A lower bound on the number of sharp shadow-boundaries of convex polytopes (Q1106469)

Let P be a convex d-polytope with n vertices in \({\mathbb{R}}^ d\) (d\(\geq 2)\). The intersection of that polytope and the set of its supporting lines through a point \(x\not\in P\) is called the shadow-boundary of P with respect to x. This intersection is particularly named a sharp shadow-boundary if it is homeomorphic to a (d-2)-sphere. It is shown that the number of sharp shadow-boundaries of P is at least \[ 2^{d-2}\cdot \sum^{2}_{i=0}\left( \begin{matrix} n-d+1\\ i\end{matrix} \right)-1, \] with equality if and only if P is a (d-2)-fold pyramid over an \((n-d+2)\)-gon. (The upper bound for that number is trivial and known for a long time.) In an analogous manner upper and lower bounds for the number of non-empty sharp shadow-boundaries of convex polytopal sets \(Q\subset {\mathbb{R}}^ d\) are obtained, i.e. for the intersections of finitely many closed half- spaces with interior points. Moreover, in this case restrictions of the dimension of \(Q\cap H\) (with H as the hyperplane at infinity) imply better lower bounds. Finally, dual statements and open problems on hyperplane arrangements are formulated.