Approximation of spherical caps by polygons (Q917917)

A convex cap is a spherically convex proper subset of the Euclidean unit 2-sphere which has interior points; if, in addition, it is the intersection of at most k closed hemispheres it is called a convex k-gon; write \({\mathcal P}_ k\) for the class of these last sets. A set in \({\mathcal P}_ k\) is a regular k-gon if it is regular and has exactly k sides. The area deviation \(\delta^ A(X,Y)\) and the perimeter deviation \(\delta^ P(X,Y)\) are the appropriate non-negative differences in the areas and perimeters of convex caps \(X\subset Y\). \({\mathcal C}(a,p)\) denotes the class of convex caps of area no less than \(a<2\pi\), and perimeter no more than p. Here p and a satisfy the isoperimetric inequality and k, p, a are such that p is less than the perimeter of a regular k-gon of area a. Write \(\Delta^ Z_ e(a,p,k)=\min \delta^ Z(C,P)\), \(Z=A\) or P, where the minima are taken over C in \({\mathcal C}(a,p)\), P in \({\mathcal P}_ k\); \(C\subset P.\) A typical result of this paper: if \(k\geq 2\) and \(\delta^ A(C,P)=\Delta^ A_ e(a,p,k)\) or \(\delta^ P(C,P)=\Delta^ P_ e(a,p,k)\), then C is a smooth regular k-gon of area, a perimeter p with case P. This last means that C is obtained from P by rounding off the corners of P by k congruent circular arcs, each touching two consecutive sides of P. A polarity argument yields a second result with \(P\subset C\).