Generalizations of the Busemann-Petty problem for sections of convex bodies

We present generalizations of the Busemann-Petty problem for dual volumes of intermediate central sections of symmetric convex bodies. It is proved that the answer is negative when the dimension of the sections is greater than or equal to 4. For two- three-dimensional sections, both negative and positive answers are given depending on the orders of dual volumes involved, and certain cases remain open. For bodies of revolution, a complete solution is obtained in all dimensions.     

Intersection bodies and generalized cosine transforms

The paper is focused on intimate connection between geometric properties of intersection bodies in convex geometry and generalized cosine transforms in harmonic analysis. A new concept of λ-intersection body, that unifies some known classes of geometric objects, is introduced. A parallel between trace theorems in function theory, restriction onto lower-dimensional subspaces of the spherical Radon transforms and the generalized cosine transforms, and sections of λ-intersection bodies is established. New integral formulas for different classes of cosine transforms are obtained and examples of λ-intersection bodies are given. We also revisit some known facts in this area and give them new simple proofs.     

On the equipartition of plane convex bodies and convex polygons

In this paper we consider the problem of partitioning a plane compact convex body into equal-area parts, i.e., an equipartition, by means of chords. We prove two basic results that hold with some specific exceptions: (a) When chords are pairwise non-crossing, the dual tree of the partition has to be a path, (b) A convex n-gon admits no equipartition produced by more than n chords having a common interior point.     

Higher integrality conditions, volumes and Ehrhart polynomials

A polytope is integral if all of its vertices are lattice points. The constant term of the Ehrhart polynomial of an integral polytope is known to be 1. In previous work, we showed that the coefficients of the Ehrhart polynomial of a lattice-face polytope are volumes of projections of the polytope. We generalize both results by introducing a notion of k-integral polytopes, where 0-integral is equivalent to integral. We show that the Ehrhart polynomial of a k-integral polytope P has the properties that the coefficients in degrees less than or equal to k are determined by a projection of P, and the coefficients in higher degrees are determined by slices of P. A key step of the proof is that under certain generality conditions, the volume of a polytope is equal to the sum of volumes of slices of the polytope.     

On the vertex index of convex bodies

We introduce the vertex index, vein(K), of a given centrally symmetric convex body K⊂Rd, which, in a sense, measures how well K can be inscribed into a convex polytope with small number of vertices. This index is closely connected to the illumination parameter of a body, introduced earlier by the first named author, and, thus, related to the famous conjecture in Convex Geometry about covering of a d-dimensional body by d² smaller positively homothetic copies. We provide asymptotically sharp estimates (up to a logarithmic term) of this index in the general case. More precisely, we show that for every centrally symmetric convex body K⊂Rd one has

     

Asymptotic formulas for the diameter of sections of symmetric convex bodies

Sharpening work of the first two authors, for every proportion λ∈(0,1) we provide exact quantitative relations between global parameters of n-dimensional symmetric convex bodies and the diameter of their random ⌊λn⌋-dimensional sections. Using recent results of Gromov and Vershynin, we obtain an “asymptotic formula” for the diameter of random proportional sections.     

A class of bounds for convex bodies in Hilbert space

We extend to infinite dimensions a class of bounds forL _p metrics of finite-dimensional convex bodies. A generalization to arbitrary increasing convex functions is done simultaneously. The main tool is the use of Gaussian measure to effect a normalization for varying dimension. At a point in the proof we also invoke a strong law of large numbers for random sets to produce a rotational averaging.Supported in part by ONR Grant N0014-90-J-1641 and NSF Grant DMS-9002665.     

The cross-section body, plane sections of convex bodies and approximation of convex bodies, I

For a convex body K ^d we investigate three associated bodies, its intersection body IK (for 0int K), cross-section body CK, and projection body IIK, which satisfy IKCKIIK. Conversely we prove CKconst₁(d)I(K–x) for some xint K, and IIKconst₂ (d)CK, for certain constants, the first constant being sharp. We estimate the maximal k-volume of sections of 1/2(K+(-K)) with k-planes parallel to a fixed k-plane by the analogous quantity for K; our inequality is, if only k is fixed, sharp. For L ^d a convex body, we take n random segments in L, and consider their Minkowski average D. We prove that, for V(L) fixed, the supremum of V(D) (with also nN arbitrary) is minimal for L an ellipsoid. This result implies the Petty projection inequality about max V((IIM)*), for M ^d a convex body, with V(M) fixed. We compare the volumes of projections of convex bodies and the volumes of the projections of their sections, and, dually, the volumes of sections of convex bodies and the volumes of sections of their circumscribed cylinders. For fixed n, the pth moments of V(D) (1p<) also are minimized, for V(L) fixed, by the ellipsoids. For k=2, the supremum (nN arbitrary) and the pth moment (n fixed) of V(D) are maximized for example by triangles, and, for L centrally symmetric, for example by parallelograms. Last we discuss some examples for cross-section bodies.Research (partially) supported by Hungarian National Foundation for Scientific Research, Grant No. 41.     

