Here we analyze three dimensional analogues of the classical Crofton's formula for planar compact convex sets. In this formula a fundamental role is played by the visual angle of the convex set from an exterior point. A generalization of the visual angle to convex sets in euclidian space is the visual solid angle. This solid angle, being an spherically convex set in the unit sphere, has length, area and other geometric quantities to be considered. The main goal of this note is to express invariant quantities of the original convex set depending on volume, surface area and mean curvature integral by means of integrals of functions related to the solid angle.
In this article we study the following question: What can be the measure of the minimal solid angle of a simplex in $\mathbb{R}^d$? We show that in dimensions three it is not greater than the solid angle of the regular simplex. And in dimension four the same holds for simplices sufficiently close to the regular simplex. We also study a similar question for trihedral and dihedral angles of polyhedra compared to those of regular solids.
In this paper we deal with a general type of integral formulas of the visual angle, among them those of Crofton, Hurwitz and Masotti, from the point of view of Integral Geometry. The purpose is twofold: to provide an interpretation of these formulas in terms of integrals of densities with respect to the canonical measure in the space of pairs of lines and to give new simpler proofs of them.
We present structures comprised of identical convex polyhedra which are interlocked geometrically. These sets cannot be disassembled by removing individual polyhedra by translations and/or rotations. The shapes that permit interlocking arrangements include all five platonic solids. Criteria for interlocking based on transformations of the cross-sections of the elements in a 3D reconstruction of a layer from its middle cross-section are formulated. A generalization to higher dimensions is also given. In particular, an interlocking layer of four-dimensional cubes is described.
Macdonald studied a discrete volume measure for a rational polytope $P$, called solid angle sum, that gives a natural discrete volume for $P$. We give a local formula for the codimension two quasi-coefficient of the solid angle sum of $P$. We also show how to recover the classical Ehrhart quasi-polynomial from the solid angle sum and in particular we find a similar local formula for the codimension one and codimension two quasi-coefficients. These local formulas are naturally valid for all positive real dilates of $P$. An interesting open question is to determine necessary and sufficient condi…
For a lattice polytope P, define A_P(t) as the sum of the solid angles of all the integer points in the dilate tP. Ehrhart and Macdonald proved that A_P(t) is a polynomial in the positive integer variable t. We study the numerator polynomial of the solid-angle series sum_{t >= 0} A_P(t) z^t. In particular, we examine nonnegativity of its coefficients, monotonicity and unimodality questions, and study extremal behavior of the sum of solid angles at vertices of simplices. Some of our results extend to more general valuations.
One of the basic problems in discrete geometry is to determine the most efficient packing of congruent replicas of a given convex set $K$ in the plane or in space. The most commonly used measure of efficiency is density. Several types of the problem arise depending on the type of isometries allowed for the packing: packing by translates, lattice packing, translates and point reflections, or all isometries. Due to its connections with number theory, crystallography, etc., lattice packing has been studied most extensively. In two dimensions the theory is fairly well developed, and there are seve…
The solid-angle sum $A_{\mathcal{P}} (t)$ of a rational polytope ${\mathcal{P}} \subset \mathbb{R}^d$, with $t \in \mathbb{Z}$ was first investigated by I.G. Macdonald. Using our Fourier-analytic methods, we are able to establish an explicit formula for $A_{\mathcal{P}} (t)$, for any real dilation $t$ and any rational polygon ${\mathcal{P}} \subset \mathbb{R}^2$. Our formulation sheds additional light on previous results, for lattice-point enumerating functions of triangles, which are usually confined to the case of integer dilations. Our approach differs from that of Hardy and Littlewood in 1…
We use a probabilistic interpretation of solid angles to generalize the well-known fact that the inner angles of a triangle sum to 180 degrees. For the 3-dimensional case, we show that the sum of the solid inner vertex angles of a tetrahedron T, divided by 2*pi, gives the probability that an orthogonal projection of T onto a random 2-plane is a triangle. More generally, it is shown that the sum of the (solid) inner vertex angles of an n-simplex S, normalized by the area of the unit (n-1)-hemisphere, gives the probability that an orthogonal projection of S onto a random hyperplane is an (n-1)-s…
The aperture angle alpha(x, Q) of a point x not in Q in the plane with respect to a convex polygon Q is the angle of the smallest cone with apex x that contains Q. The aperture angle approximation error of a compact convex set C in the plane with respect to an inscribed convex polygon Q of C is the minimum aperture angle of any x in C Q with respect to Q. We show that for any compact convex set C in the plane and any k > 2, there is an inscribed convex k-gon Q of C with aperture angle approximation error (1 - 2/(k+1)) pi. This bound is optimal, and settles a conjecture by Fekete from the early…
We examine the minimal magnitude of perturbations necessary to change the number $N$ of static equilibrium points of a convex solid $K$. We call the normalized volume of the minimally necessary truncation robustness and we seek shapes with maximal robustness for fixed values of $N$. While the upward robustness (referring to the increase of $N$) of smooth, homogeneous convex solids is known to be zero, little is known about their downward robustness. The difficulty of the latter problem is related to the coupling (via integrals) between the geometry of the hull $\bd K$ and the location of the c…
In this paper we investigate the existence of closed billiard trajectories in not necessarily smooth convex bodies. In particular, we show that if a body $K\subset \mathbb{R}^d$ has the property that the tangent cone of every non-smooth point $q\in \partial K$ is acute (in a certain sense) then there is a closed billiard trajectory in $K$.
