Appollonius revisited: Supporting spheres for sundered systems (Q1380802)

Let \(C\) be a ball in \(\mathbb{R}^d\) and \(S\) the sphere \(\partial C.\) One says that \(S\) supports a convex body \(B\) if \(S\) intersects \(B\) and either \(B \subseteq C\) (then \(S\) is a far support) or the interior of \(C\) is disjoint from \(B\) (then \(S\) is a near support). The focus here is on the systems \(\mathcal B\) that are sundered, meaning that the members of the system are pairwise disjoint and, for each way of choosing a point from \(d+1\) or fewer members of \(\mathcal B,\) the chosen points form the vertex-set of a \(d\)-simplex. The main theorem of the paper asserts that if spheres are Euclidean, then for each sundered system \(\mathcal B=(\mathcal B_0,\dots,\mathcal B_d)\) of \(d+1\) bodies in \(\mathbb{E}^d\) and each partition \((I,J)\) of the index set, there is a unique \(I\)-near \(J\)-far supporting sphere for \(\mathcal B\). This theorem is motivated in part by the classical problem of Appollonius, which was concerned with constructing all supporting circles for a system of three circular disks in the plane.