Lower bounds for the numbers of antipodal pairs and strictly antipodal pairs of vertices in a convex polytope (Q1317875)

Let \(X\) be a finite set of points in a \(d\)-dimensional space \(E^ d\). \textit{V. Klee} [`Unsolved problems in intuitive geometry,' Mimeographed notes, Seattle (1960)] calls points \(x\) and \(y\) from \(X\) antipodal if there are two distinct parallel hyperplanes \(H_ x\) and \(H_ y\) supporting the polytope \(P = \text{conv} X\) such that \(x\) and \(y\) belong to \(H_ x\) and \(H_ y\), respectively. If, additionally, \(P \cap H_ x = \{x\}\) and \(P \cap H_ y = \{y\}\) then the point pair \(x,y\) is called strictly antipodal [cf. \textit{B. Grünbaum}, Isr. J. Math. 1, 5-10 (1963; Zbl 0192.266)]. There are some results on upperbounds of points of a convex body or an \(n\)-pointed set, every pair of which is antipodal. In this paper the greatest lower bounds for the number of antipodal pairs \((r)\) (strictly antipodal pairs \((s))\) of points of a finite set in \(E^ d\) are determined. Avoiding degenerate situations it suffices to consider a convex polytope \(P_ n\) in \(E^ d\) with \(n\) vertices which describe that finite point set. For \(d=2\) the values \(r(P_ n)\) and \(s(P_ n)\) can be given exactly. From these an inequality of B. Grünbaum follows immediately. For \(P_ n\) in \(E^ d\), \(d \geq 3\) the authors give the inequalities \(r(P_ n) \geq n - 1 + d(d - 1)/2\) and \(s(P_{2k}) \geq k\), \(s(P_{2k + 1}) \geq k + 1\) and also all the cases for equalities. To prove this they consider families of convex cones with common zero apex and translate their problem of points into that of cones.