Let $M$ be an arbitrary subset in $\mathbb R^n$ with a conic (or positive) hull $C$. Consider its Gaussian image $AM$, where $A$ is a $k\times n$-matrix whose entries are independent standard Gaussian random variables. We show that the probability that the convex hull of $AM$ contains the origin in its interior coincides with the $k$-th Grassmann angle of $C$. Also, we prove that the expected Grassmann angles of $AC$ coincide with the corresponding Grassmann angles of $C$. Using the latter result, we show that the expected sum of $j$-th Grassmann angles at $\ell$-dimensional faces of a Gaussia…
Given a lattice $Λ\subset \mathbb{R}^n$, we consider its Minkowski reduced basis and the solid angle $Ω$ spanned by the basis vectors. Such a basis satisfies strong near-orthogonality conditions, which allow us to bound from above and below the measure of $Ω$. Sharp upper and lower bounds are derived for all rank $3$ and rank $4$ lattices so that $Ω$ always measures in between. Extreme cases happen when $Λ$ is similar to the rectangular ($\mathcal{R}$) or alternating ($\mathcal{A}$) lattice. This result settles a question raised earlier by Fukshansky and Robins in connection to sphere packings…
Three-dimensional convex bodies can be classified in terms of the number and stability types of critical points on which they can balance at rest on a horizontal plane. For typical bodies these are nondegenerate maxima, minima, and saddle-points, the numbers of which provide a primary classification. Secondary and tertiary classifications use graphs to describe orbits connecting these critical points in the gradient vector field associated with each body. In previous work it was shown that these classifications are complete in that no class is empty. Here we construct 1- and 2-parameter famili…
Given a real closed polytope $P$, we first describe the Fourier transform of its indicator function by using iterations of Stokes' theorem. We then use the ensuing Fourier transform formulations, together with the Poisson summation formula, to give a new algorithm to count fractionally-weighted lattice points inside the one-parameter family of all real dilates of $P$. The combinatorics of the face poset of $P$ plays a central role in the description of the Fourier transform of $P$. We also obtain a closed form for the codimension-1 coefficient that appears in an expansion of this sum in powers…
We find sharp absolute constants $C_1$ and $C_2$ with the following property: every well-rounded lattice of rank 3 in a Euclidean space has a minimal basis so that the solid angle spanned by these basis vectors lies in the interval $[C_1,C_2]$. In fact, we show that these absolute bounds hold for a larger class of lattices than just well-rounded, and the upper bound holds for all. We state a technical condition on the lattice that may prevent it from satisfying the absolute lower bound on the solid angle, in which case we derive a lower bound in terms of the ratios of successive minima of the …
If we fix the angles at the vertices of a convex planar $n$-gon, the lengths of its edges must satisfy two linear constraints in order for it to close up. If we also require unit perimeter, our vectors of $n$ edge lengths form a convex polytope of dimension $n-3$, each facet of which consists of those $n$-gons in which the length of a particular edge has fallen to zero. Bavard and Ghys require unit area instead, which gives them a hyperbolic polytope. Those two polytopes are combinatorially equivalent, so either is fine for our purposes. Such a fixed-angles polytope is combinatorially richer w…
This text has three parts. The first one is largely autobiographical, hence my use of the first person. There I recall how Gerard Cohen influenced important parts of my research. The second is of a more classic mathematical nature. I present a discrete analogue of the Hahn-Banach theorem, which serves as a basis for generalizing the notion of separating systems in the context of metric convexity. The third one aims at building a bridge between two communities of researchers, those interested in separating systems, and those interested in a certain question in combinatorial geometry --- sets of…
The interior angle vector ($\widehatα$-vector) of a polytope is a metric analogue of the $f$-vector in which faces are weighted by their solid angle. For simplicial polytopes, Dehn-Sommerville-type relations on the $\widehatα$-vector were introduced by Sommerville (1927) and Höhn (1953). Camenga (2006) defined the $\widehatγ$-vector, a linear transformation analogous to the $h$-vector and conjectured it to be non-negative. Using tools from geometric and algebraic combinatorics, we prove this conjecture and show that the $\widehatγ$-vector increases in the first half and is flawless. In contras…
A convex polyhedron, that is, a compact convex subset of $\mathbb{R}^3$ which is the intersection of finitely many closed half-spaces, can be rectified by taking the convex hull of the midpoints of the edges of the polyhedron. We derive expressions for the side lengths and areas of rectifications of regular polygons in plane, and use these results to compute surface areas and volumes of various convex polyhedra. We introduce rectification sequences and show that there are exactly two disjoint pure rectification sequences generated by the platonic solids.
We study three families of polyhedral cones whose sections are regular simplices, cubes, and crosspolytopes. We compute solid angles and conic intrinsic volumes of these cones. We show that several quantities appearing in stochastic geometry can be expressed through these conic intrinsic volumes. A list of such quantities includes internal and external solid angles of regular simplices and crosspolytopes, the probability that a (symmetric) Gaussian random polytope or the Gaussian zonotope contains a given point, the expected number of faces of the intersection of a regular polytope with a rand…
It was conjectured by Ulam that the ball has the lowest optimal packing fraction out of all convex, three-dimensional solids. Here we prove that any origin-symmetric convex solid of sufficiently small asphericity can be packed at a higher efficiency than balls. We also show that in dimensions 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 24 there are origin-symmetric convex bodies of arbitrarily small asphericity that cannot be packed using a lattice as efficiently as balls can be.
