On the self-perimeter of pentagonal gauges (Q1759604)

Let \(B\subset\mathbb R^2\) be a compact, convex set with a nonempty interior and \(o\) be an interior point of \(B\). For \(x\in \mathbb{R}^2\setminus \{o\}\), let \(\hat{x}\) denote the unique intersection point of the boundary of \(B\) and the ray from \(o\) through \(x\). The function \[ g_{B}^o:\mathbb{R}^2\setminus\{o\}\longrightarrow \mathbb{R}^+,\;x \longmapsto \frac{|x-o|}{|\hat{x}-o|} , \] where \(|p-q|\) stands for the Euclidean distance between \(p, q\in \mathbb{R}^2\), is called the convex distance function or gauge with respect to \(B\) and \(o\). Via the gauge \(g_{B}^o\), the (non-symmetric) distance \(\rho_B^o(x; y)\) between two different points \(x\) and \(y\) in \(\mathbb{R}^2\) can be defined. The pair \((B, o)\) is called the normalizing figure of \(\rho_B^o\). For a convex polygon \(P\), let \(l^+(K)\) (\(l^-(K)\)) denote the perimeter of \(K\) measured counter-clockwise (clockwise) with respect to the normalizing figure \((B, o)\). The \(L^-\) (\(L^+\)) perimeter of a convex body \(K\) is defined by \(\displaystyle L^{\mp}:=\sup_{P\in \{P\}} l^{\mp}(P),\) where \(\{P\}\) is the family of all convex polygons insribed to \(K\). If \(B\) is a convex \(n\)-gon \(P_n\), it was proved by \textit{B. Grünbaum} [Colloq. Math. 15, 135--139 (1966; Zbl 0141.20001)] that \(\displaystyle \min_{o\in \mathrm{int} P_3} L^{\mp}(P_3)=9\), and by \textit{H. Martini} and \textit{A. Shcherba} [Beitr. Algebra Geom. 52, No. 1, 191--203 (2011; Zbl 1222.52001)] that \[ L^{\mp}(P_4)\geq 3(x_0+1)+x_0^{-1}=7.7290\dots , \] where \(x_0\) is the real root of the equation \(x^3-x-1=0\). In the paper under review, the sharp estimate \[ L^{\mp}(P_5)\geq 3(x_0^{-1}+1)+2x_0^{-2}=6.79960\dots \] is obtained, where \(x_0\) is the real root of the equation \(x^4-x-1=0\).