{d+o(d)}$ due to Valtr. The basic version of our construction uses a certain type of equidistributed point sets, originating from numerical analysis, known as $(t,m,s)$-nets or $(t,s)$-sequences, yielding a bound of $2^{7d}$. The better bound is obtained using a variant of $(t,m,s)$-nets, obeying a relaxed equidistribution condition.
We present some complexity results concerning the problems of covering a graph with $p$ convex sets and of partitioning a graph into $p$ convex sets. The following convexities are considered: digital convexity, monophonic convexity, $P_3$-convexity, and $P_3^*$-convexity.
We prove that for any collection F of $n \ge 2$ pairwise disjoint compact convex sets in the plane there is a pair of sets A and B in F such that any line that separates A from B separates either A or B from a subcollection of F with at least n/18 sets.
Much work has been done to identify which binary codes can be represented by collections of open convex or closed convex sets. While not all binary codes can be realized by such sets, here we prove that every binary code can be realized by convex sets when there is no restriction on whether the sets are all open or closed. We achieve this by constructing a convex realization for an arbitrary code with $k$ nonempty codewords in $\mathbb{R}^{k-1}$. This result justifies the usual restriction of the definition of convex neural codes to include only those that can be realized by receptive fields t…
L-convex sets are one of the most fundamental concepts in discrete convex analysis. Furthermore, the Minkowski sum of two L-convex sets, called L2-convex sets, is an intriguing object that is closely related to polymatroid intersection. This paper reveals the polyhedral description of an L2-convex set, together with the observation that the convex hull of an L2-convex set is a box-TDI polyhedron. Two different proofs are given for the polyhedral description. The first is a structural short proof, relying on the conjugacy theorem in discrete convex analysis, and the second is a direct algebraic…
Very recently Richter and Rogers proved that any convex geometry can be represented by a family of convex polygons in the plane. We shall generalize their construction and obtain a wide variety of convex shapes for representing convex geometries. We present an Erdos-Szekeres type obstruction, which answers a question of Czedli negatively, that is general convex geometries cannot be represented with ellipses in the plane. Moreover, we shall prove that one cannot even bound the number of common supporting lines of the pairs of the representing convex sets. In higher dimensions we prove that all …
A closure system with the anti-exchange axiom is called a convex geometry. One geometry is called a sub-geometry of the other if its closed sets form a sublattice in the lattice of closed sets of the other. We prove that convex geometries of relatively convex sets in $n$-dimensional vector space and their finite sub-geometries satisfy the $n$-Carousel Rule, which is the strengthening of the $n$-Carath$\acute{e}$odory property. We also find another property, that is similar to the simplex partition property and does not follow from $2$-Carusel Rule, which holds in sub-geometries of $2$-dimensio…
In this paper we present a complete characterization of the smallest sets which block all the simple perfect matchings in a complete convex geometric graph on $2m$ vertices. In particular, we show that all these sets are caterpillar graphs with a special structure, and that their total number is $m \cdot 2^{m-1}$.
A set of reals A={a_1,...,a_2} is called convex if a_{i+1} - a_i > a_i - a_{i-1} for all i. We prove, in particular, that |A-A| \gg |A|^{8/5} \log{-2/5} |A|.
We prove that every finite family of convex sets in the plane satisfying the $(4,3)$-property can be pierced by $9$ points. This improves the bound of $13$ proved by Gyárfás, Kleitman, and Tóth in 2001.
In this paper we extend test set based augmentation methods for integer linear programs to programs with more general convex objective functions. We show existence and computability of finite test sets for these wider problem classes by providing an explicit relationship to Graver bases. One candidate where this new approach may turn out fruitful is the Quadratic Assignment Problem.
Two elements, $x$ and $y$, are separated by a set $S$ if it contains exactly one of $x$ and $y$. We prove that any set of $n$ points in general position in the plane can be separated by $O(n\log\log n/\log n)$ convex sets, and for some point sets $Ω(n/\log n)$ convex sets are necessary.
The principle of inclusion-exclusion is applied to subsets of maximal covectors contained in halfspaces of a simple oriented matroid and to convex subsets of its ground set for enumerating tope committees.
Let $K$ be a compact convex set and $m$ be a positive integer. The covering functional of $K$ with respect to $m$ is the smallest $λ\in[0,1]$ such that $K$ can be covered by $m$ translates of $λK$. Estimations of the covering functionals of convex hulls of two or more compact convex sets are presented. It is proved that, if a three-dimensional convex body $K$ is the convex hull of two compact convex sets having no interior points, then the least number $c(K)$ of smaller homothetic copies of $K$ needed to cover $K$ is not greater than $8$ and $c(K)=8$ if and only if $K$ is a parallelepiped.