Separable subspaces of affine function spaces on convex compact sets

Let K be a compact convex subset of a separated locally convex space (over R) and let Ap(K) denote the space of all continuous real-valued affine mappings defined on K, endowed with the topology of pointwise convergence on the extreme points of K. In this paper we shall examine some topological properties of Ap(K). For example, we shall consider when Ap(K) is monolithic and when separable compact subsets of Ap(K) are metrizable.     

Projection bodies in complex vector spaces

The space of Minkowski valuations on an m-dimensional complex vector space which are continuous, translation invariant and contravariant under the complex special linear group is explicitly described. Each valuation with these properties is shown to satisfy geometric inequalities of the Brunn–Minkowski, Aleksandrov–Fenchel and Minkowski type.     

Typical curvature behaviour of bodies of constant width

It is known that an n-dimensional convex body, which is typical in the sense of Baire category, shows a simple, but highly non-intuitive curvature behaviour: at almost all of its boundary points, in the sense of measure, all curvatures are zero, but there is also a dense and uncountable set of boundary points at which all curvatures are infinite. The purpose of this paper is to find a counterpart to this phenomenon for typical convex bodies of given constant width. Such bodies cannot have zero curvatures. A main result says that for a typical n-dimensional convex body of constant width 1 (without loss of generality), at almost all boundary points, in the sense of measure, all curvatures are equal to 1. (In contrast, note that a ball of width 1 has radius 1/2, hence all its curvatures are equal to 2.) Since the property of constant width is linear with respect to Minkowski addition, the proof requires recourse to a linear curvature notion, which is provided by the tangential radii of curvature.     

Limit theorems for functionals of convex hulls

Summary In [4] a central limit theorem for the number of vertices of the convex hull of a uniform sample from the interior of a convex polygon is derived. This is done by approximating the process of vertices of the convex hull by the process of extreme points of a Poisson point process and by considering the latter process of extreme points as a Markov process (for a particular parametrization). We show that this method can also be applied to derive limit theorems for the boundary length and for the area of the convex hull. This extents results of Rényi and Sulanke (1963) and Buchta (1984), and shows that the boundary length and the area have a strikingly different probabilistic behavior.     

Classes of sequences of real numbers, games and selection properties

This is a continuation of our investigation of classes of sequences of positive real numbers satisfying some selection principles as well as having certain game-theoretic properties. We improve main results from [D. Djur?i?, Lj.D.R. Ko?inac, M.R. ?i?ovi?, Some properties of rapidly varying sequences, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 327 (2007) 1297-1306] and [D. Djur?i?, Lj.D.R. Ko?inac, M.R. ?i?ovi?, Rapidly varying sequences and rapid convergence, Topology Appl. (2008), doi: 10.1016/j.topol.2007.05.026, in press].     

Game approach to universally Kuratowski-Ulam spaces

We consider a version of the open-open game, indicating its connections with universally Kuratowski-Ulam spaces. From [P. Daniels, K. Kunen, H. Zhou, On the open-open game, Fund. Math. 145 (3) (1994) 205-220] and [D. Fremlin, T. Natkaniec, I. Rec?aw, Universally Kuratowski-Ulam spaces, Fund. Math. 165 (3) (2000) 239-247] topological arguments are extracted to show that: Every I-favorable space is universally Kuratowski-Ulam, Theorem 8; If a compact space Y is I-favorable, then the hyperspaceexp(Y)with the Vietoris topology is I-favorable, and hence universally Kuratowski-Ulam, Theorems 6 and 9. Notions of uK-U and uK-U^∗ spaces are compared.     

Translative integral formulae for convex bodies

Translative versions of the principal kinematic formula for quermassintegrals of convex bodies are studied. The translation integral is shown to be a sum of Crofton type integrals of mixed volumes. As corollaries new integral formulas for mixed volumes are obtained. For smooth centrally symmetric bodies the functionals occurring in the principal translative formula are expressed by measures on Grassmannians which are related to the generating measures of the bodies.Dedicated to Professor Otto Haupt with best wishes on his 100th birthday     

The differential form spectrum of quaternionic hyperbolic spaces

By using harmonic analysis and representation theory, we determine explicitly the L² spectrum of the Hodge-de Rham Laplacian acting on quaternionic hyperbolic spaces and we show that the unique possible discrete eigenvalue and the lowest continuous eigenvalue can both be realized by some subspace of hypereffective differential forms. Similar results are obtained also for the Bochner Laplacian.