Combinatorial geometry of belt bodies

In this paper we consider a new class of convex bodies which was introduced in [11]. This is the class of belt bodies, and it is a natural generalization of the class of zonoids (see the surveys [18, 28, 24]). While the class of zonoids is not dense in the family of all centrally symmetric, convex bodies, the class of belt bodies is dense in the set of all convex bodies. Nevertheless, we shall extend solutions of combinatorial problems for zonoids (cf. [2, 12]) to the class of belt bodies. Therefore, we first introduce the set of belt bodies by using zonoids as starting point. (To make the paper self-contained, a few parts of the approach from [11] are given repeatedly.) Second, complete solutions of three well-known (and generally unsolved) problems from the combinatorial geometry of convex bodies are given for the class of belt bodies. The first of these, connected with the names of I. Gohberg and H. Hadwiger, is the problem of covering a convex body with smaller homothetic copies, or the equivalent illumination problem. The second is the Szökefalvi-Nagy problem, which asks for the determination of the convex bodies whose families of translates have a given Helly dimension. The third problem concerns special fixing systems, a notion which is due to L. Fejes Tóth. These solutions consist of improved and more general approaches to recently solved problems (as in the case of the Helly-dimensional classification of belt bodies) or new results (as those concerning minimal fixing systems, providing also an answer to a problem of B. Grünbaum which is not only restricted to belt bodies).