Given a finite set $V$, a convexity $\mathscr{C}$, is a collection of subsets of $V$ that contains both the empty set and the set $V$ and is closed under intersections. The elements of $\mathscr{C}$ are called convex sets. The digital convexity, originally proposed as a tool for processing digital images, is defined as follows: a subset $S\subseteq V(G)$ is digitally convex if, for every $v\in V(G)$, we have $N[v]\subseteq N[S]$ implies $v\in S$. The number of cyclic binary strings with blocks of length at least $k$ is expressed as a linear recurrence relation for $k\geq 2$. A bijection is est…
A set of reals $A=\{a_1,...,a_n\}$ labeled in increasing order is called convex if there exists a continuous strictly convex function $f$ such that $f(i)=a_i$ for every $i$. Given a convex set $A$, we prove \[|A+A|\gg\frac{|A|^{14/9}}{(\log|A|)^{2/9}}.\] Sumsets of different summands and an application to a sum-product-type problem are also studied either as remarks or as theorems.
Given $2k-1$ convex sets in $R^2$ such that no point of the plane is covered by more than $k$ of the sets, is it true that there are two among the convex sets whose union contains all $k$-covered points of the plane? This question due to Gy. Petruska has an obvious affirmative answer for $k=1,2,3$; we show here that the claim is also true for $k=4$, and we present a counterexample for $k=5$. We explain how Petruska's geometry question fits into the classical hypergraph extremal problems, called arrow problems, proposed by P. Erdős.
After surveying some known properties of compact convex sets in the plane, we give a two rigorous proofs of the general feeling that supporting lines can be slide-turned slowly and continuously. Targeting a wide readership, our treatment is elementary on purpose.
Let A be a set of integers dense in a finite interval. We establish upper and lower bounds for the longest regularly-spaced and convex subsets of A and of A-A.
Efficient representations of convex sets are of crucial importance for many algorithms that work with them. It is well-known that sometimes, a complicated convex set can be expressed as the projection of a much simpler set in higher dimensions called a lift of the original set. This is a brief survey of recent developments in the topic of lifts of convex sets. Our focus will be on lifts that arise from affine slices of real positive semidefinite cones known as psd or spectrahedral lifts. The main result is that projection representations of a convex set are controlled by factorizations, throug…
The aim of this article is to show the existence, and also give an explicit construction, of infinite sets of orthogonal exponentials for certain families of convex polytopes which include simple-rational polytopes and also non simple polytopes which satisfy other nontrivial conditions. We also show that by considering weight functions one can construct infinite sets of orthogonal exponentials with a positive density by considering orthogonal projections of affine transformations of hypercubes (i.e., zonotopes).
We prove that linearizing certain families of polynomial optimization problems leads to new functorial operations in real convex sets. We show that under some conditions these operations can be computed or approximated in ways amenable to efficient computation. These operations are convex analogues of Hom functors, tensor products, symmetric powers, exterior powers and general Schur functors on vector spaces and lead to novel constructions even for polyhedra.
Let $K, L$ be convex sets in the plane. For normalization purposes, suppose that the area of $K$ is $1$. Suppose that a set $K_n$ of $n$ points are chosen independently and uniformly over $K$, and call a subset of $K$ a {\em hole} if it does not contain any point in $K_n$. It is shown that w.h.p. the largest area of a hole homothetic to $L$ is $(1+o(1)) \log{n}/n$. We also consider the problems of estimating the largest area convex hole, and the largest area of a convex polygonal hole with vertices in $K_n$. For these two problems we show that the answer is $Θ\bigl(\log{n}/n\bigr)$.
In this paper we focus on the tropical convex hull of convex sets and polyhedral complexes. We give a vertex description of the tropical convex hull of a line segment and a ray. %in \RR^{n+1}/\RR\mathbf{1}. Next we show that tropical convex hull and ordinary convex hull commute in two dimensions and characterize tropically convex polyhedra in any dimension. %$\mathbb{R}^3/\mathbb {R}\mathbf{1}$. Finally we show that the dimension of a tropically convex fan depends on the coordinates of its rays and give a lower bound on the degree of a fan tropical curve using only tropical techniques.
