A spiky ball

DOI10.1112/S0025579315000406MaRDI QIDQ2810744zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Márton Naszódi

Publication date 6 June 2016

Published in Mathematika (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1510.00782

zbMATH Keywords

covering numberillumination numberrandom convex body

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Random convex sets and integral geometry (aspects of convex geometry) (52A22) Inequalities and extremum problems involving convexity in convex geometry (52A40) Packing and covering in (n) dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C17)

Abstract: The Illumination Problem may be phrased as the problem of covering a convex body in Euclidean $n$-space by a minimum number of translates of its interior. By a probabilistic argument, we show that, arbitrarily close to the Euclidean ball, there is a centrally symmetric convex body of illumination number exponentially large in the dimension.

Review text

Let \(K \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n\) be a convex body with non-empty interior, and let \(i(K)\) be the smallest number of translates of the interior of \(K\) that cover \(K\) (or, equivalently, the smallest number of directions needed for illuminating the whole boundary of \(K\)). It is known that \(i(K) \geq n+1\), with equality e.g.\ if \(K=B^n\) is the Euclidean ball, and conjectured that \(i(K) \leq 2^n\), with equality e.g.\ if \(K=[-1,1]^n\) is a cube; see Chapter VI in [\textit{V. Boltyanski} et al., Excursions into combinatorial geometry. Berlin: Springer (1997; Zbl 0877.52001)].NEWLINENEWLINEThe paper under review shows by a probabilistic argument that there are bodies close to \(B^n\) whose covering numbers grow exponentially in the dimension: given \(1<D <1.116\) and \(n\) sufficiently large, there is a centrally symmetric convex body \(K \subseteq \mathbb{R}^n\) such that \(\frac{1}{D} B^n \subseteq K \subseteq B^n\) and \(i(K) \geq \frac{1}{20}D^n\).

Recommendations

• Cylindrical spikes
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• Illuminating spiky balls and cap bodies
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• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 38883

Cites work

• A remark on vertex index of the convex bodies
• Classical topics in discrete geometry
• Combinatorial problems on the illumination of convex bodies
• Covering a sphere with spheres
• On the vertex index of convex bodies
• On the X-ray Number of Almost Smooth Convex Bodies and of Convex Bodies of Constant Width
• Probability and Computing
• The illumination conjecture and its extensions

Cited in

(9)

• On the illumination of centrally symmetric cap bodies in small dimensions
• Regular random sections of convex bodies and the random quotient-of-subspace theorem
• Illuminating spiky balls and cap bodies
• Cube is a strict local maximizer for the illumination number
• Cylindrical spikes
• A New Bound for Hadwiger’s Covering Problem in \(\boldsymbol{\mathbb{E}}^3\)
• On the multiple illumination numbers of convex bodies
• On a Gallai-type problem and illumination of spiky balls and cap bodies
• The illumination conjecture for spindle convex bodies

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