An algorithm to find maximum area polygons circumscribed about a convex polygon (Q1727731)

Let \(P\subset\mathbb{R}^2\) be a convex polygon with \(n\) vertices. A convex polygon \(Q\) containing \(P\) is said to be circumscribed about \(P\) if every vertex of \(P\) lies on at least one side of \(Q\). The authors study circumscribed polygons about a fixed \(n\)-gon \(P\) of maximum area. After noticing that such a polygon \(Q\) exists only up to \(n\geq 5\), they study general geometric properties of circumscribed polygons of maximum area. In particular, they give relations between the vertices and edges of a polygon \(P\) and a polygon \(Q\) circumscribed about \(P\) and of maximum area. From these properties, they give an algorithm running in \(O(n^3)\) time to obtain a circumscribed polygon of maximum area about an \(n\)-gon. Finally, they disprove a conjecture of Farris related to the Gini index, by translating the conjecture to the notion of realizable sequence, defined as follows. An edge of \(P\) is called used, if it lies on the boundary of the maximum area circumscribed polygon \(Q\), and not used otherwise. A sequence in \(\{U,N\}^n\), of used and not used edges, is said to be realizable if there exists a \(P\) \(n\)-gon with maximum area circumscribed polygon \(Q\) such that the edges of \(P\) are used or not used as the sequences indicates. This notion is previously studied in the paper and a result for the realizable subsequences is given. The realizable sequences are also explicit given for \(P\) a regular \(n\)-gon.