The Smallest Parallelepiped of n Random Points and Peeling

Let n random points be given with uniform distribution in the d-dimensional unit cube 0,1]^d. The smallest parallelepiped A which includes all the n random points is dealt with. We investigate the asymptotic behavior of the volume of A as n tends to . Using a point process approach, we derive also the asymptotic behavior of the volumes of the k-th smallest parallelepipeds A _n ^(k) which are defined by iteration. Let A _n = A _n ⁽¹⁾ . Given A _n ^(k,-,1) delete the random points X _i which are on the boundary A _n ^(k,-,1) , and construct the smallest parallelepiped which includes the inner points of A _n ^(k,-,1) , this defines A _n ^(k) . This procedure is known as peeling of the parallelepiped A_n.