Let $H_n$ be the minimal number such that any $n$-dimensional convex body can be covered by $H_n$ translates of interior of that body. Similarly $H_n^s$ is the corresponding quantity for symmetric bodies. It is possible to define $H_n$ and $H_n^s$ in terms of illumination of the boundary of the body using external light sources, and the famous Hadwiger's covering conjecture (illumination conjecture) states that $H_n=H_{n}^s=2^n$.
In this note we obtain new upper bounds on $H_n$ and $H_{n}^s$ for small dimensions $n$. Our main idea is to cover the body by translates of John's ellipsoid (the inscribed ellipsoid of the largest volume). Using specific lattice coverings, estimates of quermassintegrals for convex bodies in John's position, and calculations of mean widths of regular simplexes, we prove the following new upper bounds on $H_n$ and $H_n^s$: $H_5\le 933$, $H_6\le 6137$, $H_7\le 41377$, $H_8\le 284096$, $H_4^s\le 72$, $H_5^s\le 305$, and $H_6^s\le 1292$.
For larger $n$, we describe how the general asymptotic bounds $H_n\le \binom{2n}{n}n(\ln n+\ln\ln n+5)$ and $H_n^s\le 2^n n(\ln n+\ln\ln n+5)$ due to Rogers and Shephard can be improved for specific values of $n$.
In 1957, Hadwiger made a conjecture that every $n$-dimensional convex body can be covered by $2^n$ translations of its interior. The Hadwiger's covering functional $γ_m(K)$ is the smallest positive number $r$ such that $K$ can be covered by $m$ translations of $rK$. Due to Zong's program, we study the Hadwiger's covering functional for the simplex and the cross-polytope. In this paper, we give upper bounds for the Hadwiger's covering functional of the simplex and the cross-polytope.
Let $H_n$ be the minimal number of smaller homothetic copies of an $n$-dimensional convex body required to cover the whole body. Equivalently, $H_n$ can be defined via illumination of the boundary of a convex body by external light sources. The best known upper bound in three-dimensional case is $H_3\le 16$ and is due to Papadoperakis. We use Papadoperakis' approach to show that $H_4\le 96$, $H_5\le 1091$ and $H_6\le 15373$ which significantly improve the previously known upper bounds on $H_n$ in these dimensions.
A central problem in discrete geometry, known as Hadwiger's covering problem, asks what the smallest natural number $N\left(n\right)$ is such that every convex body in ${\mathbb R}^{n}$ can be covered by a union of the interiors of at most $N\left(n\right)$ of its translates. Despite continuous efforts, the best general upper bound known for this number remains as it was more than sixty years ago, of the order of ${2n \choose n}n\ln n$. In this note, we improve this bound by a sub-exponential factor. That is, we prove a bound of the order of ${2n \choose n}e^{-c\sqrt{n}}$ for some universal co…
In 1957, Hadwiger made the famous conjecture that any convex body of $n$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{E}^n$ can be covered by $2^n$ smaller positive homothetic copies. Up to now, this conjecture is still open for all $n\geq 3$. Denote by $γ_{m}(K)$ the smallest positive number $λ$ such that $K$ can be covered by $m$ translations of $λK$. The values of $γ_m(K)$ for some particular $m$ and $K$ have been studied. In this article, we will focus on the situation where $K$ is the unit crosspolytope of the three-dimensional.
New proofs of the Hadwiger theorem for smooth and for continuous valuations on convex functions are obtained, and the Klain-Schneider theorem on convex functions is established. In addition, an extension theorem for valuations defined on functions with lower dimensional domains is proved, and its connection to the Abel transform is explained.
We explore upper bounds on the covering radius of non-hollow lattice polytopes. In particular, we conjecture a general upper bound of $d/2$ in dimension $d$, achieved by the "standard terminal simplices" and direct sums of them. We prove this conjecture up to dimension three and show it to be equivalent to the conjecture of González-Merino \& Schymura (2017) that the $d$-th covering minimum of the standard terminal $n$-simplex equals $d/2$, for every $n>d$. We also show that these two conjectures would follow from a discrete analog for lattice simplices of Hadwiger's formula bounding the cover…
In 1980, V. I. Arnold studied the classification problem for convex lattice polygons of given area. Since then, this problem and its analogues have been studied by many authors, including $\mathrm{B\acute{a}r\acute{a}ny}$, Lagarias, Pach, Santos, Ziegler and Zong. Recently, Zong proposed two computer programs to prove Hadwiger's covering conjecture and Borsuk's partition problem, respectively, based on enumeration of the convex lattice polytopes contained in certain balls. For this purpose, similar to $\mathrm{B\acute{a}r\acute{a}ny}$ and Pach's work on volume and Liu and Zong's work on cardin…
We show that every $3$-dimensional convex body can be covered by $14$ smaller homothetic copies. The previous result was $16$ copies established by Papadoperakis in 1999, while a conjecture by Hadwiger is $8$. We modify Papadoperakis's approach and develop a discretization technique that reduces the problem to verification of feasibility of a number of linear programs with rational coefficients, which is done with computer assistance using exact arithmetic.
Following ideas of Iriyeh and Shibata we give a short proof of the three-dimensional Mahler conjecture {\mf for symmetric convex bodies}. Our contributions include, in particular, simple self-contained proofs of their two key statements. The first of these is an equipartition (ham sandwich type) theorem which refines a celebrated result of Hadwiger and, as usual, can be proved using ideas from equivariant topology. The second is an inequality relating the product volume to areas of certain sections and their duals. We observe that these ideas give a large family of convex sets in every dimensi…
The present work surveys problems in $n$-dimensional space with $n$ large. Early development in the study of packing and covering in high dimensions was motivated by the geometry of numbers. Subsequent results, such as the discovery of the Leech lattice and the linear programming bound, which culminated in the recent solution of the sphere packing problem in dimensions 8 and 24, were influenced by coding theory. After mentioning the known results concerning existence of economical packings and coverings we discuss the different methods yielding upper bounds for the density of packing congruent…
We prove that for a compact metric space the property of having finite covering dimension is equivalent to the existence of a total order with finite snake number.
This paper presents new lower bounds for the lattice covering densities of simplices by studying the Degree-Diameter Problem for abelian Cayley digraphs. In particular, it proves that the density of any lattice covering of a tetrahedron is at least $25/18$ and the density of any lattice covering of a four-dimensional simplex is at least $343/264$.
We show that non-trivial $\times N$-invariant sets in $[0,1]^d$, such as the Sierpiński carpet and the Sierpiński sponge, are tube-null, that is, they can be covered by a union of tubular neighbourhoods of lines of arbitrarily small total volume. This introduces a new class of tube-null sets of dimension strictly between $d-1$ and $d$. We utilize ergodic-theoretic methods to decompose the set into finitely many parts, each of which projects onto a set of Hausdorff dimension less than $1$ in some direction. We also discuss coverings by tubes for other self-similar sets, and present various appl…
