Double normals of most convex bodies (Q1711913): Difference between revisions

A classical well-known result establishes that every normal to a convex body \(K\) (chord orthogonal to some supporting hyperplane of \(K\) at one of the end-points) is a double normal if and only if \(K\) has constant width. Moreover, in [Israel J. Math. 2, 71--80 (1964; Zbl 0131.37702)] \textit{N. H. Kuiper} proved that every convex body in \(\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\) has, at least, \(d+1\) double normals. In the paper under review, the authors consider a typical convex body (in the sense of Baire categories) \(K\subset\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\) and study the size of the set of its double normals. For instance, they prove that for most convex bodies \(K\subset\mathbb{R}^{d+1}\), the set of feet of the double normals is a Cantor set, with lower box-counting dimension \(0\) and packing dimension \(d\). On the other hand, Kuiper also showed that set \(\mathcal{L}(K)\) of lengths of double normals of \(K\) has measure zero for \(d\leq 2\), whereas if \(d\geq 3\), there exist sets for which \(\mathcal{L}(K)\) has positive measure. Here, the authors prove that \(\mathcal{L}(K)\) is also a Cantor set for most convex bodies, having packing dimension \(1/2\) if \(d=1\), \(\geq 3/4\) if \(d=2\) and \(1\) for \(d\geq 3\). They also get results regarding the upper and lower curvatures at the feet of the double normals of \(K\).