Metric Entropy of Convex Hulls in Hilbert Spaces

We show in this note the following statement which is an improvementover a result of R. M. Dudley and which is also of independentinterest. Let X be a set of a Hilbert space with the propertythat there are constants , >0, and for each n N, the setX can be covered by at most n balls of radius n^–. Then,for each n N, the convex hull of X can be covered by 2ⁿ ballsof radius . The estimate is best possible for all n N, apart from the value c=c(, , X).In other words, let N(, X), >0, be the minimal number ofballs of radius covering the set X. Then the above result isequivalent to saying that if N(, X)=O(^–1/) as 0, thenfor the convex hull conv (X) of X, N(, conv (X)) =O(exp(^–2/(12))). Moreover, we give an interplay between several coveringparameters based on coverings by balls (entropy numbers) andcoverings by cylindrical sets (Kolmogorov numbers). 1991 MathematicsSubject Classification 41A46.