Remarks on radial centres of convex bodies (Q2573793)

The authors define, for a function \(\phi:\mathbb{R}_+\to \mathbb{R}_+\), a convex body \(A\in\mathbb{R}^n\), and a point \(x\in\text{int\,}A\) the function \(\Phi_A(x):= \int\phi(\rho_{A-x}(u))\,du\), where the integral runs over \(S^{n-1}\) and \(\rho\) is the radial function. If \(\phi\) is increasing and concave, and \(A\) is a convex body, it is shown that \(\Phi_A\) is strictly concave; it thus has a unique minimum. This selector function is known as the radial center associated with \(\phi\). A special case is that in which \(\phi(t)= t^\alpha\), in which case the selector is known as the radial center of order \(\alpha\). The authors show that such selectors are continuous for convex bodies (with the Hausdorff metric), but that they are not in general directly additive. The latter is demonstrated by computing the radial centers of order \({1\over 2}\) of the direct sum of an isosceles right triangle with line segments of various lengths. These calculations (see the authors' Figure 3) show some surprising features, not all explained in the article. The basic fact that radial center maps are not directly additive, however, can be made plausible by the following observation. The radial function, and hence the radial center map, primarily involves the boundary of a body, not its interior; but the boundary of the direct sum of a body \(A\) with a very short line segment \(I\) corresponds almost entirely to \(\text{int\,}A\). In particular, where \(I\) is very short, the range of \(\rho_{A+I}\) will contain values very close to \(0\), whereas the range of \(\rho_A\) will typically not do so. Thus, the action of \(\phi\) near \(0\) will affect the radial center of \(A+I\) but not that of \(A\); and the graph in Figure 3, in the limit as \(s\to 0\), illustrates this. Informally, the radial center map is typically discontinuous at lower-dimensional convex sets. Finally, the authors show that radial centers of order \(\alpha\) are directly additive in the special case of two isometrically equivalent summands. It seems possible that this result might be strengthened to include radial centers associated with other functions, or direct sums of three or more bodies.