A point in an \(nd\)-polytope is the barycenter of \(n\) points in its \(d\)-faces (Q2514525): Difference between revisions

The main result of this paper is the following theorem: For any \(nd\)-dimensional polytope \(P\) and for any point \(\tilde{p}\in P\), there are points \(\tilde{p}_1,\dots,\tilde{p}_n\) in the \(d\)-skeleton \(S\) of \(P\) with barycenter \((\tilde{p}_1 + \cdots +\tilde{p}_n)/n = \tilde{p}\). In terms of \(n\)-fold Minkowski sum of \(S\), this is equivalent to \(S + \cdots + S = nP\). This result, first conjectured by Takeshi Tokuyama, relates nicely to some theorems in topology and combinatorial geometry, for example the Borsuk-Ulam Theorem for continuous maps \({\mathbb{S}^d}\rightarrow {\mathbb{R}^d}\) and Carathéodory's Theorem for the convex hull of a set \(X\subseteq {\mathbb{R}^d}\). The proof of the mentioned main result is based on algebraic topology.